CAD Admin

Skills this role screens for

About the role

About Pacific Fusion

Pacific Fusion was founded in 2023 with the mission to power the world with abundant, affordable, clean energy.

We are rapidly designing and building a pulser-driven inertial fusion system to achieve net facility gain (more fusion energy output than stored energy input). In parallel, we are developing the key components required to build affordable fusion systems.

Our plans are ambitious. We have raised over $900M so far from incredible investors, resourcing us to deliver on these plans. We are bringing together the best scientists, engineers, and operators from the fusion community, hard tech industry, and other sectors. We are united by a shared sense of urgency to provide clean power for the world, particularly managing climate change while meeting growing global energy demand. You can read more about us in this letter from our founders.

Also

Why This Role Matters

As a CAD Administrator, you will be the backbone of engineering productivity across our fusion demonstration system. Engineers, designers, scientists, and technicians rely on our CAD ecosystem and PLM integration to rapidly iterate on complex mechanical and electrical assemblies. You will own the configuration, maintenance, optimization, and user support for our CAD tools and standard libraries — centered on PTC Creo and Windchill — ensuring our engineering team operates with maximum speed, accuracy, and efficiency. This is a high-impact role at the intersection of design engineering, IT, and PLM, enabling seamless hardware creation at startup speed.

The work

What You'll Do

• Administer, configure, and maintain our CAD software tools (Creo Parametric).
• Manage CAD software licensing, user accounts, access permissions, server deployments, and software updates in partnership with IT and PLM Admin.
• Establish, standardize, and maintain standard CAD libraries, seed files, drawing templates, start parts, and commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) component catalogs.
• Develop, document, and enforce CAD modeling best practices, layer standards, parametric modeling conventions, and drawing standards across the organization.
• Provide technical support and troubleshooting for design engineers encountering CAD crashes, performance bottlenecks, workspace sync issues, or assembly corruptions.
• Onboard and train design engineers, technicians, and contractors on company CAD standards, modeling workflows, and Windchill CAD integration.
• Optimize CAD environment performance, including local vault cache configurations, workstation hardware recommendations, and graphics driver settings.
• Spearhead the campaign to fully automate drawing creation and initial checking to increase engineering throughput in a phased approach

Who they want

What You Bring

• 4+ years of experience in CAD Administration, CAD System Engineering, or CAD/PLM Application Support in a hardware design/manufacturing environment.
• Deep administrative expertise with major CAD platforms (e.g., PTC Creo Parametric, SolidWorks, Altium) and their system configuration tools.
• Hands-on experience managing CAD-to-PLM integrations, specifically PTC Windchill CAD Data Management (PDMLink / Workgroup Managers).
• Demonstrated experience building and managing CAD part libraries, start parts, design templates, and modeling standards.
• Strong diagnostic and troubleshooting skills to resolve complex client-side CAD crashes, file dependencies, and dataset integrity issues.
• Proactive, "DOer," and self-starter capable of navigating the ambiguity of a first-of-a-kind research project.
• Excellent communication and customer-service mindset to support and influence cross-functional teams of scientists and engineers.

Nice to have

Bonus Points For

• Experience with CAD automation, scripting (e.g., Creo Toolkit, Python, VB.net), or macro development to streamline repetitive design tasks.
• Experience managing CAD/PLM environments in a high-complexity hardware startup or national laboratory environment (e.g., SNL, LANL, LLNL).

What you get

Pay Range

$140,000—$180,000 USD

TOTAL COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS FOR ELIGIBLE EMPLOYEES

Actual base salary offered will be determined by: experience, skills, and work location. This range is for base salary, our total compensation includes equity and benefits. We welcome you to apply even if your expectations are outside our listed range.

EQUAL OPPORTUNTITY

Pacific Fusion is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status.

Pacific Fusion is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities in our job application procedures and throughout employment. If you need assistance or any accommodation, please let us know.

U.S. EXPORT CONTROL COMPLIANCE

This position may require access to information or technology that is subject to U.S. export control laws, such as ITAR or EAR. Under these regulations, we are required to ensure that such access is provided only to individuals who are classified as 'U.S. Persons.'This status includes U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, lawful permanent residents (green card holders), and asylees and refugees with such status granted, not pending.

RECRUITING AGENCIES

Pacific Fusion does not accept unsolicited resumes from recruiters or employment agencies without a fully executed recruitment agreement in place. In the absence of such agreement, Pacific Fusion reserves the right to pursue and hire any candidates without an obligation to pay fees. Agencies are requested not to contact Pacific Fusion hiring managers or employees regarding recruiting services.

• 💰 Industry-Competitive Salary
• 🚀 Equity Plan
• 🏦 6% Employer 401k Matching
• 🌴 Generous Paid Time Off (including sick leave, vacation, paid family leave)
• 🩺 Medical, Dental, and Vision insurance