Mission Engineer II

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.

About the Role

As a key member of the Mission Engineering team you will lead programs across commercial defense and space microreactor missions both on Earth and in space. You will serve as a primary technical point of contact for customers and stakeholders driving the development deployment and application of Antares systems to meet mission needs. You will operate at the intersection of engineering product development customer program execution and mission integration owning how the complete product is applied to real-world missions from concept through end of life.

Youll have strong engineering and physics fundamentals particularly in thermodynamics heat transfer fluid mechanics energy and power systems and engineering economics with demonstrated ability to reason from first principles develop quantitative models and maintain high technical rigor across disciplines. You will own product integration into operational end-user environments.

The ideal candidate is a technically rigorous generalist comfortable moving between engineering disciplines hands-on analysis hardware program execution and customer-facing work. They can rapidly develop depth in unfamiliar areas communicate effectively across engineering teams and drive ambiguous problems to closure. Experience with DoD DOE NASA or other government sponsors and procurement processes is preferred.

Roles & Responsibilities:

• Lead execution of customer-facing and customer-funded R&D programs owning cost schedule quality contractual compliance milestone execution technical deliverables and internal/external reviews to align stakeholders and ensure mission success.

• Manage program costs schedules quality and deliverables; translating customer needs into technical requirements; and performing or coordinating the engineering needed to close cross-disciplinary gaps.

• Drive product development to ensure Antares systems can be transported deployed commissioned operated integrated with customer infrastructure maintained and decommissioned.

• Success in this role requires a generalist mindset cross-disciplinary problem-solving and relentless focus on delivering value to our customers.

• Own mission-level product integration across the R1 lifecycle translating customer needs into requirements interfaces operational concepts and product development priorities that ensure the complete system can accomplish its intended mission.

• Perform first-principles analyses across disciplines developing models and tools as needed to evaluate trade spaces quantify mission impacts answer mission-level questions and close technical gaps between subsystem teams.

• Ideate and develop new applications and customer missions for Antares technology supporting RFIs proposals white papers and contract capture with technical concepts system performance justifications development roadmaps and customer use cases.

• Lead and contribute to system architecture interface definition and technical trade studies integrating engineering operational cost schedule and business considerations into product and program decisions.

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelors degree in an engineering discipline (mechanical electrical aerospace nuclear systems etc.) physics or applied science.

• Exceptional technical writing and communication skills with demonstrated ability to synthesize multidisciplinary engineering work into clear customer-facing deliverables.

• 3 years of experience developing or delivering technically complex systems in aerospace nuclear energy automotive defense or another mission- or safety-critical environment with demonstrated ownership of multidisciplinary technical problems and program cost/schedule/technical performance.

Preferred Skills and Experience:

• Masters degree or PhD in an engineering field.

• Proficiency in Python for numerical/multiphysics work and familiarity with modern toolchains (Git and CI/CD).

• Strong foundations in thermodynamics heat transfer fluid mechanics energy conversion and power systems and engineering economics.

• Experience developing integrating testing or commissioning complex hardware or energy systems.

• Experience with mission engineering CONOPS development system architecture modeling and simulation and trade studies.

• Experience across one or more adjacent technical domains such as high-temperature systems turbomachinery materials and composites power systems nuclear or aerospace.

• Experience with government sponsors (DoD DOE NASA USAF/USSF) and government-funded R&D proposals or contracting.

• Strong interpersonal and collaborative skills enthusiasm for problem-solving and a desire to optimize modern nuclear design and operation.

• Ability to drive decisions and close ambiguous cross-functional problems despite incomplete information and conflicting constraints.

• Experience working in a start-up environment.

Additional Requirements

• Ability to travel to customer and mission-relevant locations as needed.

• Ability to obtain a Top Secret or Top Secret SCI clearance is preferred.

Salary Range

• Mission Engineer II - $115000 - $150000

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:

IC