Welding Engineer

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 Team

As a Welding Engineer II at Antares you will support the development qualification and production of welded hardware for our reactor systems. You will own welding processes from early design and material selection through procedure development qualification manufacturing inspection and final acceptance. This role requires a strong understanding of welding metallurgy fabrication processes and weld qualityparticularly for stainless steels nickel-based superalloys and other materials used in high-temperature and demanding environments. You will work closely with design materials manufacturing quality and external suppliers to ensure welded assemblies meet performance reliability and regulatory requirements.

The ideal candidate combines sound welding fundamentals with a hands-on practical approach to manufacturing. You should be comfortable working directly with welders and technicians troubleshooting issues on the floor and developing scalable processes for first-of-a-kind reactor hardware.

Roles & Responsibilities:

• Develop qualify and maintain welding procedures including Welding Procedure Specifications (WPS) Procedure Qualification Records (PQR) and welder performance qualifications.

• Select appropriate welding processes filler metals joint designs shielding methods and process parameters based on material and component requirements.

• Provide design-for-welding guidance including recommendations related to joint accessibility distortion residual stress inspection and manufacturability.

• Support welded hardware from prototype development through production inspection testing and final acceptance.

• Work directly with welders technicians and suppliers to establish repeatable high-quality fabrication processes.

• Create manufacturing work instructions process controls weld maps inspection criteria and technical specifications.

• Develop and execute weld qualification plans including destructive and nondestructive testing.

• Review weld documentation inspection results material certifications and supplier records for compliance with engineering requirements.

• Lead root-cause investigations for weld defects distortion cracking leakage and other fabrication nonconformances.

• Develop repair and rework procedures and provide technical disposition of welding-related nonconformances.

• Interface with design materials analysis manufacturing quality and test engineers to ensure welded assemblies satisfy structural thermal pressure and lifetime requirements.

• Support the selection qualification and technical oversight of welding suppliers and outside fabrication partners.

• Promote a strong culture of safety quality documentation and continuous process improvement.

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelors degree in Welding Engineering Materials Science and Engineering Mechanical Engineering or a related technical field.

• 2 years of professional experience in welding engineering joining processes or welded hardware manufacturing.

• Working knowledge of common fusion welding processes such as GTAW GMAW PAW laser welding or electron beam welding.

• Experience developing or supporting welding procedures and welder qualifications.

• Understanding of welding metallurgy heat-affected zones solidification distortion residual stress and common weld defects.

• Experience interpreting engineering drawings weld symbols material specifications and inspection requirements.

• Familiarity with destructive testing and nondestructive examination methods used to evaluate weld quality.

• Ability to work hands-on with production personnel and independently resolve manufacturing challenges.

Preferred Skills and Experience:

• 3 years of welding engineering experience in aerospace nuclear pressure vessel power generation defense or another highly regulated industry.

• Experience welding stainless steels nickel-based superalloys refractory metals or dissimilar-metal combinations.

• Knowledge of applicable welding and fabrication codes including ASME Section IX ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code AWS D17.1 AWS D1.1 or equivalent standards.

• Experience with pressure-boundary high-temperature vacuum or leak-tight welded assemblies.

• Familiarity with advanced welding processes including automated orbital GTAW laser beam welding electron beam welding resistance welding or additive repair.

• Experience developing weld fixtures tooling purge systems and methods for controlling distortion and heat input.

• Experience with weld inspection methods such as visual dye penetrant radiographic ultrasonic leak or metallographic examination.

• Familiarity with post-weld heat treatment stress relief cleaning passivation and contamination control.

• Experience conducting weld failure investigations using metallography microscopy hardness testing or mechanical testing.

• Certified Welding Inspector (CWI) International Welding Engineer (IWE) or similar professional qualification.

Additional Requirements:

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

Location

• The Antares HQ is 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 HQ 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