Turbomachinery Engineer

About the company

Antares is a nuclear power startup developing small modular reactors (SMRs) using TRISO fuel for deployment at U.S. military bases.

About this role

About Us At Antares, our long-term mission is to make clean energy abundant from Earth to the Asteroid Belt. We’re fueled by the belief that advanced nuclear energy can strengthen our military, solve the climate crisis, elevate global living standards, and expand humanity's presence in outer space. To achieve our mission, we’re building mass-producible, inherently safe, deployable microreactors that can be used terrestrially, underwater, and in space. Formed in 2023, the Antares team hails from SpaceX, The White House, MIT, Rigetti Computing, The Air Force, General Atomics, Relativity Space, Ursa Major, and National Laboratories like Los Alamos, Idaho, and Oak Ridge. Antares has raised over $600M in venture capital from top-tier investors and has over $13M in government funding. About the Role As a Turbomachinery Engineer, you will be a key member of the Reactor Hardware Team, working to design and build turbomachinery for Antares nuclear reactors. You will own turbomachinery components through their full design lifecycle as a subject matter expert, and work in close collaboration with manufacturing, test, and quality engineers. The ideal candidate will have expert level knowledge in one or more areas of turbomachinery design, such as compressor or turbine aerodynamics, rotordynamics and bearings, secondary flows, creep and fatigue analysis, or other related areas, and proven experience taking designs from clean sheet to production. Roles & Responsibilities: - Design, analyze, build, and test turbomachinery for Antares nuclear reactors. - Develop turbomachinery components from concept through manufacturing and qualification testing. - Prepare engineering documentation that supports design, manufacturing, and testing. - Work with manufacturing, test, and quality engineers to develop hardware. - Investigate turbomachinery issues during development and qualification testing, identify root causes, and implement corrective actions. - Improve turbomachinery designs to reduce cost, improve manufacturability, and reduce lead time. - Support design reviews and technical decisions throughout the product lifecycle. Basic Qualifications: - Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or Physics. - 5+ years of experience in the design of turbomachinery, with expertise in one or more key areas of turbomachinery design, such as - Turbomachinery sizing, layout, and mechanical design - Compressor or Turbine Aerodynamics - Turbomachinery structural and life analysis - Bearings and Rotordynamics - Secondary flows and axial thrust - Mechanical seals - Demonstrated ability to communicate technical information clearly. - Experience making engineering tradeoffs involving performance, manufacturability, cost, and schedule. - Strong interpersonal and collaborative skills, enthusiasm for problem solving, and desire to optimize modern nuclear design and operation. Preferred Skills & Experience: - Master’s degree in Engineering or Physics. - 7+ years of professional experience in the design of turbomachinery. - Proficiency with NX for CAD design, drafting, and GD&T. - Proficiency with ANSYS Mechanical, CFX, BladeGen, and TurboGrid. - Experience supporting hardware through development, qualification, and production. - Experience leading technical projects and coordinating work across engineering disciplines. Additional Requirements: Flexibility to support hardware development milestones—including occasional weekend or long-hour pushes. Salary Range: Senior, Turbomachinery Engineer - $140,000 - $185,000 Staff, Turbomachinery Engineer - $155,000 - $220,000 Leveling is determined during the interviews and can change over time. Culture At Antares, we like to specifically tie each role to our founding document’s set of values–here are the top five cultural values we think you should believe at your core to be successful: - Think in Systems - Energy and Defense are complex ecosystems with numerous stakeholders with competing priorities, conflicting policies, perverse incentives, and emergent and path-dependent properties. First principles thinking alone is insufficient. Think probabilistically and then take action. “If you want to be certain, then you are apt to be obsolete.” Over-optimizing the components often degrades the system - Obsess over the End User - The customer and end user are often not the same. We will never build globally competitive commercial products if we lose sight of our end users and their entire interaction with the product life cycle - Be Unconstrained by Convention - Our only limits are the laws of physics. Many, even experts, will say what we are working on is impossible. They said the same about SpaceX reusing rockets. Generationally impactful companies, by definition, must accomplish the seemingly impossible. If it were easy, it would have already been done. Never shy away from a solution because it has never been tried before, and never choose to do something because that's “how it's always been done” - Go Where the Work Is - Never miss a chance to meet a customer, user, or stakeholder face to face, even if that means hopping on a plane. If you can’t make it, find a teammate who can channel your intentions and go in your place. Deep work can be done from anywhere, but we believe teams are built in person, and aim to maximize our time together - Operate in the Grey - Embrace nuance in pursuit of truth. Question every fundamental assumption Equal Opportunity Antares is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Employment decisions are based solely on merit, competence, and qualifications, without regard to race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability, or any other legally protected status. ITAR REQUIREMENTS To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, ap