ZETTAJOULE, INC. Licensing Engineer Remote · Full time Company website

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We are a next-generation nuclear technology startup pioneering the commercialization of High-Temperature Gas-cooled Reactors (HTGRs) — a proven, safe, and transformative technology for delivering ultra-high-temperature heat and enabling a carbon-neutral future.

Our mission is to deploy the world’s first global fleet of Advanced Modular Reactors, redefining how clean energy powers industries, communities, and economies.

As a fast-growing company in its early stage, every team member — whether in engineering, program management, partnerships, operations, or business development — plays a direct role in shaping our technology, culture, and impact. You’ll join a collaborative, mission-driven team of internationally recognized experts and innovators working together to bring advanced nuclear energy to the world.

Position: Licensing Engineer

Location: Houston, TX; Rockville, MD; Bellevue, WA; Remote (US)

Employment Type: Full-Time

Reports To: Vice President, Licensing

About Us

We are a next-generation nuclear technology startup pioneering the commercialization of High-Temperature Gas-cooled Reactors (HTGRs) — a proven, safe, and transformative technology for delivering ultra-high-temperature heat and clean power. Our mission is to deploy a global fleet of Advanced Modular Reactors, redefining how clean energy powers energy-intensive industries and communities.

As an early-stage company scaling rapidly, every team member plays a direct role in shaping our technology, foundational systems, and culture. You will join a collaborative, mission-driven team of internationally recognized experts and innovators working together to bring advanced nuclear energy to the world.

The Role

As a Licensing Engineer at ZettaJoule, you will report directly to the Vice President, Licensing, playing a foundational role in authoring, managing, and defending regulatory submittals across the full licensing lifecycle of our advanced High-Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor. The final job title and level will be commensurate with the successful candidate’s experience and qualifications.

Because our licensing program requires deep domain mastery across multiple technical disciplines, this position seeks engineering candidates with specialized strength in one or more core technical focus areas:

• Safety Analysis and Reactor Systems
• Siting, Environmental Impact, and Permitting
• Structures and Mechanical Systems
• Fuel and Material Qualification
• Instrumentation, Control, and Electrical Systems

In this role, you will integrate closely with Systems Engineering, Design, and Quality teams to translate cutting-edge reactor engineering into highly defensible regulatory documents. You will engage with regulatory authorities, draft submittals, support Preliminary/Final Safety Analysis Reports, and resolve complex technical inquiries.

Key Responsibilities

General Licensing & Regulatory Engineering

• Manage regulatory submittal schedules, tracking mechanisms, formal correspondence, and pre-application engagement plans.
• Serve as a direct interface with NRC project managers, technical review branches, and industry working groups (e.g., NEI, ASME, ANS).
• Partner with engineering disciplines to identify regulatory gaps, interpret NRC requirements and guidance, and establish licensing positions.
• Plan, develop, and lead meetings with the NRC covering aspects of the reactor design.
• Lead the drafting, review, and compilation of licensing documentation for submittal to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) under 10 CFR Part 50, as well as evolving advanced reactor frameworks.
• Coordinate the formal response process for NRC audits, requests, and engagements.
• Support or lead development of operational, administrative, and compliance programs (e.g., Technical Specifications, Emergency Preparedness, Physical Security, and Radiation Protection).

Technical Focus Areas (Candidates will align with one or more of the following):

• Safety Analysis and Reactor Systems
• Collaborate with engineering teams to ensure transient and accident analysis methodologies (e.g., loss-of-forced-cooling, depressurization) align with regulatory expectations and precedents.
• Partner with safety analysis teams to define, justify, and document Licensing Basis Events and SSC safety classifications using deterministic safety analyses supplemented by targeted risk insights.
• Act as the regulatory integrator for thermal-hydraulics, core physics, and PRA teams, translating their complex quantitative risk and deterministic data into Safety Analysis Reports.
• Siting, Environmental Impact, and Permitting
• Direct the development of Safety Analysis Reports and Environmental Reports, ensuring that field data (geological, meteorological, hydrological, and demographic) aligns with NEPA requirements and NRC regulatory guides.
• Partner with environmental and civil engineering teams to establish bounding site parameters and ensure external hazards (e.g., seismic events, flooding, extreme wind/tornado missiles) are appropriately characterized for the plant’s design basis.
• Act as the regulatory integrator between internal teams and external stakeholders to ensure cohesion between federal nuclear licensing and local, state, or federal environmental permitting processes.
• Structures and Mechanical Systems
• Ensure mechanical and structural design criteria (e.g., ASME, ACI standards, QA requirements) rigorously align with the plant’s established SSC safety classifications.
• Translate complex mechanical and structural engineering outputs (e.g., pipe stress analyses, seismic response spectra, material selection justifications) into clear, rigorous Safety Analysis Report chapters.
• Drive the regulatory strategy for equipment qualification, ensuring that mechanical systems are properly qualified to perform their intended safety functions under normal and accident environmental conditions.
• Instrumentation, Control, and Electrical Systems
• Direct the regulatory approach for digital instrumentation and control architectures, ensuring compliance for software quality assurance, defense-in-depth, and diversity to protect against common-cause failures.
• Partner with electrical engineering teams to establish the regulatory design basis for plant power systems, ensuring power supplies meet required redundancy and reliability standards.
• Translate complex control logic, sensor network designs, and electrical single-line diagrams into clear, rigorous narratives for the applicable Safety Analysis Report chapters.
• Fuel and Material Qualification
• Direct the regulatory approach for TRISO particle fuel and high-temperature core materials, ensuring the licensing basis captures performance limits, manufacturing specifications, and environmental aging/degradation mechanisms.
• Partner with radiological engineering teams to establish and defend the regulatory basis for mechanistic source terms and fission product retention capabilities.
• Translate complex off-site dose calculations and shielding analyses into regulatory submittals to demonstrate compliance with NRC siting and safety regulations and guidance.

What You'll Bring

• Education: Bachelor of Science in Nuclear Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science, Chemical Engineering, or a closely related technical field. (Master’s or Ph.D. preferred).
• Experience: Minimum of 4+ years of progressive experience in the commercial nuclear industry, advanced nuclear vendor, national laboratory, or nuclear regulatory agency.
• Demonstrated Technical Focus: Demonstrated depth of experience aligned with at least one of our core focus areas.
• Regulatory Acumen: Solid understanding of U.S. NRC regulations, guidance, and advanced reactor licensing frameworks.
• Technical Communication: Exceptional technical writing, analytical rigor, and presentation capabilities; proven ability to defend engineering arguments before regulators and external stakeholders.

Citizenship & Export Control Requirements

• Must be a U.S. Citizen or U.S. Permanent Resident (Green Card holder).
• Access to export-controlled technical data governed by 10 CFR Part 810 and the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) requires authorization consistent with U.S. export control laws.

Even Better

• Direct prior experience supporting licensing or safety analysis for Advanced Modular Reactors / SMRs, specifically High-Temperature Gas-cooled Reactors, Molten Salt Reactors, or Fast Reactors.
• Familiarity with high-temperature materials and ASME Section III, Division 5 code compliance.
• Familiarity with international nuclear licensing standards and bilateral frameworks.
• Active or previous participation in industry initiatives (e.g., NEI working groups, ASME/ANS nuclear standards committees).