Director of Maritime Workforce

Ocean Atomics

1d • $220,000 - $276,000

About The Position

Ocean Atomics is an American company designing, licensing, and assembling a standardized nuclear electric power plant and the surrounding support systems for maritime applications. We will install these plants on any vessel built to our nuclear-ready standards, and will provide end-to-end sustainment in our planned nuclear lifecycle dockyard. We will help develop the licensed operators to unlock this new capability for your energy intensive application at sea. To move fast and to lead the creation of this new market, we are leveraging the compact, proven systems enabled by water-cooled reactors.

Our mission
Scale nuclear energy. Power generations.

Our vision
A maritime commons thriving with abundant, economical, modern, and safe nuclear-powered activity — built, serviced, and staffed by re-industrialized American shipyards and people.

Role Summary
As Director of Maritime Workforce, you build the talent supply that makes scaling maritime nuclear possible: the certified craftspeople, technicians, and skilled trades who assemble Ocean Atomics' nuclear electric plant and support the vessels built to carry it. While technical teams design the plant and its surrounding systems, this role secures the people side—ensuring a trained, credentialed workforce is ready as build and activation schedules ramp.
You will develop the domestic talent pipeline OA's model depends on, partnering with organized labor, vocational and technical institutions, and universities to open shared training and recruitment pathways into maritime nuclear work. You'll work across the Maritime Technical, Infrastructure, and Policy directorates so workforce readiness keeps pace with facility timelines and technical milestones, helping establish the training basis for a category of skilled work that doesn't yet exist at scale.
The ideal candidate treats workforce development as infrastructure in its own right, builds durable alliances across institutions that don't naturally align, and holds credentialing as earned capability rather than paperwork.

Requirements

• Advanced degree in Human Resources, Industrial Relations, Workforce Development, Business Administration, or a related field.
• Track record of building and scaling large-scale workforce development or human-capital pipelines in commercial shipbuilding, heavy manufacturing, or the energy sector. Typically built over 15+ years of workforce or industrial-relations leadership, though depth of pipeline-building and successful program scaling is valued above years of experience.
• Direct experience designing multi-tiered vocational or technical training programs and moving them from classroom environments to active industrial production.
• Experience negotiating and sustaining organized-labor relationships and building alliances across educational and institutional partners.

Nice To Haves

• Background in highly regulated or safety-critical industries (nuclear, offshore energy, defense manufacturing).
• Familiarity with maritime or shipyard labor environments and relevant credentialing bodies.
• Experience connecting military-to-civilian talent pipelines into commercial maritime or heavy industry.

Responsibilities

• Build and sustain the domestic talent pipeline—craftspeople, technicians, and skilled trades—required to assemble OA's nuclear electric plant and support the vessels built to carry it, from early sourcing through long-term retention.
• Partner with organized labor, vocational and technical colleges, and universities to create shared training and recruitment pathways into maritime nuclear work.
• Work with regulatory bodies and training partners to develop credentialing programs that qualify maritime craftspeople and technicians against nuclear-grade construction and assembly standards.
• Track localized labor-market conditions across target regions and stand up sourcing and training strategies ahead of demand, so staffing keeps pace with build and activation schedules.
• Partner directly with the Maritime Technical, Infrastructure, and Policy Directors so workforce growth aligns with facility activation timelines and technical build milestones.
• Establish the workforce forecasting and readiness metrics that give OA clear visibility into talent supply against the build plan.

Benefits

• equal opportunity employer
• committed to a workplace free of discrimination
• do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law
• committed to providing reasonable accommodations

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director