Principal Nuclear Instrumentation & Controls Engineer – Hardware (Nuclear I&C)

Location: Torrance, California, United States. Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States as a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident.

Salary: $196,000–$240,000 USD per year.

Company

hirify.global develops scalable high-temperature nuclear power, with a pilot plant in Orangeville, Utah focused on advanced nuclear systems and fuel fabrication.

What you will do

• Define the reactor measurement architecture for neutron flux, radiation monitoring, reactor protection sensors, and primary-loop process variables in high-temperature helium service.
• Own instrumentation design bases, signal-chain philosophy, setpoint and uncertainty methodology, and environmental and radiation qualification program bases.
• Set technology, vendor, qualification, standardization, supply-continuity, and obsolescence strategies for vendor-supplied instrumentation.
• Serve as design authority for safety-significant instrumentation designs, qualification bases, deviations, concessions, and protection-system changes.
• Lead design, safety, licensing, qualification, and instrumentation-readiness reviews; direct investigations into major failures, anomalies, and spurious protection actuations.
• Represent the discipline with regulators, licensing bodies, vendors, and standards organizations while mentoring engineers and building technical capability.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Nuclear, Electrical, Computer, or Mechanical Engineering, or a closely related discipline.
• 10+ years of experience in nuclear instrumentation, radiation detection systems, or reactor I&C, including substantial nuclear application.
• Ownership of nuclear instrumentation or detection-system scope across multiple significant programs, including at least one program taken from concept or requirements through qualification, deployment, and initial operation.
• Architecture-level technical leadership defining measurement strategy, instrumentation architecture, or design bases adopted across a program or organization.
• Recognized technical authority in at least one deep area such as neutron flux instrumentation, detector physics and signal chains, environmental/radiation qualification, or protection-system instrumentation.
• Deep hands-on knowledge of detector physics, operating regimes, wide-range channel design across pulse, fluctuation, and current modes, analog signal-chain engineering, IEEE 323/344 qualification methodology, and IEEE 603, IEEE 497, and IEC 61513 standards.
• Experience with formal approval or independent-review authority over safety-related or safety-significant instrumentation designs, analyses, or qualification bases.
• Experience directing and developing engineers, including senior engineers, and formally checking or approving their work.
• Experience representing an engineering discipline to regulators, licensing bodies, standards organizations, major vendors, or client design authorities.

Nice to have

• Professional Engineer license.
• Advanced degree in nuclear engineering, physics, or a related field.
• Direct NRC licensing, safety-analysis instrumentation, or regulator-facing design-basis experience.
• Instrumentation strategy experience for first-of-a-kind, advanced, test, high-temperature gas-cooled, or other non-LWR reactors.
• Experience with harsh-environment installations, MI cable systems, and vessel or containment penetration interfaces.
• ISA-67.04 or equivalent setpoint and uncertainty methodology ownership.
• Participation in IEEE NPEC, IEC SC45A, or equivalent standards development.
• Program-governance experience under NQA-1 and 10 CFR 50 Appendix B quality programs.

Culture & Benefits

• High-impact startup environment with autonomy, ownership, and direct technical impact.
• Competitive base salary and equity ownership.
• Comprehensive medical benefits and unlimited PTO.
• Free daily lunch and dinner onsite, plus a generous PPE stipend.
• Opportunities for rapid career growth, internal advancement, and collaboration with experienced operators, engineers, and industry leaders.