Senior Thermal-CFD Lead for Nuclear Microreactors

Radiant Industries; El Segundo (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock option plan

Comprehensive health benefits

On-site lunches and snacks

On-site HQ near the Pacific Ocean

Job summary

Radiant seeks a Principal Thermal-Hydraulics Engineer to lead thermal and fluid simulation for Kaleidos, a high-temperature gas reactor. You will set methods, standards, and validation strategy, guiding decisions across reactor systems, cooling, and shielding.

You will mentor engineers, influence program milestones, and drive commercialization readiness. You will architect automated workflows, validate against test data, and collaborate across disciplines to resolve technical tradeoffs.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, physics, or similar (MS/PhD preferred).
• 10+ years of relevant industry experience with leadership on complex programs.
• Extensive experience with STAR-CCM+ and Ansys Fluent (CFD) including turbulence and conjugate heat transfer modeling.
• Mastery of finite element and computational fluid dynamics with validation against test data.
• Proficiency with CAD software (Siemens NX).
• Experience building automated simulation workflows and scripting tools.
• Ability to mentor engineers and communicate results to cross-functional teams.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the technical authority for thermal CFD and thermal FEA modeling, owning the most complex analyses.
• Define modeling strategy and best practices for turbulent flow and heat transfer across the team.
• Lead model verification and validation, correlating simulations with test data and bounding uncertainty.
• Architect automated simulation workflows and tooling to expand capability and efficiency.
• Lead development of reduced-order analysis methods in partnership with design and test teams.
• Influence reactor, cooling, and shielding design decisions based on analysis results.
• Mentor and develop engineers, participate in design reviews, and contribute to hiring.
• Collaborate across disciplines to define requirements and resolve cross-team tradeoffs.

Skills

Technical leadership

Mentoring engineers

Cross-functional communication

Problem solving

Education

Bachelor’s degree in engineering or physics

MS or PhD preferred

Tools

STAR-CCM+

Ansys Fluent

Siemens NX

Job description

Radiant seeks a Principal Thermal-Hydraulics Engineer to lead thermal and fluid simulation for Kaleidos, a high-temperature gas reactor. You will set methods, standards, and validation strategy, guiding decisions across reactor systems, cooling, and shielding.

You will mentor engineers, influence program milestones, and drive commercialization readiness. You will architect automated workflows, validate against test data, and collaborate across disciplines to resolve technical tradeoffs.