Principal Engineer - Reactor Island
3 days ago
Warrington
Great British Energy - Nuclear (GBE-N) is a new government arm’s length body supporting the delivery of Britain’s energy security and net zero, making sure that we can power Britain from Britain sustainably. It has been set up to turn nuclear ambition into reality. GBN’s first step was to start the technology selection process for Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) in July. SMRs can potentially be quicker to deploy and less expensive to build than traditional nuclear power plants because they are smaller, have factory based modular manufacturing, and more flexible deployment options. GBN is aiming to deliver fast, based on a supportive and collaborative culture which values equality and diversity and creates an inclusive workplace. It draws on deep nuclear expertise – its Executive Committee has over 100 years of nuclear experience in this country and abroad. And it can unlock billions of pounds of private and public investment from design to operation, helping to get sites ready for development, and working to grow manufacturing capacity and skills capability. Our activities will be driven by our values, which are: Trust - We prioritise safety, we act responsibly and with integrity. Collaborative - We work as a team; we value diversity and expertise. Challenge - We are curious and courageous in the way we think and act. Care - We are thoughtful, inclusive and respectful of others. Drive - We get things done and we make a difference. If you have a disability and would prefer to apply in a different format or would like us to make reasonable adjustments to enable you to apply or attend an interview, please contact us at and we will talk to you about how we can assist. Job Profile This is an exciting and challenging role where you will perform the Reactor Island Principal Engineer role on the SMR project from Concept Design through to Detailed Design. In this role, you will provide GBE‑N with strong leadership as the Intelligent Customer for Reactor Island, acting as the single point for the discipline across SMR engineering projects. You will be responsible for technical delivery of the tasks and technical interactions with the technical partner and Owner’s Engineer, setting scopes and issue task orders, ensuring alignment with technical standards, project goals and regulatory expectations. Working closely with stakeholders, you will manage resource allocation to deliver high‑quality outcomes within agreed constraints. You will uphold engineering excellence by establishing best practices, overseeing technical reviews, managing risks, and maintaining the team’s software and hardware infrastructure. The Reactor Island Principal Engineer will collaborate extensively across multidisciplinary engineering functions, e.g. thermal‑hydraulics, C&I, safety case, structural and fuel design, to ensure cohesive technical integration and consistency of assumptions across all design and safety submissions. Alongside leading continuous improvement of engineering processes and workflows, you will support team development through recruitment, onboarding and mentorship. As a key technical liaison, you will collaborate with project management, quality assurance and other departments to ensure clear communication, alignment, and successful project delivery. This is a hybrid role with a mix of remote and site/office-based work. Attendance occasionally required for site visits, design reviews and client meetings, mainly within the Northwest region. You will also support and guide more junior team members. You will challenge and deliver value engineering solutions so you will need to be confident and assertive in front of clients and stakeholders. Key Responsibilities: • Lead the reactor island design and core neutronics programme for the SMR Reactor Island, covering normal operation, transients and fault conditions., • Act as the “intelligent customer” for reactor physics deliverables from the Technology Partner, providing informed challenge, clarification and acceptance recommendations., • Own the development, review and integration of reactor physics models, methods and assumptions (e.g. core design, reactivity control, shielding, burnup, kinetics, in‑core monitoring) to ensure a robust, traceable technical baseline., • Define and maintain the reactor physics design and performance requirements, margins and acceptance criteria, ensuring alignment with overall Reactor Island and plant-level safety and performance objectives., • Provide reactor physics requirements and technical input to specifications for key core and fuel-related systems, components and instrumentation., • Provide reactor physics input to the safety case and licensing activities (e.g. fuel and core chapters, safety analysis, fault studies), ensuring consistency between design assumptions, analysis and claims., • Support responses to regulator questions and technical queries relating to reactivity control, core behavior, shutdown performance, fuel and core limits, and associated margins., • Ensure reactor physics analysis and documentation comply with relevant UK and international standards, codes, ONR expectations and internal nuclear safety principles., • Contribute to ALARP demonstrations and identification of reasonably practicable improvements arising from reactor physics insights (e.g. margins, set points, operating rules)., • Scope, plan and manage reactor physics work packages and task orders (internal and external), including definition of deliverables, assumptions, acceptance criteria and interfaces., • Monitor progress, quality, risk and change across reactor physics tasks, ensuring delivery to agreed time, cost and quality constraints., • Provide regular status updates, risk/issue summaries and decision inputs to the Reactor Island Lead and wider project management team., • Work closely with Power Plant Team (e.g. turbine island, balance of plant) and wider technical teams (e.g. SSSE, Design Management) to ensure physics assumptions and results are understood, correctly applied and configuration‑controlled., • Support design reviews, hazard studies and engineering governance forums as the subject-matter expert for reactor physics and core behaviour., • Present complex reactor physics topics and results in a clear, concise way to a range of stakeholders including the Reactor Island Lead, Engineering Lead, safety case team, programme management, and external partners., • Build strong working relationships with the Technology Partner, Owner’s Engineer, regulators’ technical counterparts (via the appropriate channels), and wider technical teams., • Provide authoritative advice and briefings on reactor physics risks, opportunities and design choices to support senior decision‑making across the programme., • Capture lessons learned and operational / design experience relevant to reactor physics and ensure these are fed back into methods, standards and training material., • Provide technical leadership, coaching and mentoring to more junior reactor physicists and analysts working on the project., • Support the Reactor Island Lead in shaping future reactor physics capability and resourcing plans (internal staff, secondees and supply chain)., • Ability to obtain Security Clearance - British Citizen or 5 years residency in UK, • Considerable experience within the UK nuclear industry at all stages of the project lifecycle or academia leading challenging technical projects, • Function as Intelligent Customer (IC), • Detailed knowledge and experience within a physics discipline required in the nuclear industry such as transient analysis, reactor physics, shielding, thermal hydraulics etc., • Ability to assimilate, analyse and provide judgements on complex technical issues clearly and concisely, • Experience with benchmarking, verification & validation, uncertainty quantification and QA‑governed modelling processes., • Ability to manage major technical work packages, monitor progress, address technical risks and maintain strong configuration and quality management., • Experience working across multidisciplinary engineering environments to ensure integrated, coherent reactor physics inputs into wider Reactor Island design., • Ability to write clear, structured technical reports and contribute to safety case documentation., • Familiar with nuclear safety assessments and safety case construction, • Good commercial awareness and how to effectively solve client issues in a commercially competitive environment, • Independent and collaborative problem‑solving ability, with a proactive approach to technical issues and opportunities., • Experience interacting with regulators and senior stakeholders, • Good communication skills and ability to work with other team members, • Degree or postgraduate qualification in Nuclear Engineering, Physics or related discipline., • Chartered Engineer or Chartered Physicist preferred., • Must be able to obtain UK Security Clearance (British citizen or 5+ years UK residency)
