Senior Plant Control Systems Engineer, Motion Control

Company Overview

Kairos Power is a new nuclear energy technology and engineering company whose mission is to enable the world’s transition to clean energy, with the ultimate goal to dramatically improve people’s quality of life while protecting the environment. This goal will be accomplished through the commercialization of the fluoride-salt-cooled, high-temperature reactor (FHR) that can be deployed with robust safety, affordable costs, and flexible operation to accommodate the expansion of variable renewables.

Job Summary

Kairos Power is seeking a Senior Motion Control Engineer to join the Plant Control Systems team. This role leads programming, electrical design, and integration of motion-control, mechanical-handling, and motor-driven equipment—including cranes, hoists, manipulators, lifts, positioning systems, conveyors, and remotely operated equipment—for use in an advanced nuclear power plant.

The engineer specifies and integrates motors, drives, instrumentation, safety functions, operator interfaces, and plant-control-system interfaces. The role designs and integrates control systems and equipment for a nuclear environment, with attention to safety, defined functional boundaries, documented requirements, verification, configuration control, and rigorous testing throughout the equipment lifecycle—from requirements and design through commissioning and operation.

The engineer is expected to provide technical leadership, mentor less-experienced engineers, lead complex design activities, and independently resolve significant technical issues. The position does not require direct personnel-management responsibility.

Responsibilities

Design and Technical Ownership

• Serve as responsible engineer, system owner, or technical lead for assigned motion-control, electrical-control, motor-drive, and mechanical-handling systems.
• Develop and maintain requirements, functional specifications, interface-control documents, design descriptions, calculations, drawings, equipment data sheets, and verification records.
• Translate plant operating, equipment, environmental, maintenance, and safety requirements into practical electrical and control-system designs.
• Define operating modes, local and remote control functions, manual and automatic operation, startup and shutdown sequences, equipment protection, fault response, alarms, interlocks, permissives, trips, and safe-state behavior.
• Specify and integrate AC motors, servo motors, stepper motors, VFDs, servo drives, stepper drives, motor starters, gearboxes, brakes, encoders, resolvers, limit switches, proximity sensors, load cells, instrumentation, safety devices, control panels, and related equipment.
• Perform or review motor sizing, torque-speed characteristics, duty-cycle and thermal analyses, load and inertia calculations, acceleration/deceleration profiles, drive sizing, braking requirements, cable sizing, electrical protection, grounding, shielding, and power-quality considerations.
• Develop or review electrical schematics, panel layouts, wiring diagrams, termination drawings, I/O lists, loop diagrams, control narratives, functional logic diagrams, cause-and-effect matrices, and test procedures.
• Develop, configure, review, and test PLC, motion-controller, DCS-interface, HMI, SCADA, and related control software using established software-development, peer-review, testing, release, and configuration-management practices.
• Define interfaces for equipment commands, status, position feedback, alarms, diagnostics, permissives, trips, safety signals, remote monitoring, data collection, event logging, and maintenance diagnostics.
• Integrate assigned equipment with plant controls, supervisory systems, industrial networks, remote I/O, local and control-room operator interfaces, and approved cybersecurity architectures.
• Support appropriate separation and interface definition among equipment controls, plant controls, plant protection systems, and other safety functions.
• Review supplier designs, calculations, drawings, software, test procedures, and technical submittals for compliance with project requirements.
• Support supplier technical evaluations, procurement specifications, design reviews, inspections, test witnessing, FAT, SAT, load testing, installation, commissioning, startup, and turnover.
• Develop or review acceptance criteria, test plans, test procedures, test reports, and resolution documentation for design changes, nonconformances, and corrective actions.
• Support troubleshooting, operability evaluations, root-cause analysis, corrective-action implementation, reliability improvement, and lifecycle management of assigned systems
• Maintain traceability among control-system requirements, design outputs, interfaces, software implementation, and verification activities throughout the system development lifecycle.
• Evaluate and implement control-system design changes in accordance with applicable engineering change, configuration-management, and design-control processes.
• Coordinate control-system design interfaces with process, mechanical, electrical, nuclear, operations, cybersecurity, and other applicable disciplines to ensure integrated system performance and resolve interface issues.
• Perform or support design verification and technical reviews to confirm that control-system designs satisfy applicable requirements, interfaces, design criteria, and engineering standards.
• Mentor junior engineers and contribute to technical standards, reusable designs, control libraries, test methods, and lessons learned

