Distinguished Nuclear Engineer

Company Overview

Kairos Power is a new nuclear energy technology and engineering company whose mission is to enable the world’s transition to clean energy, with the ultimate goal to dramatically improve people’s quality of life while protecting the environment. This goal will be accomplished through the commercialization of the fluoride-salt-cooled, high-temperature reactor (FHR) that can be deployed with robust safety, affordable costs, and flexible operation to accommodate the expansion of variable renewables.

Job Summary

The Nuclear Design and Methods department is seeking a highly accomplished Distinguished Engineer to bring deep nuclear plant experience and senior engineering judgment into the design organization.

This role sits at the intersection of nuclear analysis and plant implementation, helping ensure that Nuclear Design and Methods analyses, models, assumptions, limits, and requirements remain consistent with how the reactor will be designed, licensed, instrumented, tested, commissioned, maintained, and operated.

Reporting directly to the Head of Nuclear Design and Methods, the Distinguished Engineer will serve as a trusted senior technical advisor and representative for Nuclear Design in complex, high-impact decisions. The role will work extensively across Nuclear Island and Civil Structures Design, Systems Engineering, Operations, Licensing, I&C, and Nuclear Design functions including Source Term, Radiation Measurements, and Shielding. This individual will identify important technical and plant-interface issues early, lead their resolution across organizational boundaries, and represent Nuclear Design within delegated areas of technical authority.

Equally important, the Distinguished Engineer will strengthen the organization from within—mentoring and challenging engineers, transferring plant and field experience into the design organization, and helping develop technical leaders who can independently make strong cross-functional engineering decisions.

The ideal candidate brings a broad nuclear engineering career anchored in direct responsibility for an operating reactor or nuclear facility, combined with significant field and operational experience and strong knowledge of nuclear design, licensing bases, plant systems, instrumentation, startup and commissioning, procedures, maintenance, and the interfaces between analytical disciplines and plant implementation.

Responsibilities

• Provide senior technical leadership and independent engineering judgment across Nuclear Design and Methods and its interfaces with plant design, licensing, testing, commissioning, maintenance, and reactor operation.
• Represent Nuclear Design in high-impact technical decisions and forums, including design reviews, readiness reviews, audits, licensing engagements, and senior technical or executive discussions, exercising delegated technical authority and escalating significant design-basis decisions as appropriate.
• Lead resolution of complex cross-disciplinary technical issues involving reactor physics, thermal hydraulics, nuclear instrumentation, radiation monitoring, source term, radiation shielding, criticality safety, fuel management, I&C, systems engineering, licensing, testing, commissioning, maintenance, and plant operation.
• Bridge nuclear analyses and methods to plant implementation, ensuring that assumptions, limits, margins, uncertainties, and analytical requirements are consistently reflected in plant requirements, instrumentation, operating constraints, surveillance and testing, acceptance criteria, procedures, and maintainable designs.
• Identify and drive early resolution of technical risks and inconsistencies affecting licensing, operability, instrumentation, testing, maintenance, commissioning, or plant design before they become late-stage constraints or require significant rework.
• Prepare, review, and challenge key Nuclear Design technical products and plant-facing engineering documentation, including analyses, calculations, design requirements, specifications, design decision records, test plans, procedures, licensing-basis inputs, readiness documentation, and other high-impact technical products, with particular attention to assumptions, interfaces, margins, and plant consequences.
• Provide senior technical guidance for startup, commissioning, testing, and operational readiness, including initial fuel loading, startup physics testing, reactor monitoring, reactivity control, plant procedures, and acceptance criteria.
• Mentor and develop engineers and technical leaders, transferring plant experience and strengthening engineering judgment, regulatory awareness, cross-functional decision-making, constructive technical challenge, and a culture of nuclear safety and technical excellence.
• Provides independent technical review of significant design decisions, engineering changes, and deviations from established assumptions or methods. 
• Identifies and drives resolution of cross-functional technical interface issues that could affect licensing, operability, testing, commissioning, or plant readiness. 
• Evaluates plant impacts of changes to analytical methods, assumptions, limits, or design requirements. 
• Supports incorporation of operating experience, test results, and field feedback into Nuclear Design requirements and practices. 
• Ensures significant technical decisions, assumptions, risks, and follow-up actions are clearly documented and traceable.
• Other duties as assigned.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or advanced degree in Nuclear Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• 15+ years of progressively responsible nuclear engineering experience, including significant senior-level technical leadership responsibility in nuclear power, reactor engineering, nuclear facilities, reactor programs or a closely related field.
• Demonstrated direct technical responsibility within an operating nuclear facility or reactor program, startup, or commissioning organization, or comparable nuclear environment with accountability for decisions affecting reactor or facility operation, plant engineering, startup or commissioning, testing, procedures, surveillance, maintenance, or operational readiness.
• Demonstrated experience leading complex technical issues across multiple engineering disciplines and organizational stakeholders.
• Substantial experience working within a nuclear licensing and design basis, including Technical Specifications or equivalent operating limits, regulatory requirements and guidance, surveillance and testing requirements, design-basis requirements, and configuration/design control.
• Demonstrated experience working across nuclear design, plant or systems engineering, licensing, and facility operations, with an understanding of how analytical assumptions and engineering decisions affect plant implementation.
• Demonstrated ability to understand and challenge complex nuclear engineering analyses, including assumptions, margins, uncertainties, interfaces, and plant consequences, without needing to be the calculation authority in every discipline.
• Demonstrated ability to make and communicate sound engineering judgments on high-consequence technical issues, including situations involving incomplete information, competing requirements, and multiple stakeholders.
• Ability to assess the adequacy of technical evidence supporting high-consequence engineering decisions. 
• Ability to evaluate the downstream plant impacts of changes in assumptions, requirements, methods, or operating conditions. 
• Ability to recognize when technical issues require escalation, independent review, or additional technical authority. 
• Knowledge of nuclear design control, configuration management, and change-control principles. 
• Ability to synthesize complex cross-disciplinary information into clear technical conclusions and recommendations.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in an operating commercial nuclear power plant, particularly in reactor engineering, operations, plant engineering, startup/commissioning, or senior technical leadership.
• Experience across multiple phases of the nuclear facility lifecycle, including design, licensing, construction, commissioning, operation, maintenance, or major plant modifications.
• Experience with reactor startup, initial fuel loading, startup physics testing, operating procedures, surveillance programs, maintenance programs, or operational-readiness activities.
• Experience with nuclear instrumentation and monitoring systems, such as neutron or flux monitoring, radiation detection, continuous air monitoring, area radiation monitoring, effluent monitoring, or environmental monitoring.
• Experience in one or more nuclear technical disciplines such as reactor physics, fuel management, criticality safety, source term, radiation shielding, radiation protection, or nuclear material monitoring.
• Experience with a first-of-a-kind or advanced-reactor program where design, licensing, testing, commissioning, and operating approaches are being developed concurrently.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• Broad knowledge of nuclear reactor and facility engineering, reactor safety, plant systems, and the relationship between nuclear analysis, plant design, and reactor operation.
• Ability to apply systems thinking and plant-oriented engineering judgment to recognize dependencies and consequences across nuclear design, instrumentation, plant systems, licensing, maintenance, testing, and operation.
• Ability to evaluate technical maturity, design readiness, test adequacy, operating impacts, assumptions, margins, uncertainties, and technical risk.
• Ability to make sound engineering recommendations with incomplete information while clearly identifying the technical basis, assumptions, risks, and required follow-up actions.
• Strong technical leadership and communication skills, with the ability to influence decisions without relying on organizational authority and to represent Nuclear Design effectively with senior engineering, licensing, operational, regulatory, and executive stakeholders.
• Ability to mentor and influence engineers at multiple levels, including senior technical staff, and effectively transfer plant knowledge, field experience, and engineering judgment into the organization.
• Dedication to nuclear safety, technical rigor, accountability, constructive technical challenge, and effective execution in a first-of-a-kind engineering environment.

