Mechanical Engineer Level 3

Idaho National Laboratory seeks Mechanical Engineer to shape the future of energy and national innovation by designing and testing cutting-edge systems that push the boundaries of possibility through integration of transformative technologies. You will participate in the design, development, testing, and verification of complex electrical, mechanical and/or software systems and components by providing a rigorous systems engineering approach. You will analyze engineering plans and projects to establish operational objectives, high level functions and detailed requirement decomposition.

Assist in the analysis of proposals and related technical data to evaluate design alternatives using a systems engineering approach. Utilize digital engineering tools — including requirements management, model-based systems engineering (MBSE), and AI-assisted design review platforms, to carry out the role of systems engineer. Identify opportunities for integration of technologies and techniques to advance technical capabilities and develop new, unique cutting-edge solutions.

Work may encompass a wide range of sophisticated (cross-discipline) engineering problem resolutions, including support across multiple concurrent reactor/facility projects.

This position is located at our Materials and Fuels Complex, which hosts the core of the U.S. nuclear research and development capabilities with a diverse array of facilities designed for remote work on highly irradiated fuels and materials. A new fuel idea can be designed, fabricated, tested, and analyzed at MFC to better understand the effects of irradiation. Many groups, such as universities, industry partners, other national laboratories, international research organizations, and other federal agencies are working  team works a 4x10 schedule every Friday off.

• Apply Systems Engineering principles and techniques to support and carry out the engineering design process, including requirements development, decomposition, verification, and traceability across the full project/system lifecycle.
• Develop, implement, and integrate systems engineering principles throughout the project/system lifecycle. This includes systems and organizational integration, road mapping, and testing.
• Use digital engineering tools —such as Asset Suites to implement systems engineering on all assigned projects.
• Create, revise, and manage configuration baselines for System Design Descriptions (SDDs), Functional and Operational Requirements (F&OR), Concepts of Operations (Con Ops), and Code of Record (COR) documents, ensuring numbering, callouts, figures, tables, cross-references are correct and complete.
• Reconcile discrepancies between requirements management databases, document control systems (e.g., EDMS), and source documents; maintain synchronization and traceability across artifacts.
• Develop and apply custom macros, scripts, and database tools (e.g., Access-based requirements databases) to automate document generation, formatting, difference reporting, and requirements management tasks.
• Develop and apply AI-assisted digital engineering workflows (e.g., using Microsoft 365 Copilot, Claude, and ChatGPT) to perform completeness checks, automated design reviews, and comparison of requirements against design output binders; evaluate and recommend AI tools for design review processes.
• Support the development of concepts of operations to identify high-level functions and detailed requirements for a wide range of projects.
• Develop and implement appropriate graded systems engineering approaches and processes to meet program and customer needs.
• Draft, edit, and maintain technical specifications, requirements documents, and safety-basis documentation (e.g.,…