Director, Balance of Plant

Company Overview

Kairos Power is a new nuclear energy technology and engineering company whose mission is to enable the world’s transition to clean energy, with the ultimate goal to dramatically improve people’s quality of life while protecting the environment. This goal will be accomplished through the commercialization of the fluoride-salt-cooled, high-temperature reactor (FHR) that can be deployed with robust safety, affordable costs, and flexible operation to accommodate the expansion of variable renewables.

Job Summary

Kairos Power is seeking an experienced senior engineering leader to serve as Director, Balance of Plant (Power Generation System & Turbine Island), to provide strategic and technical leadership for multidisciplinary engineering teams. This role is responsible for the technical leadership, organizational capability, and execution of the engineering teams responsible for design and deployment for Structures, Systems, and Components that convert thermal energy to electricity and provide auxiliary plant functions necessary to support reliable and efficient plant operation. The ideal candidate combines broad power plant and thermal-fluid systems expertise with demonstrated success building engineering teams, working with external partners, and delivering complex, hardware systems from concept through commissioning and operation.

Responsibilities

• Provide strategic and technical leadership for the development and integration of balance-of-plant (BOP) Systems, such as the Heat Transport Systems interfacing with high-temperature steam Rankine cycles, Power Generation System (PGS), and auxiliary systems such as service water, treated water, and compressed air systems.
• Establish department technical direction and decision boundaries consistent with company strategy and designated technical authorities.
• Lead engineering delivery from conceptual sizing through detailed design, vendor package review, and commissioning support, owning design reviews and technical risk.
• Ensures that system and discipline leads satisfy applicable requirements, codes and standards, safety functions,and align to program
• Ensure engineering deliverables—including requirements, calculations, analyses, specifications, drawings, design reports, interface documents, and test plans—are technically sound and meet established quality and schedule requirements.
• Oversee supplier technical execution, including supplier selection, bid evaluations, equipment specifications, design reviews, technical evaluations, qualification programs, factory acceptance testing, and resolution of supplier technical issues, to ensure supplier designs and deliverables meet Kairos Power requirements.
• Oversee evaluation of BOP design and supplier changes for impacts on system interfaces, plant performance, safety, and commissioning readiness, and ensure approved changes are incorporated into the controlled technical baseline.
• Build productive relationships with external organizations while maintaining clear accountability for Kairos Power technical requirements and engineering decisions.

