Accelerator Physicist

About Tachyon

Accelerators sit at the center of some of humanity's most important industries. They are used to test spacecraft electronics, manufacture medical isotopes, inspect critical infrastructure, advance fusion research, probe new materials, and explore fundamental physics. Yet despite their importance, accelerator technology has remained largely confined to national laboratories, universities, and bespoke (but enormous) government programs. Tachyon Industrial was founded to change that.

We are building a High Energy Physics Prime, the first venture-scale industrial accelerator company: a vertically integrated business focused on designing, manufacturing, and operating the next generation of particle accelerator infrastructure.

The Role

We're looking for an accelerator physicist to contribute to machine physics for our first linac and the machines that follow it. You'll work across beam dynamics, machine performance, and commissioning, and you'll be one of the people in the room translating physics requirements into a machine that actually runs.

This role sits at the intersection of the RF, mechanical, and controls work happening across the company — you'll be pulling those pieces together into a coherent picture of how the accelerator performs, where its limits are, and what it takes to hit our performance targets.

What you'll do

• Build capability in machine physics for the accelerator: beam dynamics, lattice performance, error and tolerance budgets, and how subsystem choices (RF, magnets, diagnostics) roll up into overall machine performance
• Lead or support commissioning: beam-based measurements, tuning strategies, and closing the loop between design intent and real machine behavior
• Diagnose and resolve machine performance issues — beam loss, emittance growth, instabilities, unexpected behavior — and drive them to root cause
• Work closely with RF, mechanical, and controls engineers to ensure subsystem designs and machine physics requirements stay aligned as the design evolves
• Define and refine diagnostics requirements and machine protection strategy in support of beam commissioning and operations
• Help set accelerator physics practices, tools, and standards as one of the first accelerator physicists at the company

What we're looking for

• PhD or equivalent experience in accelerator physics, beam physics, or a closely related field
• Demonstrated experience with real accelerator systems — design, commissioning, or operations — not simulation-only experience
• High competence: strong physics fundamentals backed by hands-on machine experience
• High agency: comfortable owning open-ended machine physics problems and identifying what needs solving before being asked
• Creativity under constraint: finds workable paths to performance targets when budget, schedule, or hardware limitations get in the way
• Ambition to work on hard, consequential physics and engineering problems
• A collaborative style — this role only works well in tight coordination with RF, mechanical, and controls
• Courage paired with judgment: willing to make calls on machine physics trade-offs, but knows when to simulate, measure, or ask first

Nice to have (not required)

• Experience with linac-based accelerators specifically
• Hands-on beam commissioning experience (beam-based alignment, emittance measurements, tuning)
• Experience with heavy-ion or space-charge-dominated beams
• Background at a national lab, accelerator facility, or hardware startup
• Familiarity with machine protection systems and diagnostics design

Why Tachyon

You’ll work on an accelerator that's actually getting built — with a real national lab partnership and a real timeline (working machine in 18–24 months). Small team, high ownership, and your work is what turns a collection of subsystems into a working machine.