Lead Principal Engineer, Reactor Design

TerraPower is a nuclear technology company based in Bellevue, Washington. At its core, the company is working to raise living standards globally through a more affordable, secure, and environmentally friendly form of nuclear energy along with innovations in medical isotopes to improve human health. In 2006, TerraPower originated with Bill Gates and a group of like-minded visionaries who evaluated the fundamental challenges to raising living standards around the world. They recognized energy access was crucial to the health and economic well-being of communities and decided that the private sector needed to take action and create energy sources that would advance global energy deployment. TerraPower’s mission is to be a world leader in new nuclear technologies, while developing innovators and future leaders in the nuclear field. As a result, the company’s activities in the fields of nuclear energy and related sciences are yielding significant innovations in the safety and economics of nuclear power, hybrid energy and medical applications – all for significant human health benefits.

TerraPower is seeking to hire highly motivated and forward-thinking professionals who are interested in focusing on advanced nuclear reactor research and development and influencing change within the nuclear power landscape and bringing forward the critical production of medical isotopes. TerraPower is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We do not discriminate in hiring on the basis of sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religious creed, national origin, physical or mental disability, protected Veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.

Lead Principal Engineer, Reactor Design

The Lead Principal Engineer, Reactor Design reports directly to the Reactor Design Senior Manager and is focused on the technical leadership and delivery of the reactor and its components and structures. In this role, you will act as a Lead Principal Engineer supporting TerraPower’s Natrium project. The successful candidate will integrate and coordinate with engineers working on the reactor and interfacing systems as part of a high-performing team of engineers and scientists.

Responsibilities

• Provide expert level knowledge and technical leadership in the design of integrated system, structures, and components from requirements definition through final design.
• Act as technical authority for a broad range of reactor design topics and components, develop and advise solutions to critical design areas and challenges, and champion effective design solutions and engineering improvement in the reactor design team.
• Lead and perform senior technical review of engineering products as an extension of the project design authority, including specialist topics, cross-functional products, critical activities requiring focused resolution, and integrated functional reviews across the reactor systems and their interfacing SSCs. Bring together multi-department groups as well as chief engineers in executing highly effective design reviews and product reviews.
• Develop standards for a complete product lifecycle, such as but not limited to necessary construction and fabrication details, startup and testing plans, maintenance and inspections, and decommissioning plans.
• Guide organization in the selection and application of project codes of record, including ASME BPVC Sect III Div 5 and QME-1.
• Mentor and support the continuous development of a performing engineering team, including individual mentoring as well as organizational learning such as training development and delivery.
• Assess complex integrated thermal-hydraulics in the primary system, including safety performance targets, detailed multi-physics analysis models, and transient analysis inputs to structural design.
• Verify correct and complete application of regulatory criteria, codes and standards, industry guidance, and design programs to complex mechanical design challenges.
• Provide technical direction to engineering execution of supplier activities, including engineering design principles and practices to design contracts.
• Propose and advise on execution of testing programs for equipment and data qualification.
• Interface with technical leaders, managers, and chief engineers in early identification of engineering strategic initiatives or potential challenges, and work in concert with other leaders and SMEs to develop action plans to solve critical problems.
• Advise design team in technical planning efforts, generate integrated project strategies for critical areas of engineering design process, and act as a technical conscience for correctness and completeness of engineering activities.
• Interface on licensing activities associated with Safety Analysis Reports and regulatory submittals, and lead development of licensing and design basis in first-of-a-kind or design-specific conformances.
• Lead integrated team design reviews at project milestones to verify compliance and completeness of design, and conduct interim assessment reviews at intervening periods to correct deviations to project strategy or technical excellence.

Key Qualifications and Skills

• B.S. in Mechanical or related discipline from an accredited university and 15+ years direct experience with proven mechanical systems skills.
• Demonstrated diverse and robust experience in leading mechanical design of complex structures and equipment in high temperature and multi-discipline integration. Previous experience with nuclear mechanical components, nuclear reactor equipment, or similar design is highly desired.
• Highly Proficient knowledge of nuclear design codes and standards, including ASME Sect III. Knowledge in Div 5 or high temperature design is highly desired.
• Robust knowledge of complex thermal hydraulic analysis and reactor phenomenon, particularly in transient and safety analysis applications, highly desired.
• Proficient knowledge and experience with nuclear quality fabrication, construction, and lifecycle management processes (including In-Service Inspection, material surveillance, vibration programs, equipment qualification programs, etc), and similar skills.
• Experience in mentorship and technical leadership of high-performance engineering teams.
• Excellent knowledge and practical application of ASME NQA-1 design control program and ANSI/NIRMA CM1.0 configuration management principles.
• Excellent technical writing, communication, and presentation skills.
• Attention to detail and leadership in technical excellence.
• Candidate must be a self-starter and possess ability to coordinate and lead a design team’s effort with minimal direction.
• Ability to manage design activities that include many competing objectives and design constraints, with ability to resolve conflicts between objectives.
• Ability to manage and support numerous simultaneous tasks that require a multi-disciplinary approach.
• Experience working to ASME NQA-1 quality standards on design activities.
• The successful candidate will possess a high degree of trust and integrity, able to communicate openly, and display respect and a desire to foster teamwork.

This position is subject to qualification requirements in accordance with ANSI/ANS 3.1. Candidates must meet the minimum education and experience criteria applicable to the role, including relevant nuclear industry experience where required. Verification of data will be part of the hiring process.

Job Functions:

Job Functions are physical actions and/or working conditions associated with the position. These functions may also constitute essential functions for the job which the employee must be able to fulfill, with or without accommodation. Information provided below is to help describe the job so that the applicant has a reasonable understanding of the job duties/expectations. An applicant's ability to perform and/or tolerate these actions and conditions will be discussed and workplace accommodations may be made on a case-by-case basis following an individualized assessment of the applicant and other con