System Engineer III

Kairos Power; Alameda, Albuquerque (CA, NM); Hybrid; USD 122,000 - 144,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation

Medical/Dental/Vision benefits

Paid vacation

401(k)

Job summary

Kairos Power seeks a highly motivated Systems Engineer III to support development and integration of advanced nuclear energy systems. You will translate program objectives and stakeholder needs into clear requirements and integrated system solutions.

You will lead requirements, architectures, interfaces, and verification strategies across product and plant levels, collaborating with engineering, project management, licensing, and suppliers to address cross-functional issues.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in systems engineering, mechanical engineering, nuclear engineering, electrical engineering, aerospace engineering or related field.
• Experience applying systems engineering methods to complex programs or products.
• Experience developing, allocating, maintaining, and tracing technical requirements.
• Experience with functional analysis, interface definition, system integration, or verification/validation.
• Experience coordinating technical reviews or leading cross-functional activities.

Responsibilities

• Develop, allocate, maintain, and trace technical requirements across product and plant architectures.
• Translate objectives and design inputs into verifiable requirements.
• Perform functional analysis and decomposition to define system behavior and traceability.
• Develop and maintain system architectures (functional, logical, physical).
• Define and manage internal and external interfaces between systems, organizations, and suppliers.
• Develop verification strategies, plans, and criteria; provide evidence of requirements satisfaction.
• Coordinate multidisciplinary reviews and manage technical risks and dependencies.
• Maintain knowledge of procedures, codes, and regulatory requirements.

Skills

Systems thinking

Requirements tracing

Requirements writing

Cross-functional collaboration

Technical communication

Problem solving

Analytical skills

Education

Bachelor’s degree in engineering

Tools

Jama Connect

MBSE tools

Job description

Alameda, CA, Albuquerque, NM or Remote in the US

Company Overview

Kairos Power is a new nuclear energy technology and engineering company whose mission is to enable the world’s transition to clean energy, with the ultimate goal to dramatically improve people’s quality of life while protecting the environment. This goal will be accomplished through the commercialization of the fluoride-salt-cooled, high-temperature reactor (FHR) that can be deployed with robust safety, affordable costs, and flexible operation to accommodate the expansion of variable renewables.

Location: Alameda, CA, Albuquerque, NM / Remote in the U.S.

Company Overview

Kairos Power is a nuclear energy technology and engineering company whose mission is to enable the world’s transition to clean energy, with the ultimate goal of dramatically improving people’s quality of life while protecting the environment. Kairos Power is commercializing the fluoride-salt-cooled, high-temperature reactor, designed to provide robust safety, affordable cost, and flexible operation that supports the expansion of variable renewable energy.

Job Summary

Kairos Power is seeking a highly motivated Systems Engineer III to support the development and integration of advanced nuclear energy systems. In this role, you will apply disciplined systems engineering methods to translate program objectives, stakeholder needs, and design inputs into clear, verifiable technical requirements and integrated system solutions.

You will develop and maintain requirements, functional architectures, system architectures, interfaces, and verification strategies across multiple levels of the product and plant architecture. You will work closely with engineering disciplines, project management, licensing, quality, operations, suppliers, and external partners to identify integration concerns and resolve cross-functional technical issues.

The role will lead focused systems engineering activities, coordinate multidisciplinary technical reviews, evaluate the system-level impacts of proposed changes, and support the management of technical risks, assumptions, issues, and dependencies throughout the engineering lifecycle. You will also mentor less-experienced engineers and contribute to the continuous improvement of Kairos Power systems engineering processes, tools, templates, training, and command media.

Responsibilities

• Develop, allocate, maintain, and trace technical requirements across multiple levels of product and plant architecture.
• Translate program objectives, stakeholder needs, design inputs, and regulatory considerations into clear, complete, consistent, and verifiable requirements.
• Perform and support functional analysis and decomposition to define required system behavior and establish traceability between functions, requirements, architecture, and verification activities.
• Develop and maintain functional, logical, and physical system architectures.
• Define, document, coordinate, and manage internal and external interfaces between systems, organizations, suppliers, facilities, and external partners.
• Develop verification strategies, methods, plans, acceptance criteria, and evidence needed to demonstrate that requirements have been satisfied.
• Coordinate and facilitate multidisciplinary requirements, architecture, interface, integration, and verification reviews.
• Maintain knowledge of and support compliance with applicable company procedures, codes, standards, and regulatory requirements.
• Other duties as assigned

Qualifications

Required

• Bachelor’s degree in systems engineering, mechanical engineering, nuclear engineering, electrical engineering, aerospace engineering, or a related technical field.
• Relevant professional experience applying systems engineering methods to complex engineering programs or products.
• Experience developing, allocating, maintaining, and tracing technical requirements.
• Experience with one or more of the following:
• Functional analysis and decomposition
• Interface definition and management
• System integration
• Requirements verification and validation
• Technical change-impact assessment
• Experience coordinating technical reviews or leading focused cross-functional engineering activities.
• Strong technical writing, communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills.

