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Systems Engineer

Alameda, CA, Albuquerque, NM or Remote

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

Kairos Power is seeking a highly motivated Systems Engineer to support the development and integration of advanced nuclear energy systems. In this role, you will apply disciplined systems engineering methods to translate program objectives, stakeholder needs, and design inputs into clear, verifiable technical requirements and integrated system solutions.

You will develop and maintain requirements, functional architectures, system architectures, interfaces, and verification strategies across multiple levels of the product and plant architecture. You will work closely with engineering disciplines, project management, licensing, quality, operations, suppliers, and external partners to identify integration concerns and resolve cross-functional technical issues.

The role will lead focused systems engineering activities, coordinate multidisciplinary technical reviews, evaluate the system-level impacts of proposed changes, and support the management of technical risks, assumptions, issues, and dependencies throughout the engineering lifecycle. You will also mentor less-experienced engineers and contribute to the continuous improvement of Kairos Power systems engineering processes, tools, templates, training, and command media.

Responsibilities

  • Develop, allocate, maintain, and trace technical requirements across multiple levels of product and plant architecture.
  • Translate program objectives, stakeholder needs, design inputs, and regulatory considerations into clear, complete, consistent, and verifiable requirements.
  • Perform and support functional analysis and decomposition to define required system behavior and establish traceability between functions, requirements, architecture, and verification activities.
  • Develop and maintain functional, logical, and physical system architectures.
  • Define, document, coordinate, and manage internal and external interfaces between systems, organizations, suppliers, facilities, and external partners.
  • Develop verification strategies, methods, plans, acceptance criteria, and evidence needed to demonstrate that requirements have been satisfied.
  • Coordinate and facilitate multidisciplinary requirements, architecture, interface, integration, and verification reviews.
  • Maintain knowledge of and support compliance with applicable company procedures, codes, standards, and regulatory requirements.
  • Other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

  • Bachelor’s degree in Systems Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Nuclear Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related technical field.
  • Relevant professional experience applying systems engineering methods to complex engineering programs or products.
  • Experience developing, allocating, maintaining, and tracing technical requirements.
  • Experience with one or more of the following: functional analysis and decomposition, system architecture development, interface definition and management, system integration, requirements verification and validation, technical change-impact assessment.
  • Experience coordinating technical reviews or leading focused cross-functional engineering activities.
  • Strong technical writing, communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills.
  • Experience in the nuclear industry, power generation, aerospace, defense, energy, or another highly regulated industry is preferred.
  • Experience using requirements management tools such as Jama Connect is preferred.
  • Experience with model-based systems engineering methods and tools is preferred.
  • Familiarity with applicable nuclear quality, licensing, safety, or regulatory practices is preferred.
  • Experience supporting design reviews, trade studies, configuration management, or technical baseline management is preferred.
  • Familiarity with relevant systems engineering standards and guidance, such as ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288 or the INCOSE Systems Engineering Handbook is preferred.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

  • Knowledge of systems engineering lifecycle processes and technical management practices.
  • Knowledge of requirements development, decomposition, allocation, traceability, verification, and validation.
  • Knowledge of functional, logical, and physical architecture development.
  • Knowledge of interface identification, definition, documentation, and control.
  • Knowledge of system integration, configuration management, and engineering change-control principles.
  • Knowledge of technical risk, assumption, issue, opportunity, and dependency management.
  • General knowledge of engineering design, licensing, quality, operations, and project execution within complex technical programs.
  • Skill in writing clear, concise, implementation-independent, and verifiable technical requirements.
  • Skill in performing functional analysis, architecture development, interface analysis, and change-impact assessment.
  • Skill in using requirements management, modeling, analysis, and documentation tools.
  • Strong analytical, problem-solving, technical writing, presentation, and interpersonal skills.
  • Ability to evaluate complex systems holistically and recognize interactions, dependencies, and unintended consequences.
  • Ability to work collaboratively across engineering disciplines, organizations, and levels of technical authority.
  • Ability to balance technical rigor with program cost, schedule, risk, and execution needs.
  • Ability to manage multiple priorities and maintain attention to detail in a fast-paced engineering environment.
  • Ability to proactively collect, organize, manage, and transfer technical knowledge.

Physical Demands

  • Remaining in a stationary position, including sitting or standing, for prolonged periods.
  • Moving about office, laboratory, manufacturing, or test-facility environments.
  • Communicating with others to exchange technical information.
  • Operating computers and other standard office equipment.

Environmental Conditions

  • General office environment.
  • High-concentration, demanding, and fast-paced work environment.
  • Periodic work in prototyping, laboratory, test-facility, manufacturing, or industrial environments. 

Safety and Personal Protective Equipment

  • Reporting equipment issues, hazards, and unsafe conditions.
  • Following applicable safety procedures and posted warning requirements.
  • Wearing required personal protective equipment when entering laboratory, test, manufacturing, industrial, or controlled areas.
  • Prioritizing the safety of oneself and others.

Travel

  • Some travel may be required.

Additional Requirements

  • Occasional schedule flexibility or extended hours may be required to support critical project milestones, technical reviews, testing, or integration activities.

The salary range for this position is $122,270 to $143,847 for employees working onsite at our Alameda, CA headquarters. The range provided in this job posting represents the typical range or starting rate of candidates hired in California. Factors that maybe used to determine your actual salary may include your education, experience, knowledge, skills, ability and the market data for your work location, and a comparison to other employees already in the role. 

About our Benefits

We know that we have some of the most talented and dedicated employees, and we believe in rewarding them accordingly. If you work here, full-time employees (excludes interns) expect to have access to the benefits below:

  • Competitive compensation packages
  • Medical, dental and vision benefits for employees and their dependents
  • Paid Vacation
  • 401(k) and pre-tax health insurance, dependent care, and commuter benefits (FSA)

Kairos Power is committed to building a diverse workforce that reflects the communities where we do business. Kairos Power is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status. We actively welcome people of different experiences, abilities, and perspectives.

Kairos Power participates in E-Verify.

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Note: You are applying for a position that is located in a facility that handles information that is subject to export control restrictions by the Department of Energy under 10 CFR Part 810. To work in this facility, you need to be authorized by the Department of Energy to access Part 810-controlled information. Foreign nationals who are citizens of countries that are not on the Department of Energy’s general authorization list (link below) are not permitted to work in our facility unless the Department of Energy issues an export control license to the company to permit that individual to have access to Part 810-controlled information. The following questions are intended to determine the licensing requirements that may apply. https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/10/appendix-A_to_part_810

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