Manufacturing Engineer

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, the Navy, General Atomics, Relativity Space, Ursa Major, Ultra Safe Nuclear, and Los Alamos National Laboratory. Antares has raised over $39M in venture capital from top-tier investors and has over $4M in government funding.

About the Team

As a member of the Antares R&D team, you will be an expert on manufacturing and assembly of cutting edge nuclear reactors. You will be an instrumental member developing Antares’ first R&D facility, inclusive of layout, special processes, hazardous material handling, and machine procurement and commissioning. You will help develop and document key special processes, requirements, and workflow that enable rapid product iteration.

On the design side, you will be responsible for working with all teams regularly to ensure parts and assemblies are manufacturable and integrable, focusing on the system architecture level. As the product matures from concept to prototype and beyond, you will be responsible for leading the manufacturing planning process and will assist with in-house manufacturing vs. outsourcing trades and vendor selection.

The ideal candidate will have experience with special processes such as welding, brazing, heat treatment, hazardous materials, non-destructive inspections, coatings, or other typical processes used with super-alloys. They should be able to confidently identify (or know how to research) appropriate manufacturing methods and establish a process control plan to monitor process health. Additionally, they will have design for manufacturing experience, with a proven track record of improving both design and processes. You will ultimately be responsible for growing our production capabilities from the prototype phase through serialized production of multiple nuclear reactor sub-systems.

Roles and Responsibilities:

• Own and develop manufacturing processes for critical sub-systems with the Antares reactor that require both conventional manufacturing and special processes

• Mature processes from prototype to production by establishing standard processes, workflows, and qualification plans

• Participate in design reviews and analyze parts/assemblies to assess and influence their form/fit to make them more manufacturable, based on achievable process tolerances and inspection capabilities

• Collaborate with design, materials, and manufacturing team members to ensure designs are compatible with process capabilities and to drive DFM improvements

• Analyze and disposition manufacturing discrepancies and lead multi-disciplinary teams on root cause analysis and corrective actions

• Develop new and evaluate existing manufacturing processes and equipment to reduce non-conformance frequency/severity and reduce operating costs

• Identify and execute design-for-manufacturability improvements which have system-wide improvements to the department

• Communicate daily with supporting departments such as production, machining, maintenance, quality, and design engineering to ensure that product is delivered on time and to specifications

• Train technicians, engineers, and leaders on best-in-class operations practices by driving process improvement workshops; providing training and information briefs on key topics; and demonstrating solutions in the area

• Participate in root cause investigations that arise in development, production, test, integration, and field operation to implement corrective actions to prevent repeat failures.

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in an engineering discipline or physics

• 3+ years of experience in one or more of the following areas: special process manufacturing, process qualification, aerospace/nuclear super alloys, handling hazardous materials (i.e. acids, alkali metals), manufacturing/production engineering, reliability engineering, work instruction creation, project/research-based student experience

• Demonstrated ability to troubleshoot and find solutions to challenges faced during a hardware manufacturing based project

• Experience creating work instructions and tracking BOM components from suppliers

• Experience defining requirements for or designing tools and assembly fixtures using CAD systems. Experience implementing this tooling using internal and external tooling suppliers.

• Knowledge of PLM, ERP, MES, and other related manufacturing planning and management systems.

Preferred Skills & Experience:

• Strong interpersonal and collaborative skills, enthusiasm for problem solving, and desire to optimize modern nuclear design and operation

• Master's degree or 5+ years of professional experience in mechanical or aerospace engineering

• Demonstrable experience developing, testing, qualifying, and maintaining manufacturing processes; especially systems containing complex special processes (i.e. welding, brazing, heat treatments, additive manufacturing, coatings, hydroforming, NDT)

• Experience creating factory layouts based on production demand and process requirements

• General knowledge of GD&T as it relates to assembly and fabrication processes

• Experience using CAD software (NX) as it relates to creating work instructions

• Demonstrated track record of high impact / ROI contributions

• Strong project management skills and effective communication of technical concepts across multi-disciplinary teams

• Hands-on experience with fluid, gas, or high voltage systems

• Leadership experience on a project or research team

• Experience using test instrumentation and control components (e.g. pressure transducers, thermocouples, strain gages, relays, solenoid valves, etc.)

• Experience with various part inspection methods and technologies (micrometers, CMM, white light, etc.)

Location

• We are located in Torrance, CA in a 145,000 square foot, brand new facility featuring large open spaces for team collaboration, R&D, and production, as well as easy access to the 405, 105, and 110 freeways. Our facility is in the heart of Los Angeles' vibrant emerging tech ecosystem alongside many other high growth startups and enterprises.

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”

• Craftsmen - We also focus on the inputs. We aspire to high-quality engineering for its own sake. As such, we invest in personal growth, learning, and developing a long-term career path for exceptional individual contributors. We embrace a beginner’s mindset, share knowledge, and never condescend the curious

• Seriously Optimistic - We’re ambitious and we believe we’re capable of achieving things others believe are impossible. We reward audacity and don’t let cynicism, sarcasm, snark, or belittlement influence us to lower the bar

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, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here.