Control Software Development and Implementation

• Develop, configure, review, test, and implement control software for programmable logic controllers and other industrial control platforms.
• Knowledge of developing control logic using IEC 61131- 3
• Implement regulatory controls, sequencing logic, equipment controls, permissives, interlocks, alarms, diagnostics, and fault-response functions.
• Develop or support human-machine interface and supervisory control functionality associated with assigned control systems.
• Establish and follow software-development practices for code organization, naming conventions, peer review, testing, version control, configuration management, and release documentation.
• Perform peer reviews of control code and associated design documentation.
• Develop simulation, emulation, or test environments to verify control-system behavior before deployment.
• Investigate and resolve control-software defects, integration issues, communication problems, and unexpected system behavior.
• Support controlled software installation, commissioning, turnover, and lifecycle maintenance.

Technical Leadership and Mentoring

• Provide technical guidance and mentoring to engineers, designers, technicians, and project-team members.
• Lead technical reviews, design discussions, troubleshooting sessions, and resolution of complex control-system issues.
• Review the work of other engineers for technical accuracy, completeness, consistency, and compliance with project requirements.
• Develop reusable design methods, standard architectures, templates, libraries, and engineering practices.
• Share lessons learned and promote continuous improvement in control-system design, software development, testing, and commissioning.
• Support training and cross-training of engineers on applicable control platforms, design tools, and plant systems.
• Serve as a technical resource to the Senior Manager without assuming formal hiring, compensation, performance-management, or other personnel-management responsibilities.

Other duties as assigned

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Controls Engineering, Mechatronics, or a related engineering discipline.
• Professional Engineer (PE) license or eligibility for licensure is preferred.
• 4 or more years of progressively responsible experience in control-systems engineering, industrial automation, instrumentation and controls, or a related field, including control-logic development using IEC 61131-3 languages or equivalent standards.
• Experience serving as a responsible engineer, system owner, technical lead, or lead designer for complex electrical, controls, or mechanical-handling equipment.
• Experience with equipment such as cranes, hoists, manipulators, lifts, conveyors, positioning systems, remotely operated equipment, robotics, or similar motion-control applications.
• Experience with system requirements, design documentation, supplier coordination, technical reviews, testing, commissioning, troubleshooting, and design-change implementation.
• Nuclear power plant, advanced reactor, radiological facility, power-generation, utility, heavy-industrial, manufacturing, process-plant, or EPC experience is preferred.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• Strong knowledge of motion-control architectures, including AC motors, servo motors, VFDs, servo drives, motor starters, gearboxes, brakes, mechanical transmissions, encoders, resolvers, limit switches, proximity sensors, load cells, and associated instrumentation.
• Ability to perform or review motor sizing, torque-speed, inertia, acceleration, duty-cycle, thermal, gearbox, braking, electrical-protection, grounding, shielding, cable-selection, and power-quality analyses.
• Experience with PLC and motion-controller programming using ladder logic, structured text, function blocks, sequential-function charts, or equivalent methods.
• Experience with industrial-control platforms such as Rockwell Automation, Siemens, Emerson, ABB, GE, or equivalent.
• Experience with DCS, HMI, SCADA, remote I/O, instrumentation, control panels, historians, supervisory controls, and industrial communications.
• Familiarity with industrial communication protocols including Ethernet/IP, Modbus, OPC, Profibus, Profinet, fiber-optic networks, or equivalent technologies.
• Ability to develop and interpret electrical schematics, wiring diagrams, panel layouts, control narratives, P&IDs, functional logic diagrams, cause-and-effect matrices, I/O lists, and test procedures.
• Familiarity with machine-safety practices, including safety PLCs, safety relays, emergency stops, interlocks, overload protection, limit switches, safety-rated feedback, brake monitoring, and safe torque-off functions.
• Working knowledge of low-voltage electrical design, including control power and interfaces from 480 VAC through 24 VDC.
• Familiarity with configuration management, requirements traceability, independent review, software quality practices, controlled implementation, and lifecycle documentation.
• Familiarity with applicable IEEE, IEC, NEMA, NFPA, ISA, ASME, OSHA, and project-specific requirements.
• Knowledge of control-system requirements management, design verification, and requirements traceability practices.
• Ability to develop, review, and evaluate control-system test plans, procedures, acceptance criteria, and test results.
• Ability to define, coordinate, and resolve multidisciplinary technical interfaces.
• Ability to evaluate technical alternatives, risks, assumptions, and design tradeoffs and document engineering decisions
• Demonstrated technical leadership and sound engineering judgment.
• Ability to independently manage complex technical assignments with limited supervision.
• Exceptional attention to detail and commitment to safety, quality, and engineering rigor.
• Ability to clearly communicate complex technical information in written, graphical, and verbal form.
• Demonstrated technical ownership, sound engineering judgment, and ability to independently resolve complex technical issues.
• Commitment to safety, quality, documentation, design traceability, verification, and configuration control.
• Ability to collaborate effectively with engineering, operations, maintenance, quality, safety, suppliers, and commissioning teams.
• Ability to proactively collect, manage and transfer knowledge
• Ability to seek different and novel ways to create efficiencies when working on problems, challenges and issues

