SlipstreamJobs tracks this role from the company's public career site. Apply directly on the employer's site.
Radiant is building the world's first mass-produced, portable nuclear microreactors. The company's flagship product, Kaleidos, is a 1-megawatt, fail-safe microreactor designed for rapid deployment to hospitals, data centers, remote sites, and military bases. Founded in 2020, Radiant is transitioning from first-of-a-kind development to scalable production, with initial customer deliveries planned for 2028.
You will serve as Senior Manufacturing Engineer, owning the transition of Kaleidos from prototype to repeatable, scalable production. Working closely with design, quality, test, supply chain, and operations teams, you will influence hardware from earliest design stages through fabrication and final assembly. Your core responsibilities include:
- Own manufacturing and inspection processes for critical reactor components, mechanisms, structures, and assemblies from design release through production acceptance.
- Partner with design engineers to drive design for manufacturability and assembly (DFM/DFA), reducing mass, part count, complexity, assembly time, and production risk.
- Evaluate designs for manufacturability, inspectability, tolerance stack-up, tooling access, assembly sequence, and subsystem integration.
- Develop, qualify, document, and continuously improve manufacturing processes for complex mechanical hardware and integrated assemblies.
- Translate engineering drawings, CAD models, requirements, and specifications into manufacturing plans, work instructions, inspection strategies, tooling requirements, and production controls.
- Define fabrication and assembly approaches, including process selection, sequencing, make-versus-buy decisions, and inspection methodology.
- Design and develop production tooling, fixtures, assembly aids, lifting equipment, and other manufacturing equipment.
- Partner with Quality and Test Engineering to establish inspection and acceptance strategies, resolve build and test issues, and incorporate lessons learned.
- Investigate manufacturing defects, nonconformances, and assembly issues using structured root-cause analysis and implement durable corrective actions.
- Identify, evaluate, and develop suppliers for critical components and manufacturing processes.
- Identify and implement capital equipment, machinery, and production infrastructure to support current and future production volumes.
- Support hands-on build, integration, and troubleshooting activities while identifying opportunities to improve repeatability, throughput, yield, labor content, and scalability.
This is a hands-on role with significant influence over how Kaleidos evolves into a manufacturable product. You will be equally comfortable reviewing CAD models with design engineers, developing fixtures and manufacturing processes, troubleshooting build issues, working with suppliers, and using production data to drive continuous improvement.
REQUIREMENTS:
- Bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, manufacturing engineering, aerospace engineering, or related technical discipline from an accredited institution.
- 5+ years of experience manufacturing complex mechanical hardware in a production, development, or high-reliability engineering environment.
- Demonstrated experience partnering with design engineering to influence hardware through DFM/DFA.
- Experience owning manufacturing processes from development through qualification and production implementation.
- Strong understanding of mechanical fabrication and assembly processes, including machining, joining, fastening, alignment, tolerance control, and inspection.
- Strong ability to interpret engineering drawings, CAD models, specifications, and Geometric Dimensioning & Tolerancing (GD&T).
- Experience developing manufacturing documentation such as work instructions, process specifications, routings, and inspection plans.
- Experience troubleshooting manufacturing and assembly problems, performing root-cause analysis, and implementing corrective actions.
- Demonstrated ability to make practical engineering tradeoffs across manufacturability, quality, cost, schedule, performance, and risk.
- Experience working directly with technicians, machinists, fabricators, inspectors, and operators in a hands-on manufacturing environment.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills and ability to work effectively across design, quality, test, supply chain, and operations teams.
- Must be willing to support extended hours and weekends when necessary to meet critical program milestones.
- Must work 100% onsite at Radiant's El Segundo headquarters.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:
- Master's degree in mechanical engineering, manufacturing engineering, or related technical discipline.
- Experience transitioning complex hardware from prototype or development builds into repeatable or scaled production.
- Experience manufacturing highly engineered hardware in aerospace, energy, nuclear, automotive, defense, turbomachinery, or another high-reliability industry.
- Experience with precision machining, mechanical joining, dimensional inspection, and non-destructive evaluation methods.
- Experience with tolerance analysis and manufacturing or assembly strategies for tightly controlled interfaces.
- Experience designing custom fixtures, tooling, assembly equipment, or other production hardware.
- Experience with process qualification, first article inspection, statistical process control, or production quality systems.
- Experience developing suppliers for low-volume, high-complexity hardware.
- Experience with manufacturing automation, production equipment, or semi-automated assembly systems.
- Demonstrated ability to reduce part count, mass, assembly time, production complexity, or manufacturing cost without compromising product performance.
