Senior Cloud Platform Engineer (Contractor)

Company Overview

Zeno Power is the leading developer of nuclear batteries – compact power systems that provide reliable, clean energy in frontier environments. By harnessing the heat from radioisotopes, Zeno's batteries power critical missions on Earth, in space, and at sea. To bring this technology to market by 2027, Zeno is seeking out purpose-driven and innovative professionals who are comfortable working in a startup environment. Team members will have a direct impact in enabling commercial and national security missions from the depths of our oceans, to the surface of the moon, and in austere environments here on Earth. Zeno is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer and is committed to attracting, retaining, and developing a highly qualified, diverse, and dedicated work force. We do not discriminate in hiring on the basis of sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religious creed, national origin, physical or mental disability, protected Veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.

Senior Cloud Platform Engineer (Contractor)

Zeno is seeking a highly motivated Senior Cloud Platform Engineer to support the mission-oriented efforts of developing and bringing to market Radioisotope Power Systems (RPS) technologies. This individual will own and support the cloud-based computing environment used by Zeno's engineering teams, including engineering applications, compute resources, storage, access, licensing, and user support.

The position will initially report directly to the Director of Engineering and work closely with Zeno's IT team and external cloud-infrastructure partners. As the engineering computing platform matures and transitions into steady-state operation, this role is expected to transition to the IT organization while continuing to serve as the primary owner of engineering computing systems and liaison between Engineering and IT.

In this role you will:

• Serve as the primary technical owner Engineering's AWS-based computing environment, including cloud workstations, compute clusters, storage, user profiles, networking, access, and license services.
• Translate engineering workflows and software needs into clear technical requirements for Zeno IT, cloud-infrastructure partners, and software vendors.
• Install, configure, validate, and maintain engineering applications such as ANSYS, MCNP, SOLIDWORKS, HyperMesh, and other specialized engineering tools.
• Configure and administer engineering software license servers and troubleshoot licensing and connectivity issues.
• Support engineers with user accounts, permissions, application access, storage, data transfer, compute jobs, and other usage issues.
• Lead the technical aspects of engineering software procurement, including infrastructure, licensing, security, integration, and installation requirements.

Key Qualifications and Skills

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, information technology, engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Five or more years of experience supporting cloud infrastructure, engineering computing, high-performance computing, research computing, or complex technical applications.
• Hands-on experience with AWS services such as EC2, FSx, S3, IAM, VPC, and CloudWatch.
• Experience configuring and maintaining floating-license servers.
• Understanding of compute-intensive engineering workloads and their CPU, memory, storage, networking, and parallel-processing requirements.
• Ability to translate engineering needs into actionable technical requirements for IT teams, vendors, and infrastructure providers.
• Strong troubleshooting, documentation, project coordination, and customer-support skills.
• Demonstrated ability to independently own technical problems that cross organizational or system boundaries.
• Working knowledge of CUI handling, access control, system hardening, vulnerability management, audit logging, configuration documentation, and compliance evidence collection.

Preferred Qualifications 

• Experience supporting ANSYS, MCNP, SOLIDWORKS, HyperMesh, or similar engineering applications.
• Experience deploying or administering AWS-based HPC clusters, distributed solvers, job schedulers, or AWS ParallelCluster.
• Experience creating and maintaining standardized machine images and automated system configurations.
• Familiarity with Terraform, CloudFormation, Packer, Python, PowerShell, or Bash.
• Experience managing technical relationships with cloud-service providers, managed-service providers, and engineering software vendors.
• Familiarity with enterprise AI platforms, large language models, AI APIs, retrieval-based knowledge systems, and associated data-governance practices.
• Familiarity with CMMC requirements and operating cloud-based systems in environments subject to controlled-information, cybersecurity, and compliance requirements.

Job Functions

• Position requires in-office presence in Seattle (South Lake Union) on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, remote work is optional on Mondays and Fridays.
• Travel: Less than 10% 
• Motor Abilities: Sitting and/or standing for extended periods, bending/stooping, grasping/gripping, fine motor control (hands)
• Physical exertion and/or requirements: Minimal, with ability to safely lift up to 15 pounds
• Repetitive work: Prolonged
• Special Senses: Visual and audio focused work
• Work Conditions: Stairs, typing/keyboard, standard and/or sitting working environment of >8 hrs./day
• Contract Duration: 6 months

Compensation  

The anticipated hourly rate for this position is $80-$105/hr . The final pay-rate will be determined by various factors such as a candidate's relevant work experience, years of relevant experience, skills, qualifications, certifications, and other business considerations. 

Physical Demands and Work Environment

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the functions. While performing the duties of this position, the employee is regularly required to talk or hear. Specific vision abilities required by this position include close vision, distance vision, peripheral vision, and the ability to adjust focus. The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.

Note

This job description in no way states or implies that these are the only duties to be performed by the employee(s) incumbent in this position. Employees will be required to follow any other job-related instructions and to perform any other job-related duties requested by any person authorized to give instructions or assignments. All duties and responsibilities are essential functions and requirements and are subject to possible modification to reasonably accommodate individuals with disabilities. To perform this job successfully, the incumbents will possess the skills, aptitudes, and abilities to perform each duty proficiently. Some requirements may exclude individuals who pose a direct threat or significant risk to the health or safety of themselves or others. The requirements listed in this document are the minimum levels of knowledge, skills, or abilities. This document does not create an employment contract, implied or otherwise, other than an “at will” relationship.

Export Control

Applicants for employment at Zeno Power must be a U.S. person. The term “U.S. Person” means (i) a U.S citizen or U.S. national; or (ii) any natural person who is a U.S. Lawful Permanent Resident (i.e., holds a Green Card), as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(20) or as a “protected individual” defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3) (i.e., admitted as a refugee or is granted asylum).