• Translates company strategy into measurable organizational priorities and decision principles.
• Determine and communicate explicit scope, schedule, risk, and resource tradeoffs across the organization.
• Maintain accountability for organizational outcomes and the consequences of scope, schedule, risk, and resource decisions within delegated authority, including decisions delegated to others.
• Ensure execution of strategic priorities, take corrective action when results are off track, and remove systemic barriers teams cannot resolve.
• Establish organizational technical direction and decision boundaries are established, consistent with company strategy and designated technical authorities.
• Ensure material technical and safety risk, their potential consequences, and proposed mitigations are clearly documented and communicated to the appropriate authority, with risk acceptance decisions explicitly recorded.
• Personally engage in mission-critical technical or organizational decisions, crises, external reviews, or critical deliverables when judgment materially changes the outcome.
• Build the organization and leadership pipeline required for current and future strategy, including recruitment, staffing, and leadership development.
• Hold senior leaders and technical leads accountable for team capability, succession, performance, engagement, and retention.
• Ensure systemic operational or compliance weaknesses are corrected and that improvements are sustained across the organization.
• Communicate organizational direction and tradeoffs consistently to leadership, teams, and cross-functional partners.
• Establish alignment across teams, resolve cross-functional conflicts, and escalate tradeoffs that require broader leadership decisions.
• Set the organizational tone for accountability, integrity, psychological safety, and mission stewardship, and reinforce these values through visible decisions, resource choices, recognition, and corrective action.
• Other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Mechanical Engineering, Nuclear Engineering, Chemical Engineering, or equivalent
• 15+ years of progressively responsible engineering experience involving power generation, thermal-fluid systems, process systems, nuclear systems, or other complex industrial systems.
• 7+years of progressive engineering leadership experience managing engineering teams with multiple engineering disciplines.
• Experience managing engineering managers or technical leads with accountability for outcomes across multiple teams and work sites.
• Experience working with suppliers, OEMs, engineering contractors, or other external technical organizations.
• Experience leading technical development and qualification of major equipment through external suppliers or OEMs.
• Experience supporting construction, commissioning, startup, or operation of complex power generation or industrial facilities.
• Experience with integrated power plant systems, including modern high-temperature steam Rankine cycles and the interactions between heat transport, power conversion, auxiliary systems, and plant infrastructure.
• Strong systems thinking with the ability to identify and resolve technical issues that cross traditional engineering and organizational boundaries.
• Lead and support recruitment and staffing requirements of group.
• Proactive, organized, adaptable, and able to thrive in fast-paced, multi-tasked environments.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• Knowledge of integrated power plant architecture, thermal-fluid systems, power generation systems, auxiliary systems, major plant equipment, and their interfaces, including familiarity with various steam generator technologies such as Heat Recovery Steam Generators and molten salt steam generators.
• Knowledge of equipment procurement, supplier engineering, manufacturing, testing, installation, commissioning, and lifecycle considerations associated with complex industrial systems.
• Skill in leading and developing multidisciplinary engineering organizations and holding teams accountable for technical and execution outcomes.
• Skill in translating program objectives into engineering strategies, priorities, resource plans, and measurable commitments.
• Skill in technical decision-making, trade studies, risk assessment, problem solving, and resolution of complex cross-system issues.
• Ability to establish clear accountability while empowering managers, technical leads, and responsible engineers to make decisions at the appropriate organizational level.
• Ability to operate effectively in a first-of-a-kind environment characterized by technical uncertainty, evolving requirements, and competing priorities.
• Ability to communicate complex technical issues, uncertainties, risks, and tradeoffs to technical and nontechnical stakeholders to support informed decisions.

Physical Demands

• Remaining in a stationary position, often standing, or sitting for prolonged periods
• Moving about to accomplish tasks or moving from one worksite to another
• Repetitive assembly operations of manufacturing test fixtures and test setups in collaboration with engineering and manufacturing teams 
• Communicating with others to exchange information

Environmental Conditions

• General office environment
• Assessing the accuracy, neatness and thoroughness of the work assigned
• High-concentration, demanding and fast-paced
• Prototyping/Test Environments
• Manufacturing/Industrial Environments

Safety and PPE

• Reading and interpreting hazardous warning signs
• Reporting issues with equipment or unsafe conditions
• Wearing proper personal protective equipment (PPE), to include face mask, face shields, gloves, safety shoes, and other PPE as required

Travel

• Some travel may be required (up to 25%) 

Additional Requirements

• Occasionally requires working weekends 
• Occasionally requires schedule flexibility
• Occasionally requires extended hours to support launch and critical project timelines

#LI-Remote

About our Benefits

We know that we have some of the most talented and dedicated employees, and we believe in rewarding them accordingly. If you work here, full-time employees (excludes interns) expect to have access to the benefits below:

• Competitive compensation packages
• Medical, dental and vision benefits for employees and their dependents
• Paid Vacation
• 401(k) and pre-tax health insurance, dependent care, and commuter benefits (FSA)

Kairos Power is committed to building a diverse workforce that reflects the communities where we do business. Kairos Power is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status. We actively welcome people of different experiences, abilities, and perspectives.

Kairos Power participates in E-Verify.

Candidates only, no recruiters or agencies please.

Note: You are applying for a position that is located in a facility that handles information that is subject to export control restrictions by the Department of Energy under 10 CFR Part 810. To work in this facility, you need to be authorized by the Department of Energy to access Part 810-controlled information. Foreign nationals who are citizens of countries that are not on the Department of Energy’s general authorization list (link below) are not permitted to work in our facility unless the Department of Energy issues an export control license to the company to permit that individual to have access to Part 810-controlled information. The following questions are intended to determine the licensing requirements that may apply. https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/10/appendix-A_to_part_810