Chemistry Controls Lead

Voiceflow; Long Beach (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

BlueCore Energy is seeking a Chemistry and Materials Lead to build water chemistry programs and select materials for Nautilus, a flagship floating nuclear power plant on a barge. You will design chemistry regimes, sampling infrastructure, and waste processing systems, navigating NRC and port requirements.

The role sits at the intersection of corrosion engineering, radiochemistry, and regulatory engagement, coordinating across licensing, operations, and engineering to embed chemistry standards

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in nuclear plant chemistry and corrosion engineering.
• Ability to select materials for nuclear fluid systems with rationale.
• Experience in waste treatment and effluent compliance.
• Ability to justify alloy/chemical strategies and explain failure modes.

Responsibilities

• Own water chemistry program design and monitoring architecture.
• Drive material selection for primary and secondary systems.
• Design sampling, online analyzers, and surveillance instrumentation.
• Develop bulk chemical storage and makeup water systems for barge platforms.
• Design radioactive waste processing systems within NRC and port requirements.
• Coordinate with engineering, licensing, and leadership from day one.
• Travel to vendor facilities, NRC HQ, labs, and ports for coordination.

Skills

Nuclear plant chemistry

Corrosion engineering

Radiochemistry

Material selection

Waste processing design

Job description

Our Mission Is Simple: Democratize Access To Clean Energy

Welcome to BlueCore Energy! We are on a relentless mission to democratize access to clean energy. By designing and building advanced floating Pressurized Water Reactors (PWRs) on barges right here in Long Beach, CA, we are bringing scalable, clean, and reliable power to the world. Joining our team means getting in on the ground floor of a revolution in marine small modular reactors (SMRs). If you are passionate, driven, and ready to tackle some of the most exciting challenges of our time, we want you on our team!

Our Values

• Humility — We hold strong opinions loosely, say "I don't know," ask for help early, and let the best idea win regardless of who it came from.

• Inclusivity — The best engineering comes from many perspectives. We build a team where everyone is heard, and we mean it.

• Pragmatism — We solve the real problem in front of us, reuse what already works, and value a tested answer over an elegant one.

About the Role

The Chemistry and Materials Lead will build the water chemistry programs and select the materials for Nautilus, BlueCore's flagship floating nuclear power plant. You will be the person who specifies the alloys, elastomers, and coatings for every wetted surface in the plant, designs the chemistry regimes that protect them, builds the sampling and monitoring infrastructure to verify it all works, and designs the radioactive waste processing systems that manage the resulting effluents. Sitting across the Certification and Operations Departments, this role is equal parts corrosion engineer, water chemist, waste system designer, and licensing contributor. For a barge-mounted PWR operating in a working port with seawater as the ultimate heat sink, you will solve chemistry and materials challenges that have no direct commercial precedent in the United States: condenser and heat exchanger materials selected for seawater service, condensate systems sized for a marine platform, chemical storage and waste processing under severe space and weight constraints, and effluent management under overlapping NRC, EPA, USCG, and port authority requirements. Beyond Nautilus, you will establish the chemistry and materials standards for fleet-wide deployment across commercial ports globally.

Responsibilities

• Own primary, secondary, and condensate chemistry program design, including water chemistry regime selection, chemical addition system design, and sampling system design from sample points through analytical endpoints.

• Drive material selection for all fluid systems in coordination with mechanical and reactor engineering, including alloy specification for primary pressure boundary components, steam generator tubing, condenser tubing, feedwater and condensate piping, heat exchangers, and auxiliary systems.

• Design the sampling and monitoring architecture for the plant, including online analyzer selection and placement, grab sample station layout, sample cooler and tubing specification, and the instrumentation needed to support chemistry surveillance with a lean operating crew.

• Develop the bulk chemical storage, delivery, and makeup water systems for a barge-based platform, accounting for space, weight, and marine resupply logistics.

• Design the liquid and gaseous radioactive waste processing systems for a marine platform, including holdup, treatment, monitoring, and discharge pathways that satisfy NRC effluent limits and port authority requirements.

• Author and support chemistry sections of the DOE safety basis (DSA, TSRs) and NRC license application (FSAR Chapters 5, 9, and 11), including reactor coolant chemistry, auxiliary systems, and radioactive waste management.

• Coordinate cross-functionally with reactor engineering, mechanical design, operations, licensing, and executive leadership to ensure chemistry and materials requirements are embedded into plant design, operating procedures, and safety submittals from day one.

• Travel to vendor facilities, NRC headquarters, national laboratories, and port locations for technical coordination and regulatory engagement.

Required Qualifications & Skills

• Deep experience in nuclear plant chemistry, corrosion engineering, or radiochemistry.

• Demonstrated ability to make material selection decisions for nuclear fluid systems, not just operate within an existing chemistry program.

• You should be able to explain why one alloy, amine, or oxygen scavenging strategy is right for a given application and the failure modes associated with an incorrect selection.

• Familiarity with radioactive waste processing system design, including liquid and gaseous waste treatment, holdup calculations, and effluent discharge compliance.

Desired Qualifications & Skills

• Candidates who have worked in environments where chemistry and materials decisions are tightly coupled (naval nuclear propulsion, steam generator programs, SMR development) are strongly preferred.

Working at BlueCore Energy

On-Site Requirement: Our team works together at our Long Beach facility, right next to our barge.

Highly Cross-Functional: Startups move fast! You must possess the ability to seamlessly collaborate across multiple teams to rapidly solve problems and keep production moving.

Physical & Machinery Requirements: Because we are a hands-on startup, this role may require the ability to perform physical labor, navigate active construction/manufacturing zones, and/or operate heavy machinery and specialized manufacturing equipment as needed.