Senior Electrical R&D Specialist

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, 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

The Electrical Engineering team at Antares is responsible for the design, build, test, installation, and operation of the hardware that monitors and controls the reactor, maintaining safe operating conditions, and shutting down the reactor in the (unlikely) event of a failure. The team is also responsible for turning the heat generated by the core into usable electricity for our customers. The electrical engineering team collaborates with other teams at Antares to ensure monitoring of critical parameters for each team.

With our First-of-a-Kind (FOAK) reactor design underway, you will help establish our testing capabilities for our custom electronics.

Roles and Responsibilities:

Antares is seeking a Senior Electrical R&D Specialist to establish and lead a multidisciplinary electrical lab supporting Engineering Development Units (EDUs), demo rigs, prototypes, and integrated test articles. In this role, you will design and build panels and racks, fabricate harnesses and cable assemblies, and develop safe AC, DC, and high-voltage test benches. You will also integrate sensors and DAQ systems, perform hands-on soldering and harnessing, standardize panel and rack designs, implement interlocks and lockout/tagout procedures, and ensure professional lab operations through calibration, ESD control, inventory management, documentation, and clear work instructions.

• Install industrial controls hardware in compliance with NFPA 70 (NEC) and NFPA 79 standards.

• Wire and modify electrical control panels in accordance with UL 508A standards, ensuring layouts meet safety and serviceability requirements.

• Author LOTO procedures, arc‑flash labels, and PPE selection for energized work, aligned with NFPA 70E.

• Troubleshoot faulty instrumentation, harnesses, and general electrical systems to restore safe and reliable operation.

• Maintain the electrical shop, including tools, consumables, calibration of equipment, and the controls hardware inventory.

• Build, solder, crimp, and verify harnesses and cable assemblies to IPC/WHMA‑A‑620 and IPC‑A‑610 workmanship standards; oversee box builds and PCB integration.

• Design and operate modular AC/DC benches with protection, interlocks, and measurement capability; safely support high‑voltage bring‑up per NFPA 70E practices.

• Plan, construct, and operate EDUs, demonstration rigs, and prototype test articles, including bring‑up procedures and integrated instrumentation for data capture.

• Program and configure industrial controls hardware such as VFDs, motor starters, PLCs, and electronic circuit breakers.

• Review and redline drawings and technical documentation, and provide design feedback to the engineering team.

• Use EPLAN to generate reports, bills of material, wire lists, and manufacturing data; manage schematic documentation.

• Define and enforce panel/rack and harnessing standards (wire color codes, labeling, test points) to drive repeatability and serviceability.

• Create, maintain, and update assigned tasks for documenting and reporting work in progress and completed activities.

• Collaborate with mechanical, firmware, and systems engineers to define interfaces, requirements, and integration plans for multidisciplinary test articles.

• Ensure compliance with EMI/EMC, safety, environmental, and industry‑specific requirements in all test infrastructure and operations.

• Mentor junior engineers and technicians, and lead small build/test teams to deliver milestones.

• Prepare compliance doc sets for UL 508A panels and NEC wiring (schematics, BoMs, wire lists, torque/spec sheets).

Basic Qualifications:

• High school diploma or GED

• 5+ years of work in a relevant field (manufacturing/test/R&D).

• 4+ years working on electrical control systems.

• Hands‑on panel/rack wiring and harness fabrication (crimping/soldering, continuity/hipot testing).

• Experience with AC (single/three‑phase), DC, and safe HV bring‑up in a lab/test environment.

Preferred Skills & Experience:

• Experience with electrical troubleshooting.

• Experience with schematic comprehension.

• Demonstrated prior experience working with complex systems including cryogenic propellants, high pressure gas systems, hydraulics and/or combustion devices.

• Demonstrated working knowledge of components (valves, regulators, sensors, power supplies) and hands‑on skills (tube fabrication, metalworking, wiring).

• Demonstrated hardware testing experience with rocket engines, or spacecraft.

• Experience in a startup or agile development environment.

• UL 508A industrial control panel design/build; NEC/NFPA 79 familiarity.

• EPLAN or similar ECAD (e.g., AutoCAD Electrical); ability to generate BoMs/wire lists.

• PLC/VFD (Allen‑Bradley/Siemens), DAQ (NI cDAQ/cRIO or similar), instrumentation & signal conditioning.

• EMI/EMC test awareness and grounding/shielding best practices.

• Ability to create work instructions, calibration plans, and lab safety SOPs (LOTO/ESD).

Additional Requirements:

• Ability to work long hours and weekends as necessary to support critical milestones

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

• Loyally Collaborative - Team > Self. We win together. There is nothing more precious than a high-performing team

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.