Staff Mechanical Design Engineer

We’re looking for a Staff Mechanical Design Engineer experienced in working in an NQA-1 environment to join our Engineering team, reporting to the Head of Engineering. In this role you’ll own the mechanism design at the heart of QLE’s proprietary isotope separation technology – the moving assemblies, actuation, and precision hardware the process depends on – and you’ll make those designs safe through the choices built into them rather than through the controls wrapped around them.

This is a high-impact opportunity to shape first-of-a-kind hardware at the stage where inherent safety is still a design variable rather than a retrofit. You’ll act as a key design authority at the center of concurrent simulation and experimental workstreams, holding a single design basis that every team can analyze, test, and build against.

Location & Working Arrangement

• Remote: This role is remote. You’ll be provided with a working setup that supports CAD-heavy design work and reliable participation in design reviews across US time zones.
• Travel: Limited travel is expected a few times per year – typically for design reviews, vendor and fabrication visits, and commissioning.
• Reports directly to the Head of Engineering.

Responsibilities

Mechanism Design & CAD Ownership

• Own the Mechanical Baseline: Own the detailed 3D CAD baseline for mechanisms and precision assemblies – models, sub-assemblies, drawings, and released documentation – from concept through to manufacture.
• Mechanism Development: Design motion-critical hardware: kinematics and load paths, actuation and drive selection, bearings, seals, linkages, and end-stops, sized against duty cycle, wear, backlash, and service life.
• Tolerance & Precision: Drive tolerance stack-up analysis and GD&T (ASME Y14.5) so that alignment, repeatability, and assembly are achieved by dimensioning rather than by fitting on the bench.
• Design for Manufacture, Assembly & Maintenance: Design parts that can be made, assembled, inspected, and maintained – including in constrained, shielded, or remotely handled environments.
• Configuration Control: Maintain disciplined PDM/PLM practice – revision control, release states, and change records – so every downstream team has an unambiguous version to work from.
• Process Definition: Contribute to and maintain Process Flow Diagrams (PFDs) and Piping & Instrumentation Diagrams (P&IDs) where mechanisms interface with process systems. This is a supporting element of the role; the primary output is CAD.

Safety by Design

• Design Out the Hazard: Apply the hierarchy of controls at the concept stage, eliminating or reducing hazards through inherent design choice – geometry, materials, mass, stored-energy limits, and separation – in preference to active engineered or administrative controls.
• Inherent Safety Characteristics: Use passive and geometric means to bound the consequences of failure: safe-by-geometry configurations, limited inventories, passive heat removal paths, and physical constraints that make the unsafe state unreachable.
• Fail-Safe Behavior: Define the de-energized state of every mechanism. Loss of power, air, signal, or operator attention should leave hardware in a known safe position, with mechanical interlocks and poka-yoke preferred over software dependency.
• Safety Assessment Contribution: Generate the design evidence supporting hazard identification and safety assessment (HAZOP, FMEA, criticality and ALARP arguments), and drive the resulting actions back into the CAD baseline rather than into a procedure.
• Codes & Standards: Ensure designs meet relevant codes – ASME Y14.5, and ASME BPVC / B31.3 where pressure boundaries are involved – alongside nuclear quality and safety expectations such as ASME NQA-1 and defense-in-depth principles.

Concurrent Workstreams: Simulation & Experiment

• Hold the Design Basis: Maintain a single controlled geometric and requirements baseline that simulation, experimental, and manufacturing teams all work from, so concurrent activity stays traceable to one revision.
• Simulation Interface: Prepare, defeature, and issue geometry for FEA, CFD, thermal, and neutronics analysis; agree boundary conditions and modeling assumptions up front; and translate analysis outcomes into design changes.
• Experimental Interface: Design rigs, fixtures, and test articles for experimental teams, ensuring test hardware is representative of the analyzed configuration and that instrumentation access is designed in from the start.
• Reconcile Competing Requirements: Manage the reality that simulation, experiment, and production each need something different from the same basis – a simplified geometry, an instrumented one, a manufacturable one – and keep those variants deliberate, documented, and reconciled rather than divergent.
• Change Management: Run design reviews and change impact assessments so a revision propagates cleanly to every concurrent workstream without silently invalidating an in-flight analysis or test campaign.

