Senior Engineer, Chemistry Control System

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 

The Chemistry Control Team is seeking an exceptionally talented, and passionate Senior Mechanical and Process Design Engineer to join the growing Reactor Coolant Auxiliary Systems Department where you will have the opportunity and work directly on the design, testing, and deployment of a first-of-a-kind FHR Chemistry Control System. The maintenance of coolant chemistry is essential for mitigating corrosion and ensuring nuclear safety of the KP-FHR technology.

In this role, you will manage and coordinate the detailed system design including, high-temperature molten salt chemical processing components, vessels and piping, instrumentation/sensor interfaces, and system structures. The position requires a strong aptitude for mechanical design, engineering analysis, systems integration, high-temperature components development, and industrial or pilot scale system deployment. You will be expected to regularly interface with multi-disciplinary teams including pipe stress analysis, ASME pressure vessel design, process design, I&CE engineering, and manufacturing. You will work closely with the Lead Engineer and Molten Salt Chemistry Team iterating on the design, conducting trade studies, and responding to the latest R&D and testing data.

Responsibilities

• Manage the mechanical and system design of molten salt chemistry monitoring and processing systems and components.
• Design custom 3D models of components and equipment to support thermal/stress analyses, system assembly and fit up analyses, failure analyses, and design for manufacturing reviews.
• Create and review engineering documentation such as mechanical drawings, P&IDs, PFDs, operation and I&C plans, memos, and design reports.
• Independently perform engineering analyses such as thermal analyses, fluid analyses, structural analyses, and FMEA or guide these analyses when performed by Kairos Power teams.
• Design or guide the design for molten salt system components like pumps, valves, instruments, piping, tanks, and heaters with Kairos teams and occasionally outside vendors.
• Plan and work with testing and R&D teams on technology development campaigns to improve and optimize molten salt system components by supporting the design of test platforms and by defining the key data needs, areas for component reliability improvement, and test metrics.
• Develop system control narratives, operating procedures, and acceptance plans for plant level systems and components.
• Regularly interface and communicate system requirements with other disciplinary teams with manufacturing, plant integration, process design, IC&E, safety analysis, and modeling and simulation.
• Lead and consolidate engineering studies; prepare technical presentations and briefings for interfacing teams and stakeholders, leadership teams, vendors, and independent reviewers.
• Support and coordinate system and component fabrication, commissioning, operation, and troubleshooting across multiple Kairos sites.     

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or advanced degree in mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, nuclear engineering or a related field.
• 10+ years of relevant industry or R&D experience in hands-on engineering design and deployment within the chemical, oil and gas, power, aerospace, or nuclear industries.
• Experience with high-temperature processes, molten salt systems, or similar high-temperature fluid systems.
• Hands-on experience designing and deploying pilot or industrial-scale fluid systems or machinery.
• Proven track record of driving projects from concept to successful deployment.
• Demonstrated ability to develop novel solutions or designs to solve complex engineering problems and satisfy product requirements.
• Experience in 3D CAD modeling, Solidworks, PTC Creo, Autodesk or equivalent.
• Experience in CAE/FEA and for engineering analysis for thermal and structural analysis (ANSYS Mechanical, Abaqus, Comsol Multiphysics or similar).
• Experience in drafting fabrication and assembly drawings, design for manufacturing (DFM), and GD&T/ASME Y14.5
• Experience with design, development, and manufacturing of high-temperature fluid processing apparatuses, process monitoring