Mechanical Engineering Design Intern Summer 2027

About Us

At Antares our long-term mission is to make clean energy abundant from Earth to the Asteroid Belt. Were fueled by the belief that advanced nuclear energy can strengthen our military solve the climate crisis elevate global living standards and expand humanitys presence in outer space. To achieve our mission were building mass-producible inherently safe deployable microreactors that can be used terrestrially underwater and in space.

The Antares team hails from SpaceX the White House the Pentagon the Department of Energy MIT Rigetti Computing General Atomics Relativity Space Ursa Major and National Laboratories like Idaho Oak Ridge Los Alamos and Savannah River. Antares has raised over $600M in venture capital from top-tier investors and has hundreds of million-dollars on contract with the military services NASA and the Department of Energy.

Internships at Antares are anything but ordinary. Youll work alongside our team as we design build and test fission microreactors built to deliver reliable energy for critical missions on Earth in space and underwater.

Our interns contribute to real work from day one. Depending on your role you may touch hardware write and test software support manufacturing and operations or help build the systems that allow Antares to move quickly as we scale. Youll work alongside engineers operators and other experts solving challenging problemsand youll leave your internship with hands-on experience thats difficult to find anywhere else.

We work hard move quickly and take pride in what were building. If youre excited to learn by doing and want to contribute to the next generation of nuclear energy wed love to have you join us next summer.

We will be running two separate cohorts to accommodate students on both semester and quarter schedules:

Cohort #1

Monday May 17 Friday August 13

Cohort #2

Monday June 14 Friday September 10

All internship roles are based at our Torrance headquarters and require interns to work onsite five days per week. We will not be considering candidates for remote or hybrid arrangements. Interns will receive a relocation and housing stipend as part of their offer package.

About the Team

Antares is seeking a Mechanical Design Intern to support the design analysis and testing of Mark-1 and JANUS-1 components. You will be paired with a Responsible Engineer and take meaningful ownership of a defined set of components within one of our engineering systems.

You will begin with focused starter assignments before transitioning to a longer-duration project that culminates in a technical deliverable and presentation. Interns are integrated into the engineering organization and evaluated with expectations comparable to those of a first-year engineer. Success requires technical curiosity initiative sound judgment and the ability to use mentorship and cross-functional resources effectively.

Roles and Responsibilities:

• Support the design analysis development and testing of mechanical components for Mark-1 and JANUS-1.

• Own a defined component or project scope under the guidance of a Responsible Engineer.

• Create and refine engineering designs analyses drawings test plans and technical documentation.

• Participate in design reviews and clearly communicate technical decisions assumptions risks and results.

• Work with engineering manufacturing test and other cross-functional teams to resolve technical challenges.

• Identify design issues and opportunities to improve performance reliability manufacturability and testability.

• Execute a long-duration engineering project and present the final results and recommendations to the broader team.

• Seek feedback incorporate lessons learned and demonstrate increasing independence throughout the internship.

Basic Qualifications:

• Currently enrolled in a bachelors degree program in mechanical engineering aerospace engineering or a related discipline.

• Entering the junior or senior year of study.

• 6 months experience of technical engineering skills outside of the university setting classroom (eg: laboratory research extracurricular project teams volunteering personal projects or prior internship/work experience)

Preferred Skills & Experience:

• GPA of 3.5 or higher.

• Experience with a university engineering club competition team research group or technical organization; leadership experience is preferred.

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with close attention to detail.

• Strong interpersonal written and technical communication skills such as leading a student project team or presenting research.

• Ability to work effectively across departments and technical disciplines.

• Comfort working in a dynamic environment with evolving needs and requirements.

• Ability to work independently take initiative and contribute effectively within a team.

• Experience with mechanical CAD engineering drawings analysis prototyping or hardware testing is a plus.

Location

• We are located in Torrance CA in a 322000 square foot brand new facility featuring large open spaces for team collaboration R&D and production as well as easy access to the 405 105 and 110 freeways. Our facility is in the heart of Los Angeles vibrant emerging tech ecosystem alongside many other high growth startups and enterprises.

Culture

At Antares we like to specifically tie each role to our founding documents set of valueshere are the top five cultural values we think you should believe at your core to be successful:

• Think in Systems - Energy and Defense are complex ecosystems with numerous stakeholders with competing priorities conflicting policies perverse incentives and emergent and path-dependent properties. First principles thinking alone is insufficient. Think probabilistically and then take action. If you want to be certain then you are apt to be obsolete. Over-optimizing the components often degrades the system

• Obsess over the End User - The customer and end user are often not the same. We will never build globally competitive commercial products if we lose sight of our end users and their entire interaction with the product life cycle

• Be Unconstrained by Convention - Our only limits are the laws of physics. Many even experts will say what we are working on is impossible. They said the same about SpaceX reusing rockets. Generationally impactful companies by definition must accomplish the seemingly impossible. If it were easy it would have already been done. Never shy away from a solution because it has never been tried before and never choose to do something because thats how its always been done

• Go Where the Work Is - Never miss a chance to meet a customer user or stakeholder face to face even if that means hopping on a plane. If you cant make it find a teammate who can channel your intentions and go in your place. Deep work can be done from anywhere but we believe teams are built in person and aim to maximize our time together

• Operate in the Grey - Embrace nuance in pursuit of truth. Question every fundamental assumption

Equal Opportunity

Antares is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Employment decisions are based solely on merit competence and qualifications without regard to race color religion gender national origin/ethnicity veteran status disability status age sexual orientation gender identity marital status mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.

To conform to U.S. Government export regulations applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national (ii) U.S. lawful permanent resident (aka green card holder) (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. 1157 or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. 1158 or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here.

Required Experience:

Intern