Senior Materials Engineer – Tribology

Location: Everett, WA and Bellevue, WA,None,None

TITLE:          Senior Materials Engineer – Tribology         

LOCATION:         Everett, WA and  Bellevue, WA 

TerraPower is a nuclear technology company based in Bellevue, Washington. At its core, the company is working to raise living standards globally through a more affordable, secure and environmentally friendly form of nuclear energy along with innovations in medical isotopes to improve human health. In 2006, TerraPower originated with Bill Gates and a group of like-minded visionaries who evaluated the fundamental challenges to raising living standards around the world. They recognized energy access was crucial to the health and economic well-being of communities and decided that the private sector needed to take action and create energy sources that would advance global energy deployment. TerraPower’s mission is to be a world leader in new nuclear technologies, while developing innovators and future leaders in the nuclear field. As a result, the company’s activities in the fields of nuclear energy and related sciences are yielding significant innovations in the safety and economics of nuclear power, hybrid energy and medical applications – all for significant human health benefits.

TerraPower is seeking to hire highly motivated and forward-thinking professionals who are interested in focusing on advanced nuclear reactor research and development and influencing change within the nuclear power landscape and bringing forward the critical production of medical isotopes.  TerraPower is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We do not discriminate in hiring on the basis of sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religious creed, national origin, physical or mental disability, protected Veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law. In addition, as a federal contractor, TerraPower has instituted an Affirmative Action Plan (AAP) in an effort to proactively recruit, hire, and promote women, minorities, disabled persons and veterans.

Senior Materials Engineer – Tribology

TerraPower, LLC is seeking a highly motivated Senior Materials Engineer to support the engineering efforts of the Materials Development & Qualification team. This role will work as part of a high functioning team of engineers focused on development and qualification for next generation material and components for sodium cooled fast reactors. You will be responsible for leading tribological testing in a liquid sodium environment to support the performance requirements of the Natrium Reactor. Your role will include testing the friction and wear performance of structural materials and coatings to provide key design data inputs for sodium fast reactor design.

Responsibilities: 

• Interface with Plant Design engineers to ensure tribological testing efforts to establish friction coefficients and wear rates meet programmatic objectives
• Develop test requirements, plans, specifications, and procedures for testing tribological phenomena in a high temperature liquid sodium metal environment 
• Provide material selection guidance for TerraPower’s Natrium Reactor program
• Oversee tribological test programs including large-scale external contracts to fabricate test equipment, test samples, and/or perform tribology testing
• Conduct hands-on tribology testing and material characterization in a laboratory environment
• Provide materials engineering support for the procurement of engineered components and systems
• External procurements of materials, equipment, and testing services, including authoring procurement requisitions and managing supplier performance to plan
• Perform scientific analysis on test data and generate technical reports to document new knowledge related to materials performance and behavior, reactor design, and materials qualification 
• Assist with technical development of suppliers to increase technology readiness level of coating processes for key components 
• Provide materials engineering support for the procurement of engineered components and systems.

Key Qualifications and Skills 

• Bachelor’s degree with minimum 5 years of related experience; or a Master’s degree and 3 years of related experience; or a PhD and 1 year of related experience. A degree in Materials Science/Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related technical discipline is required
• A thorough understanding of tribology and surface engineering in non-lubricated environments, including development of coating materials based on design requirements
• Proficiency in experimental techniques for materials analysis such as optical microscopy, microhardness, profilometry, and SEM
• Experience writing spec