Founding LPA Engineer (m/f/d) in Hamburg

MuRay Tech is a deeptech spinout from DESY, Hamburg. We're hiring a Founding LPA Engineer to build the laser-plasma accelerator at the center of our muon source, and the team around it. You'll take the LPA from working point to product: a density-tailored plasma source that survives a 100 Hz, 100 TW focus, the vacuum and laser transport line around it, and the requirements that let it run unattended. As a founding hire, you'll start hands-on and hire as the scope grows. Direct ownership of the machine our product depends on.

The role

As Founding LPA Engineer, you'll own the laser-plasma accelerator at the center of MuRay's muon source, from working point to product. Concretely, you will:

Assemble and lead the Muon Source team, covering LPA, converter, and optics. Start hands-on. Hire and structure the team as the work grows.

Oversee the development of working points and a density-tailored plasma source that survive the thermal load of a 100 Hz, 100 TW focus. Millions of consistent shots. Not one good shot.

Lead the development of the plasma source. Execute experiments at user facilities to iterate the design towards powering our main product: the transportable muon source.

Isolate the laser specs that matter most. Ensure they get delivered. Pulse energy, duration, pointing and energy stability, beam quality: the numbers that decide whether the LPA works.

Own the vacuum system and the laser transport line. Vacuum chambers, differential pumping, vibration management, thermal management. This is what turns the LPA into a machine that fits inside a shipping container and runs 24/7.

Define the requirements for the control system, the machine protection system, and the diagnostics suite. They let the machine run unattended.

What you'll bring

Team leadership. You've built and led a technical team before. You're ready to be hands-on again before this one exists.

Hands-on LPA experience. You've built and operated a laser-plasma accelerator. Not just modeled one. Injection, dephasing, depletion, and guiding physics you've tuned on real hardware.

Experimental leadership at user facilities. You've planned and run a multi-year experimental campaign before. You know how to iterate a design from real beamtime data.

High-power laser system literacy. You can write a spec a laser manufacturer can build to: pulse energy, duration, pointing and energy stability, beam quality. You hold vendors to it.

Vacuum and opto-mechanical engineering judgment. You know what vacuum chamber design, differential pumping, vibration isolation, and thermal management require to keep the LPA running under continuous, high-average-power use.

Controls and diagnostics systems thinking. You can translate "runs unattended, 24/7" into concrete requirements for a control system, a machine protection system, and a diagnostics suite, even where another team builds them.

How we work

Skunkworks approach: We work in small teams with full ownership. We keep it simple, stupid.

Move fast: a shiny prototype means we spent too long on it. We build to learn. We polish later.

Disagree together, commit together: we debate and challenge, regardless of title. Then we deliver the decision as one team. We win as a team. We pivot as a team.

Courage: we always make the call. A mistake isn't a failure: it's proof we're improving. Either way, we own the outcome.

Honesty and transparency: we share what's really happening, good or bad. That lets everyone make the right call. We stay open. We stay honest.

What we offer

Impact: you'll own the machine that makes MuRay's product possible. The muon source doesn't run without it. Every hour of uptime you engineer becomes a scan for a customer.

Autonomy: this is a founding role. You build the Muon Source team, and the machine itself, from the ground up.

Infrastructure: MuRay has on-demand time at multi-GeV beamlines, including DESY's PRIMA. Collaboration pathways extend to ELI Beamlines, EPAC, and ATLAS.

Network: research collaborators include DESY, DLR, CERN, and Imperial College London. Commercial partners include Siemens Energy, Airbus, Caelora, and ZAL.

Ownership: an equity plan gives you a meaningful stake in the company.

Compensation: a salary that reflects your contribution to MuRay's growth.

Relocation: we support your move. If you're relocating from outside the EU, we help with the paperwork.

About MuRay Tech

MuRay builds compact laser-plasma accelerators that generate a controlled muon beam. Muon scans today are passive and take days. Active Muon Imaging produces the same scan in seconds, at higher resolution. We work with partners in aerospace, defence, and energy today. Next: security, customs, and medical imaging.

MuRay Tech develops safe, rapid and accurate active muon imaging solutions for industrial quality assessment, security and customs inspection and medical diagnostics. Our platform combines laser-plasma-accelerator-driven muon sources, next-generation particle detectors and AI to enable high-resolution 3D imaging with automated decision-making.

The company operates at DESY in Hamburg, Germany, and Tehnopol in Tallinn, Estonia. Our main development partners span the energy, defence, aerospace and security industries. Our initial technology and business focus is on the quality and safety assessment of critical metallic and ceramic components, such as rocket engines, gas turbines, jet engines, and large-scale nuclear or industrial systems.