Collaboration & Leadership

• Physics-to-Hardware Interface: Collaborate with physicists and process engineers to translate theoretical and process requirements into manufacturable hardware.
• Vendor & Fabrication Support: Qualify suppliers, review shop drawings and weld procedures, and support first article inspection and Factory Acceptance Testing.
• Mentorship: Mentor engineers in mechanism design, GD&T, safety-by-design thinking, and root-cause troubleshooting.
• Remote Working Discipline: Operate effectively within a distributed team – documenting decisions, communicating asynchronously, and keeping the design record self-explanatory.

Legal & Compliance Notice
Regulatory & Export Control Notice
Quantum Leap Energy (QLE) conducts business in the nuclear technology and advanced materials sectors, which are subject to strict export control, non-proliferation, and national security regulations.

Employment with QLE may require compliance with one or more of the following regulatory frameworks, depending on work location and role scope:

• United States: U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and Export Administration Regulations (EAR) under the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS).
• United Kingdom: Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), and UK Strategic Export Control regulations administered by the Export Control Joint Unit (ECJU).
• South Africa: National Nuclear Regulator (NNR), Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE), and Non-Proliferation Council regulations under the Non-Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction Act.

Certain positions may require “U.S. person” status (as defined by 10 CFR Part 810 or EAR Part 772) and/or the ability to obtain and maintain applicable export control authorizations or security clearances. QLE complies with all relevant national and international export control, non-proliferation, and security requirements in every jurisdiction in which it operates.

Equal Opportunity Statement
Quantum Leap Energy (QLE) is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. All employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law.

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If you’re ready to help build the world’s next clean energy frontier, we’d love to hear from you.

Requirements

About You

• 8-10+ years of progressive experience in mechanical design, with a demonstrated portfolio of mechanisms and precision assemblies taken from concept to working hardware in regulated or high-consequence industries (Nuclear, Aerospace, Defense, Semiconductor, Medical Devices).
• Mechanism Design Authority:
  • Kinematic design, load path definition, and mechanism synthesis for repeatable, life-limited motion.
  • Tolerance stack-up analysis and fluency in ASME Y14.5 (GD&T) for precision assemblies.
  • Selection and integration of bearings, drives, actuators, and dynamic seals, with material selection informed by wear, galling, fatigue, and environment.
• Safety by Design: Demonstrable experience designing hazards out at source – applying the hierarchy of controls, passive and fail-safe design, and participating in HAZOP, FMEA, or equivalent safety assessments.
• Design Tools: Expert in 3D CAD (e.g. SolidWorks/Inventor/CREO) and disciplined in PDM/PLM data management.
• Concurrent Engineering: Proven track record working alongside simulation and experimental teams, supporting parallel workstreams that draw different requirements from a shared design basis.
• Process Literacy: Able to read, mark up, and contribute to PFDs and P&IDs, and to understand where a mechanism sits within the wider process system.
• Hands-On Instinct: Comfortable in a shop, lab, or test facility during site visits, able to physically troubleshoot hardware and lead root cause analysis when first-of-a-kind mechanisms fail.
• Communicator: Ability to thrive in a multi-disciplinary environment, effectively communicating complex engineering concepts to scientists, analysts, project managers, and technicians.
• Self-Directed: Capable of managing complex technical workstreams with minimal oversight in a remote setting, reporting directly to the Head of Engineering.
• Education: Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering or a related field.

Preferred Qualifications – What Sets You Apart

• Nuclear Framework Experience (strongly preferred): Design experience within a nuclear regulatory and quality framework – for example NRC, ONR, or IAEA-aligned regimes – including work governed by ASME NQA-1, 10 CFR 50 Appendix B, or an equivalent safety case and design substantiation process.
• Criticality Safety: Familiarity with criticality safety by geometry and the design constraints it imposes on vessel and mechanism layout.
• Remote Handling & Maintainability: Experience designing for gloveboxes, hot cells, shielded environments, or remote maintenance and decontamination.
• Hands-on experience with or interfacing with team members working on Finite Element Analysis (FEA) or CFD packages (e.g. ANSYS, COMSOL, STAR-CCM+), sufficient to support analysis.
• Experience with High Vacuum (HV/UHV), cryogenics, or aggressive/corrosive chemical environments, including gaseous halide media.

Benefits

Compensation & Benefits

• Competitive base salary aligned to global compensation bands and local market data.
• Bonus eligibility: Target % based on level and impact.
• Equity participation: Reflecting your contribution to QLE’s long-term success.
• Comprehensive benefits package and opportunities for global mobility across US, UK, and SA operations.