Nuclear Systems Engineer
Bethesda, MD - USA
Job Summary
The ocean is the largest undeveloped frontier on earth and the next chapter of abundant energy will be written at sea. Were building the infrastructure to power it.
Ocean Atomics is an American company designing licensing and assembling a standardized nuclear electric power plant and the surrounding support systems for maritime applications. We will install these plants on any vessel built to our nuclear-ready standards and will provide end-to-end sustainment in our planned nuclear lifecycle dockyard. We will help develop the licensed operators to unlock this new capability for your energy intensive application at sea. To move fast and to lead the creation of this new market we are leveraging the compact proven systems enabled by water-cooled reactors.
Scale nuclear energy. Power generations.
A maritime commons thriving with abundant economical modern and safe nuclear-powered activity built serviced and staffed by re-industrialized American shipyards and people.
As Nuclear Systems Engineer you work on the system-level design of the reactor systems that power our maritime nuclear plant: core primary loop power conversion shielding auxiliaries and instrumentation & controls from early concept studies through integrated design and handoff to build. You resolve the interfaces between nuclear thermal-fluids mechanical structural and controls disciplines and keep the design compatible with the regulatory pathway and the constraints of the host vessel: mass volume motion shock and the marine environment.
This is a role were hiring at multiple levels (L1 through L4). The work is shared across levels; scope and accountability scale with experience.
This work suits someone who treats interface conflicts as the real design problem rather than paperwork between disciplines and who knows which trade-offs need to go up for a decision instead of getting resolved by fiat.
At all levels you will:
Support architecture and integration of primary and secondary reactor systems core primary loop power conversion shielding auxiliaries and I&C across concept preliminary detailed and final design phases.
Contribute to concept selection and trade studies and help allocate requirements to discipline owners.
Coordinate with nuclear thermal-hydraulic/fluids mechanical structural and controls engineers to resolve interfaces and close integration gaps.
Maintain system requirements interface control documents margins and master block diagrams; participate in design reviews and phase gates.
Partner with safety licensing and naval architecture engineers to keep designs compatible with the regulatory pathway and host vessel constraints (mass volume motion shock marine environment).
At more senior levels (L3-L4) you will additionally:
Own the integrated design baseline and lead architecture decisions across primary and secondary systems.
Drive concept selection and trade studies and allocate requirements down to discipline owners.
Run design reviews and phase gates and surface the trade-offs that need executive decisions.
Track risk and manage technical debt across disciplines at the system level.
Required at all levels
Bachelors or advanced degree in Nuclear Mechanical or related engineering or equivalent practical experience.
Direct experience with a reactor or comparable complex thermal/energy system from concept through detailed design not just analysis of a system someone else designed.
Systems engineering fundamentals: requirements interfaces verification & validation configuration control margin management.
Working fluency across nuclear thermal-fluids and mechanical domains enough to challenge each specialty without owning their analyses.
Experience by level
L1-L2: Early-career engineers with systems engineering exposure through internships research or early-career roles on reactor or complex energy systems.
L3-L4: Have taken a reactor system (naval propulsion microreactor SMR or research reactor) from concept through detailed design and can own an integrated design baseline across disciplines.
Preferred
Naval reactors (NR) experience.
Shipboard or offshore systems exposure.
Licensing experience with the NRC or a maritime classification society (ABS LR etc.).
Dont meet every bullet Wed still like to hear from you. If youre excited by the mission and most of this resonates apply.
Export control notice
This role involves access to information subject to U.S. export control laws including unclassified nuclear technology governed by the U.S. Department of Energy under 10 CFR Part 810. Depending on a candidates status access may require DOE authorization which Ocean Atomics may apply for. Any offer is contingent on your ability to work in compliance with these requirements. We evaluate all applicants regardless of citizenship or national origin except where required by law.
Every industry on Earth needs scalable clean energy and the ocean is the ideal place to unlock it. Joining Ocean Atomics means building real lasting infrastructure the kind that powers generations. The world needs abundant energy. Lets make it happen.
We are committed to a workplace free of discrimination and do not discriminate on the basis of race color religion sex sexual orientation gender identity national origin age disability genetic information veteran status or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations; if you need an accommodation during the application process contact
Required Experience:
IC