Nuclear Systems Engineer

Ocean Atomics; Bethesda (MD); On-site; USD 110,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

Ocean Atomics seeks a Nuclear Systems Engineer to design reactor systems for maritime nuclear plants, from concept through integrated design and handoff to build.

You will resolve interfaces among nuclear, thermal-fluids, mechanical, and controls disciplines, ensuring compatibility with regulatory pathways and host vessel constraints.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or advanced degree in Nuclear/Mechanical Engineering or related field.
• Direct experience with a reactor or comparable complex thermal/energy system from concept through detailed design.
• Foundations of systems engineering: requirements, interfaces, verification/validation, configuration control, margins.

Responsibilities

• Support architecture and integration of primary and secondary reactor systems across design phases.
• Coordinate with nuclear, thermal-hydraulic/fluids, mechanical, structural, and controls engineers to resolve interfaces.
• Maintain system requirements, interface control documents, margins, and master block diagrams; participate in design reviews.

Skills

Nuclear systems

Systems engineering

Interdisciplinary coordination

Regulatory awareness

Education

Bachelor's or advanced degree in Nuclear/Mechanical Engineering

Job description

The ocean is the largest undeveloped frontier on earth — and the next chapter of abundant energy will be written at sea. We're building the infrastructure to power it.

About Ocean Atomics (OA)

Ocean Atomics is an American company designing, licensing, and assembling a standardized nuclear electric power plant and the surrounding support systems for maritime applications. We will install these plants on any vessel built to our nuclear-ready standards, and will provide end-to-end sustainment in our planned nuclear lifecycle dockyard. We will help develop the licensed operators to unlock this new capability for your energy intensive application at sea. To move fast and to lead the creation of this new market, we are leveraging the compact, proven systems enabled by water-cooled reactors.

Our mission

Scale nuclear energy. Power generations.

Our vision

A maritime commons thriving with abundant, economical, modern, and safe nuclear-powered activity — built, serviced, and staffed by re-industrialized American shipyards and people.

Role Summary

As Nuclear Systems Engineer, you work on the system-level design of the reactor systems that power our maritime nuclear plant: core, primary loop, power conversion, shielding, auxiliaries, and instrumentation & controls, from early concept studies through integrated design and handoff to build. You resolve the interfaces between nuclear, thermal-fluids, mechanical, structural, and controls disciplines, and keep the design compatible with the regulatory pathway and the constraints of the host vessel: mass, volume, motion, shock, and the marine environment.

This is a role we're hiring at multiple levels (L1 through L4). The work is shared across levels; scope and accountability scale with experience.

This work suits someone who treats interface conflicts as the real design problem rather than paperwork between disciplines, and who knows which trade-offs need to go up for a decision instead of getting resolved by fiat.

What You'll Do

At all levels, you will:

• Support architecture and integration of primary and secondary reactor systems — core, primary loop, power conversion, shielding, auxiliaries, and I&C — across concept, preliminary, detailed, and final design phases.

• Contribute to concept selection and trade studies, and help allocate requirements to discipline owners.

• Coordinate with nuclear, thermal-hydraulic/fluids, mechanical, structural, and controls engineers to resolve interfaces and close integration gaps.

• Maintain system requirements, interface control documents, margins, and master block diagrams; participate in design reviews and phase gates.

• Partner with safety, licensing, and naval architecture engineers to keep designs compatible with the regulatory pathway and host vessel constraints (mass, volume, motion, shock, marine environment).

At more senior levels (L3-L4), you will additionally:

• Own the integrated design baseline and lead architecture decisions across primary and secondary systems.

• Drive concept selection and trade studies, and allocate requirements down to discipline owners.

• Run design reviews and phase gates, and surface the trade-offs that need executive decisions.

• Track risk and manage technical debt across disciplines at the system level.

What You Bring

Required at all levels

• Bachelor's or advanced degree in Nuclear, Mechanical, or related engineering, or equivalent practical experience.

• Direct experience with a reactor or comparable complex thermal/energy system, from concept through detailed design — not just analysis of a system someone else designed.

• Systems engineering fundamentals: requirements, interfaces, verification & validation, configuration control, margin management.

• Working fluency across nuclear, thermal-fluids, and mechanical domains, enough to challenge each specialty without owning their analyses.

Experience by level

• L1-L2: Early-career engineers with systems engineering exposure through internships, research, or early-career roles on reactor or complex energy systems.

• L3-L4: Have taken a reactor system (naval propulsion, microreactor, SMR, or research reactor) from concept through detailed design, and can own an integrated design baseline across disciplines.

Preferred

• Naval reactors (NR) experience.

• Shipboard or offshore systems exposure.

• Licensing experience with the NRC or a maritime classification society (ABS, LR, etc.).

Export control notice

This role involves access to information subject to U.S. export control laws, including unclassified nuclear technology governed by the U.S. Department of Energy under 10 CFR Part 810. Depending on a candidate's status, access may require DOE authorization, which Ocean Atomics may apply for. Any offer is contingent on your ability to work in compliance with these requirements. We evaluate all applicants regardless of citizenship or national origin, except where required by law.

Why this matters

Every industry on Earth needs scalable, clean energy, and the ocean is the ideal place to unlock it. Joining Ocean Atomics means building real, lasting infrastructure — the kind that powers generations. The world needs abundant energy. Let's make it happen.

Ocean Atomics LLC is an equal opportunity employer.

We are committed to a workplace free of discrimination and do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations; if you need an accommodation during the application process, contact [e-mail].