Senior Nuclear Engineer

Momentum Power; New York (NY); On-site; USD 130,000 - 175,000; Full time

Job summary

Momentum Power in New York, NY seeks a senior nuclear engineer to lead the reactor and nuclear-island systems from design through licensing activities. You will own technical direction, perform system analyses, and mentor junior engineers across disciplines.

You bring deep expertise in at least one nuclear-engineering discipline, guide design decisions, and coordinate with leadership, laboratories, and suppliers to mature the technical basis for the reactor design.

Qualifications

• PhD in nuclear engineering or closely related discipline.
• Deep technical foundation in at least one core nuclear-engineering area and ability to work across multiple areas.
• Experience developing, reviewing, and documenting engineering calculations, analytical models, or simulations.
• Strong engineering judgment to evaluate design alternatives as requirements evolve.
• Ability to distinguish conceptual conclusions from validated analysis and licensing-quality evidence.
• Ability to structure technical problems and communicate recommendations clearly.
• Strong writing, documentation, and review skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical work within your area of expertise and contribute to reactor-system design decisions.
• Establish technical direction, methods, and analysis approaches for your domain.
• Translate requirements and regulatory strategy into engineering criteria and system-level decisions.
• Perform and review first-principles calculations, models, and system analyses.
• Define operating states, events, safety functions, and design limits for interfaces.
• Review work by junior engineers and external contributors for technical soundness.
• Identify risks and drive resolution with thorough analyses and validation.
• Develop scopes of work and inputs for consultants, labs, and suppliers.
• Collaborate with external specialists and integrate results into the reactor design.
• Support design reviews, maturity gates, and licensing-base documentation.
• Contribute to NRC pre-application activities and safety-case development.
• Maintain interfaces with subsea structures, balance-of-plant, and export systems.
• Help establish engineering methods, validation plans, and documentation practices.
• Mentor junior engineers and promote consistent technical quality.

Skills

Engineering judgment

Technical writing

Cross-disciplinary collaboration

Problem-solving

Mentoring

Education

PhD in nuclear engineering

Tools

Python

MATLAB

Job description

You will help lead development of Momentum Power’s reactor and nuclear-island systems from design through increasingly mature engineering and licensing activities. This is a senior generalist nuclear-engineering role for someone who brings deep expertise in at least one nuclear-engineering discipline, can lead technical work within that domain, and is comfortable working across disciplines and making sound engineering decisions at the system level.

You will take substantial technical ownership within your area of expertise, establishing technical direction, leading analyses and design decisions, and driving key engineering questions toward resolution. You will also work closely with company leadership, other engineers, consultants, laboratories, universities, and suppliers to define requirements, evaluate design alternatives, and mature the technical basis for the reactor design.

As a senior member of the engineering team, you will provide technical oversight and mentorship to junior engineers. You will review their analyses, calculations, models, assumptions, and technical documentation and help ensure that engineering work is technically sound, traceable, consistent with the project design basis, and appropriate to the maturity of the design.

• Lead technical work within your area of expertise while contributing to the development and evaluation of the broader reactor-system configuration, including the core, reactor pressure vessel, primary systems, containment, decay-heat removal, emergency cooling, I&C, and supporting nuclear-island systems.
• Establish technical direction, methods, assumptions, and analysis approaches within your domain and exercise independent engineering judgment on significant design decisions.
• Translate mission requirements, subsea deployment constraints, operating concepts, and regulatory strategy into engineering requirements, design criteria, and system-level decisions.
• Lead, perform, and review first-principles calculations, reduced-order models, system analyses, and engineering trade studies; develop and review plant models using reactor-physics and system-analysis tools.
• Define and evaluate operating states, initiating events, accident scenarios, safety functions, design limits, and acceptance criteria relevant to your technical domain and their system-level interfaces.
• Provide technical oversight and review of work performed by junior engineers and external contributors, including calculations, analyses, models, assumptions, methods, and technical documentation.
• Identify technical risks, uncertainties, design dependencies, and areas requiring additional analysis, testing, verification, or validation, and drive them toward documented resolution.
• Develop and review technical requirements, scopes of work, and engineering inputs for consultants, laboratories, universities, suppliers, and other external partners.
• Serve as a technical counterpart to external specialists within your area of expertise, review their technical deliverables, challenge assumptions and conclusions where appropriate, and integrate results into the broader reactor and nuclear-island design.
• Lead and support design reviews and design-maturity gates, including documenting assumptions, decisions, interfaces, open items, and technical bases.
• Support NRC pre-application activities, licensing-basis development, safety analysis, regulatory interactions, and safety-case documentation, including providing technical leadership within your domain.
• Develop and maintain nuclear-system interfaces with subsea structures, installation and retrieval systems, electrical export, remote operations, and other balance-of-plant systems.
• Lead development of engineering methods, modeling approaches, verification and validation plans, and technical documentation practices within your area of expertise as the engineering organization grows.
• Mentor junior engineers, help develop their technical judgment and engineering practices, and support consistent technical quality across the nuclear engineering team.
• Provide technical leadership and review across disciplines while maintaining appropriate distinction between preliminary engineering judgment, validated analysis, and licensing-quality evidence.

Qualifications

6+ years of relevant experience in nuclear design, analysis, operations, research, systems engineering, or reactor development. Highly relevant graduate research may count toward part of this experience.

• PhD in nuclear engineering or a closely related discipline.
• Deep technical foundation in at least one of: reactor thermal-hydraulics, reactor physics or core design, nuclear safety analysis, fuel performance, plant dynamics and controls, or nuclear systems engineering, with demonstrated ability and interest in working across multiple areas.
• Experience developing, reviewing, and documenting engineering calculations, analytical models, or simulations, including their assumptions, methods, uncertainties, applicability, and limitations.
• Strong engineering judgment and ability to evaluate design alternatives where requirements, interfaces, or analytical evidence are still evolving.
• Ability to distinguish conceptual or preliminary engineering conclusions from validated analysis and licensing-quality evidence.
• Ability to independently structure technical problems, identify the analyses or evidence required, and communicate recommendations clearly.
• Strong technical writing, documentation, communication, and technical-review skills.
• Ability to work effectively in a multidisciplinary engineering environment where responsibilities may extend beyond a single technical specialty.

Nice to Have

Experience with boiling-water reactors, natural-circulation systems, SMRs, advanced reactors, or marine nuclear systems.

• Experience with TRACE, RELAP5, PARCS, MELCOR, SCALE, MCNP, Serpent, OpenMC, FRAPCON, SNAP, or equivalent nuclear-analysis tools.
• Proficiency with Python, MATLAB, or similar engineering and scientific-computing tools.
• Familiarity with 10 CFR Part 50, 52, or 53 licensing, NRC pre-application activities, risk-informed design, PRA, defense-in-depth, or nuclear quality assurance.
• Experience developing system requirements, design criteria, interface-control documents, calculation packages, V&V plans, or other formal engineering documentation.
• Experience supporting reactor-system architecture, design reviews, safety assessments, or licensing-basis development.
• Experience coordinating and technically reviewing work performed by consultants, national laboratories, universities, engineering organizations, or major equipment suppliers.
• Experience mentoring junior engineers or providing technical leadership within multidisciplinary engineering teams.

Base salary, meaningful equity, and full benefits, including 401(k), medical/dental/vision, paid time off, company holidays, and parental leave, subject to company plans and policies. Compensation reflects role scope, relevant experience, technical depth, and expected impact.

Compensation Range

$130,000 - $175,000 base salary, plus stock options, commensurate with experience.

Momentum Power is an equal opportunity employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, age, national origin, disability, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.