Senior Systems Engineer - Electric Motors

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 Role

Antares is seeking a Sr. Systems Engineer – Electric Motors to lead the design, integration, and validation of high-speed motor generator units within our Power Conversion System. This role focuses on end-to-end system ownership, spanning requirements definition, hardware integration, testing, and cross-functional execution.

You will work at the intersection of electromechanical design, power electronics, controls, and test, translating system-level goals into robust, operable motor solutions. We value strong systems thinkers with hands-on hardware experience, sound engineering judgment, and a bias toward learning through integration and test. Experience in nuclear or power generation is not required — we actively encourage candidates from diverse industries such as automotive, motorsports, aerospace, and advanced energy systems.

Roles and Responsibilities:

• Lead the technical development of Antares’ high-speed Motor Generator Units, owning the full lifecycle from concept through design, integration, and validation.

• Define system- and component-level requirements for motor performance, power electronics interfaces, thermal limits, operability envelopes, and long-term reliability.

• Serve as the primary stakeholder for all MGU-related design decisions within the Power Conversion System, working closely with mechanical, thermal, control, and test engineering teams.

• Drive the integration of the motor and generator hardware into the closed Brayton Power Conversion System, ensuring proper alignment, structural support, thermal management, and compatibility with downstream control and protection systems.

• Oversee supplier engagement for MGU hardware, including specification development, design reviews, qualification processes, and ongoing performance tracking.

• Perform rotor dynamic analysis, evaluate critical speeds, and ensure robust mechanical design suitable for high-speed operation (<50,000 rpm).

• Collaborate with power electronics engineers to refine motor control strategies, start-up sequences, and stable operation across the full mission profile.

• Develop analytical and simulation models to predict MGU performance and guide design tradeoffs, including electromagnetic, thermal, mechanical, and dynamic behavior.

• Plan and execute subsystem and integrated system tests, including creating test plans, defining instrumentation, establishing pass/fail criteria, and interpreting results to validate models and design assumptions.

• Lead troubleshooting and root-cause analyses for issues arising during development, integration, and test campaigns.

• Implement design improvements to enhance manufacturability, improve performance margins, and reduce cost or schedule risk.

• Ensure documentation quality, including requirements, test procedures, design reviews, and verification reports.

• Support safety analyses, risk assessments, and operational readiness reviews for MGU-related systems.

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, aerospace engineering, or a related technical discipline.

• 5+ years of experience working with electric machines, high-speed rotating machinery, and motor-generator systems.

• Experience integrating and testing motors with power electronics, including defining electrical and mechanical interface requirements.

Preferred Skills & Experience:

• Master’s degree or PhD in an engineering field.

• Experience working in the Nuclear, Aerospace, or Automotive industries

• Excellent negotiation, conflict resolution, and leadership skills.

• Leadership experience on a project or research team.

• Experience working in a start-up environment.

Additional Requirements

• Ability to work long hours and weekends as necessary to support critical milestones.

Location

• We are located in Torrance, CA in a 145,000 square foot, brand new facility featuring large open spaces for team collaboration, R&D, and production, as well as easy access to the 405, 105, and 110 freeways. Our facility is in the heart of Los Angeles' vibrant emerging tech ecosystem alongside many other high growth startups and enterprises.

Culture

At Antares, we like to specifically tie each role to our founding document’s set of values–here are the top five cultural values we think you should believe at your core to be successful:

• Think in Systems - Energy and Defense are complex ecosystems with numerous stakeholders with competing priorities, conflicting policies, perverse incentives, and emergent and path-dependent properties. First principles thinking alone is insufficient. Think probabilistically and then take action. “If you want to be certain, then you are apt to be obsolete.” Over-optimizing the components often degrades the system

• Obsess over the End User - The customer and end user are often not the same. We will never build globally competitive commercial products if we lose sight of our end users and their entire interaction with the product life cycle

• Be Unconstrained by Convention - Our only limits are the laws of physics. Many, even experts, will say what we are working on is impossible. They said the same about SpaceX reusing rockets. Generationally impactful companies, by definition, must accomplish the seemingly impossible. If it were easy, it would have already been done. Never shy away from a solution because it has never been tried before, and never choose to do something because that's “how it's always been done”

• Craftsmen - We also focus on the inputs. We aspire to high-quality engineering for its own sake. As such, we invest in personal growth, learning, and developing a long-term career path for exceptional individual contributors. We embrace a beginner’s mindset, share knowledge, and never condescend the curious

• Seriously Optimistic - We’re ambitious and we believe we’re capable of achieving things others believe are impossible. We reward audacity and don’t let cynicism, sarcasm, snark, or belittlement influence us to lower the bar

Equal Opportunity

Antares is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Employment decisions are based solely on merit, competence, and qualifications, without regard to race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability, or any other legally protected status.

ITAR Requirements

To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here.