Mechanical Design Engineer II - Reactivity Controls

Antares; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 115,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Antares in Torrance, CA is seeking a Responsible Engineer for Reactivity Controls – Mechanical. You will lead design, development, testing, and validation of mechanical systems that govern reactor reactivity and ensure safe operation.

You will interface with electrical and software subsystems and define architecture, requirements, and documentation. The ideal candidate has a track record in precision control mechanisms, experience in robotics or electromechanical systems, and will contribute to

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in engineering with 3+ years of full-cycle design experience.
• Experience with kinematic synthesis and pneumatic/hydraulic actuation, mechatronics, and instrumentation.
• Experience with FMEA including structure strength, stability and fatigue failure modes.
• Master's degree in engineering is preferred, with related project experience in design engineering.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and test the reactor’s control mechanisms, hardware and assemblies.
• Concept and develop custom actuation solutions, including mechanisms, linkages, interfaces, and instrumentation.
• Define design criteria, requirements, system architecture, and verification/validation test plans.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams across thermal, structural, neutronics, controls, and simulation disciplines.
• Engineer components for high-temperature, high-stress, and radiation environments using metals, ceramics, and other advanced materials.
• Perform design-for-manufacturability (DFM) assessments and tradeoffs across performance, cost, schedule, and risk.
• Conduct mechanism trade studies, document findings, and present recommendations to senior leadership.

Skills

CAD

Kinematic synthesis

Pneumatic actuation

Hydraulic actuation

Mechatronics

Instrumentation

FMEA

Education

Bachelor's degree in engineering

Master's degree in engineering

Tools

NX

ANSYS

Femap

Python

MATLAB

Job description

About Us

At Antares, our long-term mission is to make clean energy abundant from Earth to the Asteroid Belt. We’re fueled by the belief that advanced nuclear energy can strengthen our military, solve the climate crisis, elevate global living standards, and expand humanity's presence in outer space. To achieve our mission, we’re 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 Role

As the Responsible Engineer for Reactivity Controls – Mechanical, you will leadthe design, development, testing, and validation of the mechanical systems thatgovern reactor reactivity and ensure the safe operation of the reactor. You willarchitect and build the mechanical mechanisms that interface with electrical andsoftware subsystems, collaborating closely across disciplines to define systemarchitecture, requirements, and documentation.The ideal candidate has a strong track record in designing and developingprecision control mechanisms, preferably with experience in robotics orelectromechanical systems. You will also contribute to system-level architecturetrade studies and support the evaluation and selection of key vendors.

Roles and Responsibilities

• Design, build, and test the reactor’s control mechanisms, hardware andassemblies.
• Concept and develop custom actuation solutions, including mechanisms,linkages, interfaces, and instrumentation.
• Define design criteria, requirements, system architecture, andverification/validation test plans.
• Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams across thermal, structural,neutronics, controls, and simulation disciplines.
• Engineer components for high-temperature, high-stress, and radiationenvironments using metals, ceramics, and other advanced materials.
• Perform design-for-manufacturability (DFM) assessments and executetradeoffs across performance, cost, schedule, and risk.
• Conduct mechanism trade studies, document findings, and presentrecommendations to senior leadership.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in engineering 3+ years of experience in a full-cycle design engineering roles,encompassing hands-on experience with CAD, analysis, build and test
• Experience with kinematic synthesis, pneumatic/hydraulic actuation,mechatronics and instrumentation
• Experience with FMEA including structure strength, stability and fatiguefailure modes

Preferred Skills & Experience

• Master's degree in engineering1+ years of experience in a full-cycle design engineering roles,encompassing hands-on experience with CAD, analysis, build and test
• Experience in the Nuclear, Aerospace, or Robotics industries
• Experience in a demanding fast-paced development environment
• Experience with design engineering tools such as NX, ANSYS or Femap, andother product lifecycle software
• Experience with engineering scripting languages such as Python andMATLAB

Additional Requirements

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

Location

We are located in Torrance, CA in a 145,000 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 facility is in the heart of Los Angeles' vibrant emerging tech ecosystem alongside many other high growth startups and enterprises.

Salary Range

Mechanical Design Engineer II - $115,000 - $150,000

Culture

At Antares, we like to specifically tie each role to our founding document’s set of values–here 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 systemObse