Nuclear Engineer III/IV(Thermal Hydraulics)

Responsibilities

• Perform thermal-hydraulic design and analysis for molten salt reactor systems, including salt loops, storage tanks, heat exchangers, and power conversion, covering startup, steady-state, and transient conditions.
• Develop specifications and assist in the design of key components such as heat exchangers, pumps, valves, instrumentation, and fluid-transfer systems.
• Support integration of reactor loops with heat rejection and power conversion systems as needed.
• Create and maintain thermal-hydraulic models using appropriate software tools.
• Contribute to safety analyses for licensing-basis and beyond-design-basis events, including loss-of-flow, loss-of-heat-sink, reactivity transients, and freeze/thaw scenarios.
• Specify and assist in selecting instrumentation relevant to monitoring thermal-hydraulic performance.
• Lead and perform thermal-hydraulic testing, including separate-effects tests, integral tests, and validation experiments for model benchmarking.
• Support design requirements, safety classifications, and functional specifications in alignment with nuclear standards.
• Conduct uncertainty quantification, sensitivity studies, and verification and validation of thermal-hydraulic models.
• Assist licensing efforts by preparing technical reports, addressing regulatory questions, and providing thermal-hydraulic justification for design decisions.
• Help define a growth strategy for the team, including role definition, recruitment, mentoring, and building a high-performing thermal-hydraulics group as the project matures.
• Maintain thorough documentation, including design basis reports, calculation packages, and QA-compliant testing records and configuration management.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Nuclear Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, or a closely related field; Master’s or PhD strongly preferred.
• At least 10 years of direct experience in thermal-hydraulic analysis and design, with a minimum of 5 years in safety-critical or highly regulated environments.
• Expertise in thermal-hydraulic phenomena for liquid-cooled systems, including single- and two-phase flow, heat transfer, natural circulation, and transient analysis.
• Proficiency with system-level and CFD modeling tools applicable to nuclear or high-temperature applications.
• Familiarity with nuclear safety analysis methods and regulatory requirements for thermal-hydraulic performance.
• Experience designing and interpreting thermal-hydraulic experiments and test data.
• Ability to address instrumentation challenges in extreme environments.
• Proven track record in leading technical efforts, developing and executing test programs, and building teams.
• Strong understanding of nuclear quality assurance practices.
• Excellent analytical, problem-solving, and communication skills.
• U.S. citizenship or permanent residency is required.

Experience

• Direct thermal-hydraulic analysis and design experience: 10 years (preferred).

Work Location

Onsite in Madison, Wisconsin.

Benefits

• Competitive salary with equity options
• Comprehensive benefits package including health, dental, life and vision insurance
• Holiday and paid time off schedule
• Relocation assistance
• Opportunity to work with a groundbreaking, advanced nuclear startup