Lead Thermal Hydraulic Engineer
Job Summary
This role involves advancing nuclear thermal-hydraulic capabilities to support fuel development, system code maintenance, and reactor safety analysis. The engineer will lead the development, verification, and uncertainty qualification of analytical methods for core and fuel performance. The position requires collaboration with cross-functional teams to ensure high-quality, regulatory-compliant technical solutions for nuclear energy applications.
Responsibilities
- Develop and maintain thermal-hydraulic analytical methods
- Design and execute test plans for reactor performance
- Collaborate on fuel product and software development
- Ensure regulatory compliance (NRC/DOE) and quality assurance
Required Skills
- Nuclear thermal-hydraulic expertise
- Two-phase flow analysis
- Reactor safety methodologies
- Programming (Python, MATLAB, Fortran)
- Experience with TRAC/RELAP or CFD tools
Job Details
Essential Responsibilities:
- Lead the technical development, accuracy, and uncertainty qualification, testing, verification, and maintenance of analytical methods for evaluating steady-state and transient core/fuel performance.
- Develop single-phase and two-phase thermal-hydraulic test plans, interface with test personnel, perform data analysis, and develop empirical correlations or mechanistic models.
- Work with nuclear and mechanical engineering teams in the development of new fuel products and software in the area of thermal hydraulics.
- Work within a regulatory framework for nuclear software quality assurance for engineering programs.
- Prepare, document, and present technical data to both internal and external customers.
- Enhance team processes to drive efficiency and simplification.
- Communicate effectively with method users through support, documentation, and training.
- Ensure high-quality work in compliance with NRC regulations, customer requirements, and business quality standards.
- Interface with regulatory agencies (NRC, DOE, etc.) as necessary.
Required Qualifications:
- Bachelor's degree in nuclear engineering, mechanical engineering, physics, computational methods or closely related discipline with coursework in thermal-hydraulics and two-phase flow.
- 5 years of experience in a regulated nuclear engineering environment, focusing on thermal-hydraulic codes, two-phase flow analysis, or reactor safety methodologies.
- Ability to obtain authorization for access to U.S. export-controlled information.
Desired Qualifications:
- Master's Degree with 2 years of experience in thermal hydraulics.
- Understanding of experimental and analytic aspects of two-phase flow fundamentals and phenomena (e.g., void fraction, pressure drop, boiling, heat transfer, instability, drift-flux/two-fluid models).
- Experimental background in two-phase flow.
- Experience with thermal-hydraulic methods such as TRAC, TRACG, COBRAG, PANAC, RELAP, and ISCOR.
- Experience in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) using ANSYS-Fluent.
- Experience with software Commercial Grade Dedication as per NQA-1 standards.
- Proficiency in Python, MATLAB, and Fortran.
- Familiarity with nuclear reactor core licensing, technical specifications, and safety margin bases.