Senior Mechanical Design Engineer Space

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 Mechanical Design Engineer in the Mission Engineering team you will primarily own hardware associated with nuclear power systems in space and on the surface of the Moon and Mars. As the Responsible Engineer (RE) on space with the expectation of taking hardware from clean sheet design to build dev test qualification and integration. You will be responsible for the entire life cycle of your hardware and system interfaces to and from other systems how your hardware fits into the larger system sourcing building testing and designing improvements for a first of a kind system. Youll drive trades on system layout interfaces packaging working closely with cross-disciplinary teams to refine configurations and close design loops. Your responsibilities will span CAD design system analysis leading design reviews precise definition of thermal and mechanical interfaces requirements ownership and decomposition and manufacturability / scalability of your design.

Roles and Responsibilities:

• Own a subsystem and related hardware as part of the larger space nuclear system.

• Drive system-level layout requirements definition/decomposition build/test cycles defend decisions across all phases of design take concept through CDR and onward.

• Own CAD models manage configurations produce drawings DFMEA etc.

• Drive cross-discipline alignment and trade studies.

• Coordinate closely with other teams/people (nuclear thermal structures manufacturing quality) to ensure a system architecture that satisfies mission/product requirements.

• Develop a clean sheet design through hardware procurement and dev/qual testing.

• Support design reviews and integration/test planning for hardware define manufacturing plan and generate work instructions as needed.

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelors degree in mechanical or aerospace engineering or a related physics-based field.

• 3 years of experience in space system/product mechanical design system configuration and layout.

• Expertise with CAD (e.g. NX CATIA) and past experience with PLM and other manufacturing planning and management systems.

Preferred Skills & Experience:

• Masters or PhD in mechanical or aerospace engineering or a related physics-based field.

• Expertise in the design analysis and integration of nuclear or space nuclear systems.

• Leadership experience on a project or research team.

• Strong project management skills cross discipline communication and interpersonal and collaborative skills.

• Exceptional communication skills to work effectively across teams and convey technical information to non-specialists.

• Understanding of fundamental principles in fluid systems and solid mechanics.

• Demonstrated track record of initiative and high impact / ROI contributions.

• Broad knowledge of materials science and material selections especially for nuclear applications.

• Ability to conduct complex design trades system sizing and first-order engineering analyses while clearly identifying analysis limitations and associated design risks.

• Very strong design skills and GD&T/ drawings experience; take a design into production.

Additional Requirements:

• Ability to work long hours and weekends as necessary to support critical milestones

• Willingness and ability to obtain and retain a security clearance

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:

Senior IC