Lead Metallurgical Process Engineer — Metallurgy and Heavy Forging

The Nuclear Company is the fastest growing AI tech-enabled startup in the nuclear and energy space, pioneering a fleet-scale approach to building the next generation of nuclear reactors. Through our design-once, build-many model, we're accelerating the deployment of safe, reliable, and affordable nuclear energy.

We operate with an AI-first mindset. Every employee is expected to leverage AI, technology, and the Nuclear Operating System (NOS) as integral components of their role to improve the quality, speed, and impact of their work. We expect every team member to continuously identify opportunities to automate workflows, enhance decision-making, improve processes, and contribute to the ongoing evolution of NOS as a strategic operating capability that enables The Nuclear Company to scale with excellence.

We hire people who are driven by purpose, thrive in ambiguity, and are energized by building what has never been built before. Our team combines intellectual curiosity with high agency, embraces candid feedback and continuous learning, and holds themselves and others to exceptional standards. Our values—Transparency, Responsibility, Unity, Scrappiness, and Tenacity—guide how we hire, collaborate, and make decisions every day. They are not words on a wall; they are the standard by which we operate. TRUST is the foundation of our safety culture, fostering intellectual honesty, accountability, and open communication, while our values challenge every team member to execute with urgency, humility, resilience, and an unwavering commitment to our mission.

About the role

The Nuclear Company is hiring a Lead Metallurgical Process Engineer to define how Project FORGE manufactures ultra-large, safety-critical metal components. This is the foundational technical role on the FORGE Engineering Cell—the person who owns process design from feedstock materials to ultra-large raw-forged components. 

This is a role for someone who wants to study the best forging operations in the world, understands the physics that make them work, and then design something fundamentally better. The goal is a step capital efficiency, and quality

The role will be remote to start with an expected relocation to Washington, DC in 2027.

Responsibilities

• Define the process flow for ultra-large forging operations: melting, casting, ingot conditioning, forging sequences, and heat treatment. 
• Study existing world-class facilities (JSW Muroran, Doosan Changwon, Sheffield Forgemasters, CFHI, North American Forgemasters) to understand current best practice, and then systematically challenge assumptions about why each process step exists and how it should be executed. 
• Understand the process steps, parameters, and physical/chemical phenomena that drive homogenization and impurity removal during large ingot casting 
• Develop forging process models from first principles: deformation mechanics, thermal profiles, microstructural evolution, and die design for components including reactor pressure vessel shells, steam generator forgings, turbine rotor shafts, and defense applications. 
• Identify opportunities to fundamentally improve quality, energy consumption, and capital equipment requirements relative to existing global benchmarks. 
• Collaborate with the project team to produce equipment cost and construction schedule estimates to drive project stage gate deliverables. 
• Develop the preliminary process design basis document that will feed into detailed engineering for the melting, forging, and heat treatment shops. 
• Interface with Japanese and allied technical partners to absorb operational knowledge while maintaining an independent, critical perspective on process design. 

Experience

This role requires genuine metallurgical and metal-forming expertise. But we want someone who holds that expertise as a foundation for rethinking, not as a fixed playbook. 

• Deep understanding of the process steps, parameters, and physical/chemical phenomena that drive homogenization and purity during from stock materials through large ingot casting. 
• Deep understanding of grain structure formation as a function of heat treatment parameters 
• Deep understanding of the thermomechanics of open-die forging, including deformation behavior of low-alloy and stainless steels at forging temperatures, grain refinement mechanisms, and the relationship between forging parameters and final mechanical properties. 
• Experience with large-scale metal forming, heat treatment, or steelmaking processes—ideally in an environment that valued process optimization and cost discipline, not just process execution. 
• A demonstrated track record of challenging conventional approaches and developing novel process solutions based on fundamental understanding rather than precedent. 
• Comfort operating as the domain expert on a team of sharp generalists who will constantly ask “why?”—and the intellectual humility to say “I don’t know yet, let’s figure it out.” 
• 7–15 years of experience. We are specifically looking for someone who has enough depth to be authoritative but has not spent so long in a single paradigm that they cannot see outside it. 
• Experience in downstream precision machining is a bonus. 

Relevant Backgrounds (Not Exhaustive) 

Process engineering at a heavy forging, specialty steel, or large casting operation; R&D roles focused on forging process development or advanced metal forming; aerospace forging operations (titanium, nickel superalloy, or steel); national laboratory research in manufacturing science or nuclear materials processing; advanced degree in metallurgical engineering, materials science, or mechanical engineering with a focus on metal casting and forming. 

Personal Attributes 

• Thinks from the physics up, not from the procedure down. 
• Intellectually restless—always asking whether a better approach exists. 
• Can translate deep technical knowledge into clear explanations for non-specialists. 
• Motivated by building something new rather than maintaining something existing. 
• Comfortable with the ambiguity of early-stage design work. 

Benefits

• Competitive compensation packages
• 401k with company match
• Medical, dental, vision plans
• Generous vacation policy, plus holidays

Estimated Starting Salary Range
The estimated starting salary range for this role is $179,000 - $203,000 annually less applicable withholdings and deductions, paid on a bi-weekly basis. The actual salary offered may vary based on relevant factors as determined in the Company’s discretion, which may include experience, qualifications, tenure, skill set, availability of qualified candidates, geographic location, certifications held, and other criteria deemed pertinent to the particular role. 

EEO Statement
The Nuclear Company is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering an environment of inclusion in the workplace. We provide equal employment opportunities to all qualified applicants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic. We prohibit discrimination in all aspects of employment, including hiring, promotion, demotion, transfer, compensation, and termination.