Physical Conditions

• Remaining in a stationary position, often standing or sitting, for prolonged periods.
• Moving about to accomplish tasks or moving from one worksite to another.
• Communicating with others to exchange information.

Environmental Conditions

• General office environment.
• Manufacturing, assembly, test, construction, or operating facility environments as needed.
• Assessing the accuracy, neatness and thoroughness of the work assigned.

Safety and PPE

• Reading and interpreting hazardous warning signs.
• Wearing proper PPE, including safety glasses, safety shoes, dosimetry, or other required protective equipment as applicable.

Travel

• If on-site, some travel may be required, including travel to Kairos Power sites, test facilities, construction sites, suppliers, or operating facilities.
• If remote, additional travel may be required to support cross-functional engineering activities, design reviews, testing, commissioning, and field engagement.

Additional Requirements

• Occasionally requires schedule flexibility.
• Occasionally requires extended hours to support critical design, testing, commissioning, or operational milestones.

The salary range for this position is $235,488 to $294,360 for employees working onsite at our Alameda, CA headquarters. The range provided in this job posting represents the typical range or starting rate of candidates hired in California. Factors that may be used to determine your actual salary may include your education, experience, knowledge, skills, abilities, the market data for your work location, and a comparison to other employees already in the role.

#LI-Onsite

About our Benefits

We know that we have some of the most talented and dedicated employees, and we believe in rewarding them accordingly. If you work here, full-time employees (excludes interns) expect to have access to the benefits below:

• Competitive compensation packages
• Medical, dental and vision benefits for employees and their dependents
• Paid Vacation
• 401(k) and pre-tax health insurance, dependent care, and commuter benefits (FSA)

Kairos Power is committed to building a diverse workforce that reflects the communities where we do business. Kairos Power is 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. We actively welcome people of different experiences, abilities, and perspectives.

Kairos Power participates in E-Verify.

Candidates only, no recruiters or agencies please.

Note: You are applying for a position that is located in a facility that handles information that is subject to export control restrictions by the Department of Energy under 10 CFR Part 810. To work in this facility, you need to be authorized by the Department of Energy to access Part 810-controlled information. Foreign nationals who are citizens of countries that are not on the Department of Energy’s general authorization list (link below) are not permitted to work in our facility unless the Department of Energy issues an export control license to the company to permit that individual to have access to Part 810-controlled information. The following questions are intended to determine the licensing requirements that may apply. https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/10/appendix-A_to_part_810