Senior Salt Pump Assembly & Tooling Engineer

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.

Job Summary

Kairos Power is seeking a motivated and detail-oriented Salt Pump Assembly and Tooling Engineer to support the design, development, and assembly of KP-FHR (Fluoride Salt-Cooled High-Temperature Reactor) salt pumps. This role focuses on tooling development, component testing, and pump assembly. The ideal candidate will contribute to cross-functional projects and collaborate with internal teams and external vendors to support efficient and precise pump assembly processes.

Responsibilities 

• Support the design and prototyping of KP-FHR salt pumps and associated subcomponents.
• Develop 3D CAD layouts of electromechanical systems, ensuring integration with adjacent subsystems.
• Optimize mechanical packaging across system interfaces to support functional and spatial efficiency.
• Rapidly design, prototype, and iterate on tooling for salt pump assembly, with a focus on precision and operational efficiency.
• Generate manufacturing drawings for tooling and coordinate fabrication with internal and external suppliers.
• Assist in the hands-on assembly, startup, and commissioning of salt pumps, supporting troubleshooting of custom components.
• Perform small-scale testing of individual pump components, such as springs, seals, and cooling strategies.
• Execute work within defined cost and schedule constraints.
• Support documentation of assembly processes, tooling specifications, and testing protocols to ensure traceability and repeatability. 
• Other duties as assigned

Qualifications 

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or a related field
• Hands-on experience with SolidWorks; experience with other CAD/CAE tools is a plus
• Demonstrated proficiency in mechanical design, with exposure to rotating equipment or turbomachinery preferred
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with a keen attention to detail
• Proficiency in data acquisition, instrumentation, and system-level analysis
• Ability to work effectively in a multi-disciplinary team environment, including collaboration with engineers, technicians, and fabricators
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to document work clearly
• Proactive and organized approach to handling multiple design and assembly tasks
• Internship or 1–3 years of professional experience in a mechanical design, testing, or manufacturing environment is desirable
• Familiarity with Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T) and basic stack-up analysis is desirable
• Experience in highly regulated industries such as nuclear, energy, chemical, petrochemical, defense, or aerospace is desirable
• Exposure to component or system-level assembly procedures and tooling development is desirable
• Experience with prototype development and iterative design methods is desirable
• Familiarity with safety standards and quality assurance practices in technical engineering environments is desirable
• Ability to work with highly collaborative team
• Ability to solve problems quickly and efficiently
• Prioritizes and ensures safety of one self and others
• Ability to proactively collect, manage and transfer knowledge
• Ability to seek different and novel ways to create efficiencies when working on problems, challenges and issues

Physical Conditions

• Ascending or descending ladders, stairs, scaffolding, ramps, scissor lifts, articulated boom lifts and the like
• Setting up and transferring temporary structures (e.g. scaffolding, ladders)
• Moving self in different positions to accomplish tasks in various environments including tight and confined spaces
• Remaining in a stationary position, often standing, or sitting for prolonged periods
• Moving about to accomplish tasks or moving from one worksite to another
• Adjusting, moving, transporting, installing, positioning, or removing objects up to (50) pounds in all directions
• Communicating with others to exchange information
• Operating motor vehicles, heavy equipment or machinery
• Use hand tools
• Repetitive assembly operations of manufacturing test fixtures