Licensing Manager - Recycling

SHINE Technologies, LLC; Janesville (WI); On-site; USD 160,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

SHINE Technologies, LLC seeks a Licensing Manager - Recycling to lead the licensing of our UNF recycling program. You will build the licensing team, manage strategy and regulatory engagement with the NRC, and guide the project from pre-application to operation.

The role requires deep regulatory acumen, strategic thinking, and the ability to balance risk with program progress in a high-stakes environment involving nuclear regulation.

Qualifications

• Evidence of leading a NRC/Agreement State/DOE licensing action from strategy through issuance.
• Experience building or leading a licensing or regulatory team with measurable outcomes.
• Demonstrated judgment on regulatory conservatism and precedent challenges.
• Ability to critically evaluate information and ask pointed questions.
• Strategic thinking to navigate complex regulatory requirements and guidance.

Responsibilities

• Build and lead the Recycling licensing team with hiring, development, and performance standards.
• Own licensing scope, schedule and budget for the Pilot facility.
• Set tone for long regulatory engagement with balanced judgment.
• Ensure alignment between licensing deliverables and engineering schedules.
• Own the Licensing Strategy and Regulatory Interface for UNF recycling.
• Develop defensible regulatory positions and present to the NRC.
• Weigh licensing risks and justify positions under pressure.
• Oversee licensing correspondence with regulatory agencies.
• Own the Recycling licensing basis and related safety programs.
• Plan pre-application engagements, regulatory reviews and oversight.
• Ensure regulatory documentation accuracy and consistency with SHINE basis.
• Deliver licensing presentations to internal and external groups.
• Lead resolution of key strategic licensing issues.
• Participate in industry/regulator activities affecting UNF recycling.
• Identify licensing risks and communicate solutions to senior management.
• As operation nears, build the program for license condition compliance.

Skills

Licensing leadership

Team building

Regulatory strategy

Judgment under pressure

Job description

SHINE is seeking the licensing leader for our used nuclear fuel (UNF) Recycling product line. The US has more than 95,000 metric tons of used nuclear fuel and nowhere to put it. This role leads the licensing necessary to turn it back into energy: both building the licensing team and carrying the Recycling Pilot facility from pre-application engagement through NRC review, license issuance, and into operation.

The Licensing Manager - Recycling is SHINE's primary interface with regulatory agencies, including the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, as it relates to UNF recycling. The role works alongside the Director of Engineering & Chief Engineer - Recycling, who owns the facility's requirements set; together they turn a graded, first-principles set of requirements into regulatory positions the regulator can accept. The job takes judgment as much as procedure: knowing the difference between what the regulation requires and what precedent assumes, and when to spend regulatory margin and when to hold it.

The base salary range for this position is $160,000 - $200,000 per year plus a comprehensive compensation package. Our salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location.

Duties and Responsibilities:

Specific duties and responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Build and lead the Recycling licensing team. Own hiring, development and performance for the licensing staff, and set the standard for the work product they produce: complete, accurate, and defensible.
• Own licensing scope, schedule and budget for the Pilot facility.
• Set the tone for a long regulatory engagement. Bring resilience and levity, and judgment about which issues are worth contesting.
• Ensure alignment between technical and licensing deliverables, and between the licensing schedule and the engineering schedule.
• Own the Licensing Strategy and the Regulatory Interface
• Define, develop, and execute SHINE's licensing strategy for UNF recycling: the licensing pathway, the regulatory engagement plan, and the sequencing of pre-application engagement, application, and review.
• Partner with the Director of Engineering & Chief Engineer to develop defensible regulatory positions: translate the graded requirements set into positions the regulator can accept, propose creative alternatives, and carry them to the NRC.
• Weigh risk against benefit explicitly on licensing decisions, and do not commit SHINE to requirements that cannot be justified. Hold positions under pressure when the evidence supports them, and change them quickly when it does not.
• Own licensing correspondence to regulatory agencies (e.g., license applications, amendment requests, application supplements, responses to requests for additional information, exemption requests). Set the standard for completeness and accuracy and hold the team to it.
• Own the Recycling licensing basis, including the Safety Analysis Reports for SHINE facilities licensed under 10 CFR Part 50 or 10 CFR Part 70 and the programs described therein.
• Plan and lead pre-application regulatory engagements, regulatory reviews, and oversight activities with the NRC and other regulatory agencies.
• Ensure documentation developed by regulatory agencies (e.g., Safety Evaluation Reports, Inspection Reports) is accurate and consistent with the applicable SHINE licensing basis.
• Prepare and deliver licensing presentations to internal and external organizations.
• Lead resolution of key strategic licensing issues.
• Participate in industry-led and regulator-led regulatory activities, including rulemaking and guidance development that affect UNF recycling.
• Identify and evaluate key licensing risks, develop solutions, and communicate them to senior management.
• As the facility approaches operation, build the program that oversees compliance with license conditions and applicable regulations.

Success in the First Eighteen Months:

• A construction permit application (or equivalent) for the Pilot facility has been submitted to the NRC or DOE.
• A licensing team is hired, retained, and produced that application to a defined standard.

Requirements

Required Qualifications:

• Evidence of leading a licensing action to a decision: has owned an NRC, Agreement State, or DOE submittal from strategy through issuance and can say what they would do differently.
• Evidence of building or leading a licensing or regulatory team: staff this person recruited or developed, who stayed. Evidence of holding a hiring bar under pressure.
• Demonstrated judgment on regulatory conservatism: has challenged a default requirement or a precedent, found a path that was as safe or safer and material faster or less expensive, and obtained regulator acceptance of it.
• Ability to critically evaluate information, and the confidence to ask questions when things do not make sense.
• Ability to think strategically and take decisive action once the necessary information has been gathered.
• Ability to navigate a large, interconnected set of regulatory requirements and guidan