Lead Metallurgical Process Engineer — Metallurgy and Heavy Forging

Back to jobsLead Metallurgical Process Engineer — Metallurgy and Heavy Forging RemoteApply The Nuclear Company is the fastest growing AI tech-enabled startup in the nuclear and energy space, pioneering a fleet-scale approach to building the next generation of nuclear reactors. Through our design-once, build-many model, we're accelerating the deployment of safe, reliable, and affordable nuclear energy. We operate with an AI-first mindset. Every employee is expected to leverage AI, technology, and the Nuclear Operating System (NOS) as integral components of their role to improve the quality, speed, and impact of their work. We expect every team member to continuously identify opportunities to automate workflows, enhance decision-making, improve processes, and contribute to the ongoing evolution of NOS as a strategic operating capability that enables The Nuclear Company to scale with excellence. We hire people who are driven by purpose, thrive in ambiguity, and are energized by building what has never been built before. Our team combines intellectual curiosity with high agency, embraces candid feedback and continuous learning, and holds themselves and others to exceptional standards. Our values—Transparency, Responsibility, Unity, Scrappiness, and Tenacity—guide how we hire, collaborate, and make decisions every day. They are not words on a wall; they are the standard by which we operate. TRUST is the foundation of our safety culture, fostering intellectual honesty, accountability, and open communication, while our values challenge every team member to execute with urgency, humility, resilience, and an unwavering commitment to our mission. About the role The Nuclear Company is hiring a Lead Metallurgical Process Engineer to define how Project FORGE manufactures ultra-large, safety-critical metal components. This is the foundational technical role on the FORGE Engineering Cell—the person who owns process design from feedstock materials to ultra-large raw-forged components.  This is a role for someone who wants to study the best forging operations in the world, understands the physics that make them work, and then design something fundamentally better. The goal is a step capital efficiency, and quality The role will be remote to start with an expected relocation to Washington, DC in 2027. Responsibilities Define the process flow for ultra-large forging operations: melting, casting, ingot conditioning, forging sequences, and heat treatment.  Study existing world-class facilities (JSW Muroran, Doosan Changwon, Sheffield Forgemasters, CFHI, North American Forgemasters) to understand current best practice, and then systematically challenge assumptions about why each process step exists and how it should be executed.  Understand the process steps, parameters, and physical/chemical phenomena that drive homogenization and impurity removal during large ingot casting  Develop forging process models from first principles: deformation mechanics, thermal profiles, microstructural evolution, and die design for components including reactor pressure vessel shells, steam generator forgings, turbine rotor shafts, and defense applications.  Identify opportunities to fundamentally improve quality, energy consumption, and capital equipment requirements relative to existing global benchmarks.  Collaborate with the project team to produce equipment cost and construction schedule estimates to drive project stage gate deliverables.  Develop the preliminary process design basis document that will feed into detailed engineering for the melting, forging, and heat treatment shops.  Interface with Japanese and allied technical partners to absorb operational knowledge while maintaining an independent, critical perspective on process design.  Experience This role requires genuine metallurgical and metal-forming expertise. But we want someone who holds that expertise as a foundation for rethinking, not as a fixed playbook.  Deep understanding of the process...