Remote Electric Utility Designer Jobs in Reston, VA

Opportunity track: SEA
Engagement: Contingent individual consultant; engagement may be direct or through an eligible U.S. consulting firm
Location: Remote — United States, with possible international travel
Primary promotion location: Washington, DC 20001
Anticipated consulting fee: $175–$325 per hour, or a negotiated fixed price by work package

Axyde is building a senior expert bench for anticipated U.S. government-funded project-scoping assignments involving civilian nuclear-power development and the institutional, regulatory, workforce, grid, site, fuel-cycle, security, safeguards, waste-management, and physical infrastructure required for responsible deployment in the Indo-Pacific.

Potential assignments may involve large light-water reactors, small modular reactors, microreactors, advanced reactors, nuclear-related infrastructure, or technical assistance for countries and utilities considering new or expanded civil nuclear programs. The selected specialist will help Axyde determine whether a proposed initiative has a credible development rationale, appropriate institutional foundations, realistic readiness and schedule assumptions, an implementable pathway, and an appropriately designed next-stage feasibility study or technical-assistance assignment.

Axyde welcomes specialists whose principal strength is program development, policy, regulation, licensing, safety, safeguards, security, owner/operator readiness, project delivery, grid integration, siting, workforce, fuel services, waste management, or financing. Applicants are not expected to be equally expert in every civil-nuclear discipline.

This is a project-scoping and advisory role. It does not authorize the consultant to approve reactor designs, make regulatory determinations, certify nuclear safety, or perform work outside the consultant’s professional qualifications and assignment-specific authorizations.

• Assess program and project maturity, institutional readiness, technology readiness, sponsor capacity, ownership and delivery models, and principal enabling conditions.
• Evaluate alignment with recognized civil-nuclear infrastructure-development frameworks, including relevant IAEA guidance and host-country requirements.
• Review licensing pathways, regulatory capability and independence, nuclear-law considerations, stakeholder responsibilities, quality-assurance expectations, and decision-gate requirements at a project-scoping level.
• Assess nuclear-safety, security, safeguards, nonproliferation, emergency-preparedness, cybersecurity, physical-protection, and information-management requirements without requesting or reproducing restricted information.
• Evaluate siting, land, geotechnical, seismic, hydrological, cooling-water, environmental, climate-resilience, transportation, logistics, construction, and emergency-planning dependencies.
• Assess grid size, stability, interconnection, transmission, reserve, load-following, black-start, off-grid, district-energy, or industrial-use considerations, as applicable.
• Evaluate high-level fuel-supply, spent-fuel, radioactive-waste, decommissioning, liability, insurance, and long-term stewardship considerations.
• Review workforce-development, operator and regulator staffing, training, certification, supply-chain, localization, and nuclear-quality-culture requirements.
• Develop or independently review preliminary development pathways, milestone schedules, cost ranges, financing assumptions, procurement strategies, and implementation risks at a level appropriate to the available information.
• Develop or review technical tasks, required qualifications, deliverables, schedules, and budgets for feasibility studies, technical assistance, institutional-capacity programs, site or grid studies, and other project-preparation activities.
• Compare development alternatives and identify material data gaps, decision criteria, risk mitigations, specialized studies, and stage-gate recommendations.
• Assess potential participation by eligible U.S. equipment, technology, fuel-service, engineering, training, software, and advisory providers.
• Participate in non-sensitive sponsor interviews, technical-diligence calls, and occasional site visits involving ministries, regulators, utilities, owner/operators, financiers, and prospective U.S. suppliers.
• Contribute to concept consultations, initial assessments, project reports, presentations, and civil-nuclear sector deep dives.
• Clearly distinguish public or authorized source information, professional judgments, assumptions, limitations, and matters requiring determination by a competent regulator, licensed engineer, nuclear operator, safeguards authority, or other responsible institution.

