Senior Manufacturing Engineer, Fabrication

Antares•Los Angeles, CA

2d•$140,000 - $185,000•Onsite

About The Position

At Antares, our long-term mission is to make clean energy abundant from Earth to the Asteroid Belt. We’re fueled by the belief that advanced nuclear energy can strengthen our military, solve the climate crisis, elevate global living standards, and expand humanity's presence in outer space. To achieve our mission, we’re building mass-producible, inherently safe, deployable microreactors that can be used terrestrially, underwater, and in space. The Antares team hails from SpaceX, the White House, the Pentagon, the Department of Energy, MIT, Rigetti Computing, General Atomics, Relativity Space, Ursa Major, and National Laboratories like Idaho, Oak Ridge, Los Alamos, and Savannah River. Antares has raised over $600M in venture capital from top-tier investors and has hundreds of million-dollars on contract with the military services, NASA, and the Department of Energy. As a Senior Manufacturing Engineer – Fabrication at Antares, you will own the development and maturation of manufacturing processes used to build critical reactor hardware. You will work across design, materials, quality, and manufacturing to turn first-of-a-kind designs into hardware and establish the processes required to produce that hardware reliably and repeatedly. This role spans a broad range of fabrication technologies, with a primary focus on welding, metal forming, and CNC machining, as well as special processes including additive manufacturing, brazing, and diffusion bonding. You will operate with a high degree of autonomy, solving complex manufacturing problems and developing new capabilities where established solutions do not exist. You will work directly with machinists, welders, technicians, suppliers, and engineers to rapidly iterate on hardware while developing robust and controlled manufacturing processes.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Materials Science/Engineering, Welding Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related engineering discipline.
5+ years of professional experience in manufacturing engineering, fabrication, manufacturing process development, or complex hardware development.
Demonstrated technical depth in at least one of the following: Welding, CNC machining, Metal Forming, Brazing, Metal Additive Manufacturing, Other advanced metallic fabrication or joining processes
Broad working knowledge of metallic manufacturing processes and the interactions between material, design, process, tooling, and inspection requirements.
Demonstrated experience independently developing, troubleshooting, and implementing manufacturing processes for complex hardware.
Experience taking manufacturing processes from initial development into production or process qualification.
Strong understanding of engineering drawings, GD&T, tolerance analysis, material specifications, and manufacturing requirements.
Experience performing root-cause analysis and resolving complex manufacturing problems.
Ability to work effectively across design engineering, materials, quality, manufacturing, and production teams.

Nice To Haves

Experience with aerospace or nuclear reactor components, pressure vessels, primary/secondary systems, fuel systems, thermal systems, or reactor instrumentation and controls.
Experience developing manufacturing processes subject to nuclear quality assurance requirements or other rigorous quality/regulatory frameworks.
Working knowledge of ASME Section III, NQA-1, or comparable nuclear quality requirements.
Experience with process qualification and validation for special processes.
Experience with PFMEA, process capability studies, statistical process control, value-stream mapping, and capacity analysis.
Experience developing manufacturing processes for safety-significant or safety-critical hardware.
Experience transitioning low-volume prototype hardware into repeatable production.
Familiarity with manufacturing execution systems, ERP/MRP systems, PLM systems, and digital work-instruction platforms.
Experience working in an environment where configuration control, traceability, material control, and process documentation are critical to product acceptance.

Responsibilities

Own fabrication processes for critical Antares reactor components and assemblies from initial development through qualified production.
Develop and improve fabrication processes, including welding, CNC machining, and metal forming, additive manufacturing, brazing, and diffusion bonding.
Develop manufacturing methods for first-of-a-kind hardware and mature them into robust, repeatable production processes.
Partner with design and materials engineering to influence component design, material selection, joint configuration, tolerances, and other requirements to improve manufacturability.
Lead DFM reviews and identify manufacturing risks early in the design cycle.
Define manufacturing sequences, process parameters, tooling requirements, inspection methods, and process controls.
Develop manufacturing plans, work instructions, process specifications, and qualification documentation.
Develop and execute process qualification plans using dimensional inspection, metallography, mechanical testing, NDT, and other verification methods as appropriate.
Work hands-on with technicians, machinists, welders, and inspectors to troubleshoot manufacturing problems and rapidly implement solutions.
Lead root-cause investigations and corrective actions for manufacturing defects, nonconformances, and process failures.
Evaluate make-versus-buy decisions based on technical capability, risk, schedule, and cost.
Support the transition of reactor hardware from development builds into repeatable production.
Mentor engineers and technicians in manufacturing process development and structured problem solving.