Preferred

• Experience in the nuclear industry, power generation, aerospace, defense, energy, or another highly regulated industry.
• Experience using requirements management tools such as Jama Connect.
• Experience with model-based systems engineering methods and tools.
• Familiarity with applicable nuclear quality, licensing, safety, or regulatory practices.
• Experience supporting design reviews, trade studies, configuration management, or technical baseline management.
• Familiarity with relevant systems engineering standards and guidance, such as ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288 or the INCOSE Systems Engineering Handbook.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

Knowledge

• Knowledge of systems engineering lifecycle processes and technical management practices.
• Knowledge of requirements development, decomposition, allocation, traceability, verification, and validation.
• Knowledge of functional, logical, and physical architecture development.
• Knowledge of interface identification, definition, documentation, and control.
• Knowledge of system integration, configuration management, and engineering change-control principles.
• Knowledge of technical risk, assumption, issue, opportunity, and dependency management.
• General knowledge of engineering design, licensing, quality, operations, and project execution within complex technical programs.

Skills

• Skill in writing clear, concise, implementation-independent, and verifiable technical requirements.
• Skill in performing functional analysis, architecture development, interface analysis, and change-impact assessment.
• Skill in using requirements management, modeling, analysis, and documentation tools.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, technical writing, presentation, and interpersonal skills.

Abilities

• Ability to evaluate complex systems holistically and recognize interactions, dependencies, and unintended consequences.
• Ability to work collaboratively across engineering disciplines, organizations, and levels of technical authority.
• Ability to balance technical rigor with program cost, schedule, risk, and execution needs.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and maintain attention to detail in a fast-paced engineering environment.
• Ability to proactively collect, organize, manage, and transfer technical knowledge.

Physical Demands

• Remaining in a stationary position, including sitting or standing, for prolonged periods.
• Moving about office, laboratory, manufacturing, or test-facility environments.
• Communicating with others to exchange technical information.
• Operating computers and other standard office equipment.

Environmental Conditions

• General office environment.
• High-concentration, demanding, and fast-paced work environment.
• Periodic work in prototyping, laboratory, test-facility, manufacturing, or industrial environments.

Safety and Personal Protective Equipment

• Reporting equipment issues, hazards, and unsafe conditions.
• Following applicable safety procedures and posted warning requirements.
• Wearing required personal protective equipment when entering laboratory, test, manufacturing, industrial, or controlled areas.
• Prioritizing the safety of oneself and others.

Travel

• Some travel may be required (up to 10%).

Additional Requirements

• Occasional schedule flexibility or extended hours may be required to support critical project milestones, technical reviews, testing, or integration activities.

The salary range for this positi on is $122,270 to $143,847 for emplo yees working onsite at our Alameda, CA headquarters. The range provided in this job posting represents the typical range or starting rate of candidates hired in California. Factors that maybe used to determine your actual salary may include your education, experience, knowledge, skills, ability and the market data for your work location, and a comparison to other employees already in the role.

About our Benefits

We know that we have some of the most talented and dedicated employees, and we believe in rewarding them accordingly. If you work here, full-time employees (excludes interns) expect to have access to the benefits below:

• Competitive compensation packages
• Medical, dental and vision benefits for employees and their dependents
• Paid Vacation
• 401(k) and pre-tax health insurance, dependent care, and commuter benefits (FSA)

Kairos Power is committed to building a diverse workforce that reflects the communities where we do business. Kairos Power is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status. We actively welcome people of different experiences, abilities, and perspectives.

Candidates only, no recruiters or agencies please.

Note: You are applying for a position that is located in a facility that handles information that is subject to export control restrictions by the Department of Energy under 10 CFR Part 810. To work in this facility, you need to be authorized by the Department of Energy to access Part 810-controlled information. Foreign nationals who are citizens of countries that are not on the Department of Energy’s general authorization list (link below) are not permitted to work in our facility unless the Department of Energy issues an export control license to the company to permit that individual to have access to Part 810-controlled information. The following questions are intended to determine the licensing requirements that may apply. https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/10/appendix-A_to_part_810

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey.Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiringprocess or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in aconfidential file.

As set forth in Kairos Power’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy,we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection.As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measurethe effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categoriesis as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.