Physical Demands

• Moving about to accomplish tasks or moving from one worksite to another
• Communicating with others to exchange information
• Remaining in a stationary position, often standing, or sitting for prolonged periods

Environmental Conditions

• General office environment
• Noisy environments
• High-concentration, demanding and fast-paced
• Manufacturing/Industrial Environment

Safety and PPE

• Reading and interpreting hazardous warning signs
• Reporting issues with equipment or unsafe conditions
• Wearing proper PPE, to include face mask, face shields, gloves, safety footwear, or other PPE as required

Travel

• Some travel may be required (up to 10%) 

Certification

• Professional Engineer (PE) license highly desirable.
• Additional certifications (e.g., NETA, CMCP, etc) are a plus.

Additional Requirements

• Occasionally requires schedule flexibility 
• Seldomly requires extended hours to support launch and critical project timelines

The salary range for this position is $140,611 to $165,425 for employees working onsite at our Alameda, CA headquarters. The range provided in this job posting represents the typical range or starting rate of candidates hired in California. Factors that maybe used to determine your actual salary may include your education, experience, knowledge, skills, ability and the market data for your work location, and a comparison to other employees already in the role. 

#LI-Onsite

About our Benefits

We know that we have some of the most talented and dedicated employees, and we believe in rewarding them accordingly. If you work here, full-time employees (excludes interns) expect to have access to the benefits below:

• Competitive compensation packages
• Medical, dental and vision benefits for employees and their dependents
• Paid Vacation
• 401(k) and pre-tax health insurance, dependent care, and commuter benefits (FSA)

Kairos Power is committed to building a diverse workforce that reflects the communities where we do business. Kairos Power is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status. We actively welcome people of different experiences, abilities, and perspectives.

Kairos Power participates in E-Verify.

Candidates only, no recruiters or agencies please.

Note: You are applying for a position that is located in a facility that handles information that is subject to export control restrictions by the Department of Energy under 10 CFR Part 810. To work in this facility, you need to be authorized by the Department of Energy to access Part 810-controlled information. Foreign nationals who are citizens of countries that are not on the Department of Energy’s general authorization list (link below) are not permitted to work in our facility unless the Department of Energy issues an export control license to the company to permit that individual to have access to Part 810-controlled information. The following questions are intended to determine the licensing requirements that may apply.