Senior Structural FEA Engineer

Overview

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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.

Kairos Power is looking for a Structural FEA Engineer or Senior Structural FEA Engineer to lead the structural analysis effort on medium to large projects for a generation IV Nuclear Power Plant, and related scaled prototype and test plants. The successful candidate will be responsible for meeting the specific project requirements and assuring the technical correctness of the analysis.

• Support both Engineering Design and Modeling/Simulation activities.
• Develop new design-by-analysis methodologies and implement existing standardized design-by-analysis tools for stress and failure analyses of metallic and graphite systems, structures, and components (SSCs).
• Develop models and perform thermal-mechanical analysis of metallic and graphite SSCs using Finite Element Methods (FEA) to support the Engineering Design, Safety Analysis, and Testing teams.
• Prepare structural calculations and design analysis reports.
• Support the company’s effort to improve the robustness, consistency, and efficacy of its design analysis workflow.
• Support uncertainty quantification (UQ) efforts for Kairos structural components and systems.
• Support management and work program leadership in meeting company’s licensing milestones and deliverables, including NQA-1 activities and V&V (Verification and Validation).
• Provide mentorship to junior engineers and analysts.
• Support Software Quality Assurance (SQA) implementation.
• Support software and hardware acquisition activities, including cloud computing resources.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

• Ph.D. or MS with equivalent PhD experience in Applied Mathematics, Materials Science, Structural/Mechanical/Nuclear Engineering, or related field, or M.S. with equivalent professional experience.
• A minimum of 5 years of relevant experience with Finite Element Methods applied to graphite and/or metallic SSCs.
• Strong experience in the development of scientific code and software using Python, C++, Fortran, or similar programming languages.
• ANSYS or Abaqus experience is required.
• Computer-aided design (CAD) experience is required.
• Experience with preparing high-quality engineering calculation packages and technical reports is required.
• Experience with industrial Codes and Standards, particularly ASME BPVC Section III/VIII, is required.
• Experience with high-performance computing and managing software.

• Excellent knowledge of FEA and other spatial/time discretization techniques for PDE systems.
• Knowledge of uncertainty quantification (UQ), verification and validation (V&V), and model calibration.
• Collaborative mindset and alignment with Kairos Power’s mission.
• Strong verbal, written communication/presentation, and interpersonal skills; able to interact effectively at all levels of the organization.
• Team oriented and able to work with highly collaborative teams.
• Problem-solving ability and safety-conscious mindset.
• Ability to proactively collect, manage and transfer knowledge.
• Ability to seek novel ways to create efficiencies when working on problems.

• Ascending or descending ladders, stairs, scaffolding, ramps, scissor lifts, articulated boom lifts and the like.
• Remaining in a stationary position for prolonged periods.
• Moving about to accomplish tasks or moving from one worksite to another.
• Communicating with others to exchange information.

• General office environment
• High-concentration, demanding and fast-paced work.

The salary range for this position is $140,600 to $165,400 for employees working onsite at our Alameda, CA headquarters. The…