Principal Payload Engineer

About Us 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. About the Team As a key member of the Mission Engineering team, you will lead the development of novel effectors, sensors, and instruments needed to unleash nuclear-enabled missions in all domains. You will serve as a primary technical point of contact for customers and stakeholders during the mission development phase of projects, driving the development mission concepts that are grounded by our ability to project payload performance. You will lead trade-off decisions on which payload projects to pursue, as well as "make v. buy" decisions for integrating technologies. Finally, you will be responsible for executing technical projects to develop payloads, with the ultimate goal of building teams to carry out the development of these products to take to market. You understand everything from how on-orbit nuclear detection is achieved, to bespoke mechanisms for space control. 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. You need to have strong engineering and physics fundamentals - particularly in particle physics, optics, condensed matter physics (materials interactions), remote sensing, thermodynamics, heat transfer, fluid mechanics, energy and power systems, and engineering economics - with demonstrated ability to reason from first principles, develop quantitative models to simulate payload (and thus 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, yet is able to flex a generalist skillset, comfortably moving between various relevant payload technologies, engineering disciplines, hands-on analysis, hardware, program execution, and customer-facing work. They can rapidly develop depth in unfamiliar areas, communicate effectively across engineering teams, and drive ambiguous problems to closure. Experience with DOW, DOE, IC, NASA, or other government sponsors and procurement processes is preferred. Roles and Responsibilities: You will be responsible for: Lead all aspects of technical product development associated with Antares payloads. Everything from initial ideation and conceptual design to prototyping efforts in the laboratory. Regularly build simulation tools and models to develop payload concepts and work directly with Mission Architect on integrating into holistic mission concepts with nuclear and non-nuclear space vehicles. Ideate and propose new development programs to DOW, NASA, IC and DOE funding sources Perform market research on possible use cases and operational concepts for future Antares payload systems Build out robust processes around licensing technologies from USG and National Laboratory ecosystems, including internal investment theses on payload concepts to pursue Collaborate with engineering teams to ensure end-to-end mission success and craft deliverables for customer programs Plan and drive internal and external reviews to ensure alignment between Antares engineering teams and external stakeholders Basic Qualifications: PhD or Master's 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 (DOW), Department of Energy (DOE), and Intelligence Community Knowledge of space operations, payload concepts, and physics behind relevant sensing mechanisms Preferred Skills & Experience: Strong interpersonal and collaborative skills, enthusiasm for problem-solving, and desire to build Excellent written, visual, and verbal communication skills Excellent negotiation, conflict resolution, and leadership skills Experience working in a start-up environment Demonstrated track record of success in DOW or DOE Research and Development efforts as a Principal Investigator Ability to obtain a Top Secret or Top Secret SCI clearance Demonstrated track record of high impact / ROI contributions Culture At Antares, we like to specifically tie each role to our founding document's set of values-here are the top five cultural values we think you should believe at your core to be successful: Think in Systems - Energy and Defense are complex ecosystems with numerous stakeholders with competing priorities, conflicting policies, perverse incentives, and emergent and path-dependent properties. First principles thinking alone is insufficient. Think probabilistically and then take action. "If you want to be certain, then you are apt to be obsolete." Over-optimizing the components often degrades the system Obsess over the End User - The customer and end user are often not the same. We will never build globally competitive commercial products if we lose sight of our end users and their entire interaction with the product life cycle Be Unconstrained by Convention - Our only limits are the laws of physics. Many, even experts, will say what we are working on is impossible. They said the same about SpaceX reusing rockets. Generationally impactful companies, by definition, must accomplish the seemingly impossible. If it were easy, it would have already been done. Never shy away from a solution because it has never been tried before, and never choose to do something because that's "how it's always been done" Go Where the Work Is - Never miss a chance to meet a customer, user, or stakeholder face to face, even if that means hopping on a plane. If you can't make it, find a teammate who can channel your intentions and go in your place. Deep work can be done from anywhere, but we believe teams are built in person, and aim to maximize our time together Operate in the Grey - Embrace nuance in pursuit of truth. Question every fundamental assumption Equal Opportunity Antares is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Employment decisions are based solely on merit, competence, and qualifications, without regard to race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability, or any other legally protected status. ITAR Requirements To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here. Antares