Welding Engineer

About this role

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.

Formed in 2023, the Antares team hails from SpaceX, The White House, MIT, Rigetti Computing, The Air Force, General Atomics, Relativity Space, Ursa Major, and National Laboratories like Los Alamos, Idaho, and Oak Ridge. Antares has raised over $130M in venture capital from top-tier investors and has over $13M in government funding.

About the Team

As a Welding Engineer II at Antares, you will support the development, qualification, and production of welded hardware for our reactor systems. You will own welding processes from early design and material selection through procedure development, qualification, manufacturing, inspection, and final acceptance. This role requires a strong understanding of welding metallurgy, fabrication processes, and weld quality—particularly for stainless steels, nickel-based superalloys, and other materials used in high-temperature and demanding environments. You will work closely with design, materials, manufacturing, quality, and external suppliers to ensure welded assemblies meet performance, reliability, and regulatory requirements.

The ideal candidate combines sound welding fundamentals with a hands-on, practical approach to manufacturing. You should be comfortable working directly with welders and technicians, troubleshooting issues on the floor, and developing scalable processes for first-of-a-kind reactor hardware.

Roles & Responsibilities:

- Develop, qualify, and maintain welding procedures, including Welding Procedure Specifications (WPS), Procedure Qualification Records (PQR), and welder performance qualifications.

- Select appropriate welding processes, filler metals, joint designs, shielding methods, and process parameters based on material and component requirements.

- Provide design-for-welding guidance, including recommendations related to joint accessibility, distortion, residual stress, inspection, and manufacturability.

- Support welded hardware from prototype development through production, inspection, testing, and final acceptance.

- Work directly with welders, technicians, and suppliers to establish repeatable, high-quality fabrication processes.

- Create manufacturing work instructions, process controls, weld maps, inspection criteria, and technical specifications.

- Develop and execute weld qualification plans, including destructive and nondestructive testing.

- Review weld documentation, inspection results, material certifications, and supplier records for compliance with engineering requirements.

- Lead root-cause investigations for weld defects, distortion, cracking, leakage, and other fabrication nonconformances.

- Develop repair and rework procedures and provide technical disposition of welding-related nonconformances.

- Interface with design, materials, analysis, manufacturing, quality, and test engineers to ensure welded assemblies satisfy structural, thermal, pressure, and lifetime requirements.

- Support the selection, qualification, and technical oversight of welding suppliers and outside fabrication partners.

- Promote a strong culture of safety, quality, documentation, and continuous process improvement.

Basic Qualifications:

- Bachelor’s degree in Welding Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related technical field.

- 2+ years of professional experience in welding engineering, joining processes, or welded hardware manufacturing.

- Working knowledge of common fusion welding processes, such as GTAW, GMAW, PAW, laser welding, or electron beam welding.

- Experience developing or supporting welding procedures and welder qualifications.

- Understanding of welding metallurgy, heat-affected zones, solidification, distortion, residual stress, and common weld defects.

- Experience interpreting engineering drawings, weld symbols, material specifications, and inspection requirements.

- Familiarity with destructive testing and nondestructive examination methods used to evaluate weld quality.

- Ability to work hands-on with production personnel and independently resolve manufacturing challenges.

Preferred Skills and Experience:

- 3+ years of welding engineering experience in aerospace, nuclear, pressure vessel, power generation, defense, or another highly regulated industry.

- Experience welding stainless steels, nickel-based superalloys, refractory metals, or dissimilar-metal combinations.

- Knowledge of applicable welding and fabrication codes, including ASME Section IX, ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code, AWS D17.1, AWS D1.1, or equivalent standards.

- Experience with pressure-boundary, high-temperature, vacuum, or leak-tight welded assemblies.

- Familiarity with advanced welding processes, including automated orbital GTAW, laser beam welding, electron beam welding, resistance welding, or additive repair.

- Experience developing weld fixtures, tooling, purge systems, and methods for controlling distortion and heat input.

- Experience with weld inspection methods such as visual, dye penetrant, radiographic, ultrasonic, leak, or metallographic examination.

- Familiarity with post-weld heat treatment, stress relief, cleaning, passivation, and contamination control.

- Experience conducting weld failure investigations using metallography, microscopy, hardness testing, or mechanical testing.

- Certified Welding Inspector (CWI), International Welding Engineer (IWE), or similar professional qualification.  

Additional Requirements:

- Ability to work long hours and weekend

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