Antares Nuclear · Los Angeles
Mechanical & AerospaceReactor Hardware EngineeringFullTime
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 a Senior Turbomachinery Design Engineer, you will own the mechanical design of turbomachinery components and assemblies for Antares nuclear reactors. You will develop hardware from early layouts and architecture trades through detailed CAD, drawings, manufacturing, assembly, and testing. You will work closely with turbomachinery engineers, analysts, manufacturing engineers, and suppliers throughout development.
The ideal candidate has experience designing complex mechanical hardware and strong skills in CAD, engineering drawings, GD&T, materials, and manufacturing processes. You can make practical design tradeoffs that balance performance, reliability, manufacturability, cost, and schedule.
Roles & Responsibilities:
Own the mechanical design and detailed definition of turbomachinery components and assemblies.
Develop 3D CAD models, assemblies, and production drawings for rotating and stationary turbomachinery hardware.
Support architecture and packaging trades through rapid iteration of 2D and 3D layouts.
Evaluate materials, manufacturing processes, interfaces, assembly methods, and design concepts during early development.
Work with aerodynamic, structural, rotordynamics, thermal, manufacturing, and test engineers to develop integrated designs.
Work directly with suppliers and internal manufacturing teams to resolve producibility, inspection, assembly, and nonconformance issues.
Improve existing designs to reduce cost, lead time, part count, and manufacturing complexity.
Incorporate lessons from manufacturing, assembly, and test into design updates.
Support the design of test hardware, tooling, fixtures, and development rigs.
Contribute to turbomachinery design practices and standards for CAD, drawings, producibility, and reliability.
Basic Qualifications:
Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical, Aerospace, or a related engineering discipline.
5+ years of professional experience designing complex mechanical hardware and assemblies.
Strong proficiency in 3D CAD and engineering drawing creation.
Strong working knowledge of GD&T and ASME Y14.5.
Ability to perform first-principles engineering calculations to support mechanical design decisions.
Experience working directly with manufacturing engineers, machinists, suppliers, or inspectors to resolve hardware issues.
Demonstrated ability to communicate technical information clearly.
Preferred Skills & Experience:
Master’s degree in Mechanical, Aerospace, or a related engineering discipline.
Experience designing turbomachinery for gas turbines, turbochargers, rocket engine turbopumps, or similar high-performance applications.
Expert proficiency with NX for 3D CAD design and drafting.
Experience performing tolerance stack-up analysis and defining fits, clearances, and assembly interfaces for precision rotating machinery.
Proficiency with ANSYS Mechanical.
Knowledge of manufacturing processes including turning, milling, drilling, grinding, EDM, brazing, welding, casting, and additive manufacturing.
Experience supporting suppliers through manufacturing development and production.
Strong organizational and communication skills.
Additional Requirements:
Flexibility to support hardware development milestones, including occasional weekend or long-hour pushes.
Salary Range:
Senior, Turbomachinery Engineer - $140,000 - $185,000
Staff, Turbomachinery Engineer - $155,000 - $220,000
Leveling is determined during the interviews and can change over time.
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 system
Obsess over the End User - The customer and end user are often not the same. We will never build globally competitive commercial products if we lose sight of our end users and their entire interaction with the product life cycle
Be Unconstrained by Convention - Our only limits are the laws of physics. Many, even experts, will say what we are working on is impossible. They said the same about SpaceX reusing rockets. Generationally impactful companies, by definition, must accomplish the seemingly impossible. If it were easy, it would have already been done. Never shy away from a solution because it has never been tried before, and never choose to do something because that's “how it's always been done”
Go Where the Work Is - Never miss a chance to meet a customer, user, or stakeholder face to face, even if that means hopping on a plane. If you can’t make it, find a teammate who can channel your intentions and go in your place. Deep work can be done from anywhere, but we believe teams are built in person, and aim to maximize our time together
Operate in the Grey - Embrace nuance in pursuit of truth. Question every fundamental assumption
Equal Opportunity
Antares is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Employment decisions are based solely on merit, competence, and qualifications, without regard to race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability, or any other legally protected status.
To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here.