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Antares is building mass-producible, inherently safe, deployable microreactors for terrestrial, underwater, and space applications, with a mission to make clean energy abundant from Earth to the Asteroid Belt. The company has raised over $600M in venture capital and holds hundreds of millions in contracts with military services, NASA, and the Department of Energy. The team includes veterans from SpaceX, the White House, the Pentagon, the Department of Energy, MIT, and National Laboratories.
As Principal Payload Engineer, you will lead the development of novel effectors, sensors, and instruments for nuclear-enabled missions across all domains. You will serve as the primary technical point of contact for customers and stakeholders during mission development, driving mission concepts grounded in payload performance projections. You will lead trade-off decisions on which payload projects to pursue and "make vs. buy" decisions for technology integration. You will execute technical projects to develop payloads and build teams to carry products to market.
You will operate at the intersection of engineering, product development, customer program engagement, and mission integration, owning how the complete product is applied to real-world missions from concept through end of life. Your responsibilities include:
- Lead all aspects of technical product development for Antares payloads, from ideation and conceptual design through prototyping.
- Build simulation tools and models to develop payload concepts and integrate them into holistic mission concepts with nuclear and non-nuclear space vehicles.
- Ideate and propose new development programs to DOD, NASA, Intelligence Community, and DOE funding sources.
- Perform market research on use cases and operational concepts for future Antares payload systems.
- Build processes for licensing technologies from USG and National Laboratory ecosystems, including investment theses on payload concepts.
- Collaborate with engineering teams to ensure end-to-end mission success and deliver customer program deliverables.
- Plan and drive internal and external reviews to align Antares engineering teams with external stakeholders.
You need strong engineering and physics fundamentals—particularly in particle physics, optics, condensed matter physics, remote sensing, thermodynamics, heat transfer, fluid mechanics, energy and power systems, and engineering economics. You must demonstrate the ability to reason from first principles, develop quantitative models to simulate payload and mission performance, and maintain high technical rigor across disciplines. You will own product integration into operational end-user environments.
The ideal candidate is a technical expert who understands space-domain awareness and space control concepts while flexing a generalist skillset, comfortably moving between various payload technologies, engineering disciplines, hands-on analysis, hardware, program execution, and customer-facing work. You can rapidly develop depth in unfamiliar areas, communicate effectively across engineering teams, and drive ambiguous problems to closure.
REQUIREMENTS:
- PhD or Master's degree in an engineering discipline or physics
- 10+ years of technical experience
- 5+ years of leadership experience on a project or research team
- Experience working with the Department of Defense (DOD), Department of Energy (DOE), and Intelligence Community
- Knowledge of space operations, payload concepts, and physics behind relevant sensing mechanisms
- U.S. citizenship, lawful permanent residency, or eligible refugee/asylee status (ITAR requirement)
PREFERRED:
- Strong interpersonal and collaborative skills with enthusiasm for problem-solving
- Excellent written, visual, and verbal communication skills
- Excellent negotiation, conflict resolution, and leadership skills
- Experience in a start-up environment
- Demonstrated track record as a Principal Investigator in DOD or DOE R&D efforts
- Ability to obtain Top Secret or Top Secret SCI clearance
- Demonstrated high-impact/ROI contributions
