Physics Engineer Jobs in Houston, TX (NOW HIRING)

REACTOR PHYSICS & NEUTRONICS ENGINEER II
Deployable Energy
Position Summary
Early to Mid-career technical professional supporting reactor physics and neutronics activities within a nuclear energy organization. Works with increasing independence under the direction of senior technical personnel and is expected to take ownership of defined technical tasks, calculations, analyses, documentation, and project-support activities. Applies reactor physics and neutronics principles to support engineering, design, safety, testing, and analytical programs while contributing technical problem-solving and disciplined technical execution.
Functional Scope
• Reactor Physics - Apply core reactor-physics principles including neutron behavior, reactivity, flux distributions, power distributions, depletion, and feedback effects to support design activities, engineering evaluations, technical analyses, and project deliverables.
• Neutronics Analysis - Perform and support neutron-transport, deterministic, shielding-interface, depletion, and reactivity analyses as applicable to evaluate reactor behavior, reactivity control, power distributions, operating conditions, and design performance.
• Criticality Analysis - Support evaluation of fuel and material configurations, reactivity margins, moderation effects, and credible abnormal conditions where applicable.
• Computational Modeling - Develop, execute, maintain, and document analytical models using appropriate reactor-physics and neutronics tools; maintain traceability of assumptions, inputs, methods, and results.
• Core and Coupled-System Analysis - Support evaluations of core design, fuel-loading strategies, reactivity management, control systems, operating limits, and interactions with thermal-hydraulic, mechanical, materials, safety, and other engineering disciplines.
• Physics-Based Simulation - Perform physics-based calculations and simulations to predict reactor performance, investigate design alternatives, assess operating scenarios, support engineering decisions, and contribute to design development and technical-risk reduction.
• Validation & Verification - Support verification of model implementation and analytical methods and participate in validation activities using applicable benchmarks, experimental data, test results, or accepted references.
• Sensitivity and Uncertainty Analysis - Perform sensitivity and uncertainty evaluations to understand the impact of key assumptions, modeling approaches, nuclear data, operating parameters, and input variables on analytical results and technical conclusions.
• Safety and Licensing Support - Provide reactor-physics and neutronics inputs to safety evaluations, design-basis development, licensing analyses, regulatory responses, and supporting technical documentation under senior direction.
• Technical Documentation and Model Configuration - Prepare controlled calculations, technical reports, model records, assumptions logs, review packages, and supporting documentation consistent with company procedures, quality requirements, and configuration-management practices.
Key Responsibilities
• Perform reactor-physics and neutronics calculations and computational analyses appropriate to experience level.
• Develop, execute, and maintain technical models under approved methodologies.
• Support criticality, neutron transport, reactivity, sensitivity, uncertainty, verification, and validation activities as assigned.
• Evaluate technical, measured, experimental, or test data and prepare controlled calculation packages.
• Collaborate with thermal-hydraulics, safety, systems, testing, and other engineering disciplines.
• Follow applicable engineering, quality, safety, configuration-management, and document-control requirements.
• Participate in technical reviews, team meetings, and continuous-improvement activities.
• Take increasing ownership of technical assignments and contribute to evolving technical programs.
Required Qualifications
• Bachelor's degree in Nuclear Engineering, Engineering Physics, Physics, or related discipline.
• Approximately 3-10 years of relevant experience.
• Strong technical fundamentals and willingness to learn within a highly regulated, safety-critical environment.
• Ability to communicate clearly, document technical work, and collaborate across multidisciplinary teams.
• Demonstrated attention to detail, ownership, and problem-solving capability.
Preferred Qualifications
• Experience supporting reactor physics, neutronics, criticality, core design, fuel-cycle, safety-analysis, advanced-reactor, research-reactor, or related nuclear-engineering programs.
• Experience within the nuclear industry, national-laboratory environment, or another highly regulated, safety-critical technical organization.
• Familiarity with recognized reactor-physics, neutron-transport, deterministic, criticality, depletion, shielding, or related analysis methods and computational tools.
• Experience developing, executing, documenting, or reviewing engineering calculations, analytical models, simulations, and technical evaluations.
• Experience supporting verification, validation, benchmarking, uncertainty analyses, test programs, or comparison of analytical results against experimental or operational data.
• Familiarity with applicable engineering standards, quality-assurance requirements, configuration-management practices, and technical-documentation processes.
• Experience working effectively within multidisciplinary or matrixed engineering organizations supporting multiple concurrent projects and stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to adapt quickly to evolving technical priorities and operate effectively in a growing organization.
Core Competencies
• Technical Fundamentals
• Learning Agility
• Quality Focus
• Safety Culture
• Technical Documentation
• Problem Solving
• Team Collaboration
• Accountability
• Continuous Improvement