Methods Development Engineer

Role

Title:

Methods Development Engineer We are Rolls‑Royce SMR and we’re doing something that’s never been done before. We’re revolutionising an industry. That’s a once‑in‑a‑career opportunity for those excited by such a challenge. This is more than just a job; this is a legacy.

The Performance & Analysis team is the centre of excellence for the engineering analysis used to substantiate the performance and safety of the SMR power station. Within this organisation, the Reactor Plant Performance Methods team develops the tools, analysis methods and software that underpin reactor plant and containment transient and fault analysis across the programme.

About the Role:

As a Methods Development Engineer, you will support the development, verification and application of advanced fluid and thermal analysis methods used to substantiate the SMR design and safety case. You will work closely with analysts and system designers to ensure analysis tools and methodologies accurately represent plant behaviour and meet the high assurance requirements expected for nuclear safety applications.

A key aspect of the role is interpreting systems design data and faithfully implementing it within fluid‑thermal models, for example using codes such as RELAP, ensuring modelling follows established guidelines and relevant good practice. The outputs of your work will directly support safety‑case development and therefore must demonstrate high standards of quality, traceability and technical justification.

This role combines strong software‑engineering discipline with the rigour required for nuclear analysis. You will develop and maintain analysis methods and tooling using modern, object‑oriented Python, applying best practice in code structure, performance and maintainability. You will use Git‑based workflows for configuration control and collaboration and contribute to automated testing frameworks and CI/CD pipelines that support continuous integration and deployment of analysis methods.

You will work in a highly collaborative, multidisciplinary environment, engaging directly with analysts as your primary customers while also interfacing with systems designers to ensure accurate interpretation of plant data. Flexibility and proactive collaboration are essential as the design programme continues to mature.

We’ll Need You To:

Develop, verify and maintain fluid‑thermal analysis methods supporting reactor and containment analysis

Translate system design data into robust analysis models following modelling guidelines and good practice

Develop and maintain analysis tooling using modern Python and object‑oriented design approaches

Apply strong configuration control using Git‑based workflows

Develop and maintain automated testing frameworks (e.g. pytest)
Support Dev Ops pipelines enabling automated testing, integration and deployment

Work closely with analysts to gather requirements and ensure methods meet analysis needs

Interface with system designers to ensure accurate modelling of plant configurations

Produce high‑quality technical outputs suitable for nuclear safety‑case substantiation

Plan and manage your own work to meet programme milestones and quality requirements

Support knowledge‑sharing and mentoring activities within the team as experience grows

Key

Skills Required:

We know there’s no such thing as the ‘perfect’ candidate. If you meet around 75% of the criteria below, we’d love to hear from you:

Experience in fluids or thermal‑hydraulic analysis using a structured, methodical approach

Strong understanding of fluid dynamics and thermal processes

Experience writing analysis reports or contributing to safety‑case documentation

Experience using industry‑standard fluids or thermal‑analysis tools

Experience developing analysis methods, models or tools in Python Familiarity with software‑engineering best practice, testing and quality assurance

Experience verifying and validating analysis tools and models

Understanding of uncertainty quantification and benchmarking methods

Knowledge of power‑generation or other safety‑critical industries

Nuclear thermal‑hydraulics experience (RELAP, FLOMASTER, VIPRE, CTF, GOTHIC) desirable but not essential

Strong…