• Degree in nuclear, mechanical, electrical, civil, chemical, systems, or related engineering; physical science; public policy; or equivalent senior regulatory, operator, program, or project-delivery experience.
• At least 10 years of directly relevant civil-nuclear project-development, regulatory, licensing, engineering, operations, safety, safeguards, security, institutional-readiness, or advisory experience.
• Demonstrated experience evaluating, planning, developing, regulating, operating, or independently reviewing civilian nuclear programs, facilities, or enabling infrastructure.
• Experience translating technical, institutional, regulatory, and commercial findings into practical development plans, scopes of work, schedules, budgets, decision criteria, and risk-mitigation measures.
• Ability to integrate nuclear safety, security, safeguards, regulatory, institutional, technical, environmental, commercial, and implementation considerations without overstating the accuracy of early-stage information.
• Ability and willingness to work strictly within all applicable classification, export-control, nuclear-information, cybersecurity, proprietary-information, and records-handling requirements.
• Strong analytical writing skills, mature judgment, and the ability to work under compressed schedules.
• Contract-required status: The individual performing the work must be either a U.S. citizen or a lawful permanent resident of the United States (green-card holder). Other forms of U.S. work authorization do not satisfy the stated requirements of the anticipated contract. A consultant engaged directly as an individual must maintain a principal place of business in the United States. A consultant proposed through a firm must be employed or engaged through an entity that independently satisfies the solicitation’s U.S.-firm requirements. Meeting this requirement does not by itself establish eligibility to receive export-controlled, classified, safeguards, or other restricted information; all assignment-specific access rules will apply.

• Professional Engineer registration, former nuclear regulator or operator experience, recognized nuclear-safety or project credential, or another directly relevant qualification.
• Experience with small modular or advanced reactors, international nuclear projects, newcomer countries, or national nuclear-infrastructure assessments.
• Familiarity with IAEA Milestones guidance, U.S. civil-nuclear export and cooperation frameworks, nuclear quality-assurance programs, or comparable international requirements.
• Experience preparing or independently reviewing feasibility-study, technical-assistance, institutional-development, owner-engineering, site, grid, workforce, or regulatory-development scopes and budgets.
• Familiarity with project financing, export credit, sovereign support, government-to-government cooperation, and risk allocation for civil-nuclear programs.
• Experience assessing potential U.S. equipment, technology, fuel-service, engineering, training, or advisory participation in international projects.
• Indo-Pacific experience and familiarity with host-country ministries, regulators, utilities, U.S. government agencies, multilateral institutions, or development-finance organizations.

This is a contingent consulting opportunity, not an offer of full-time employment. No award, assignment, minimum number of hours, or minimum compensation is guaranteed. Engagement depends on contract award, assignment fit, eligibility, conflicts, availability, required authorizations, successful completion of Axyde’s due diligence, and agreement on scope and pricing. The stated fee range is an anticipated range; the final rate or fixed price will depend on experience, role, work-package requirements, and applicable cost-reasonableness requirements.

Some assignments may require rapid turnaround, irregular coordination across time zones, or international travel. Travel requirements, approvals, insurance, security protocols, information-access conditions, and reimbursable costs will be addressed in the applicable consulting agreement or work order.

Participation in a U.S. Trade and Development Agency project-scoping assignment may make the participating consultant or subcontracting entity ineligible to compete—whether as a prime contractor, subcontractor, or otherwise—for certain USTDA-funded follow-on activities resulting from that assignment, unless USTDA grants a waiver. Axyde will disclose the applicable restriction and obtain written acceptance before issuing a work order.

Selected specialists may be asked for written permission to include their name, qualifications, and resume in a proposal. Applying does not by itself authorize Axyde to represent that an applicant has committed to a proposal or assignment.

Work performed under an awarded contract will be limited to information and activities authorized for the assignment and will be subject to applicable confidentiality, data-rights, export-control, nuclear-information, information-security, professional-responsibility, and conflict-of-interest requirements. Any background intellectual property, proprietary models, datasets, or licensed software should be identified before an assignment begins.

Apply through Axyde’s online application form using the heading SEA – Civil Nuclear Infrastructure Specialist. Please provide:

• A resume or CV of no more than three pages.
• Two or three concise, non-sensitive project examples identifying your role, jurisdiction, facility or program type, project stage, principal questions, and the resulting work product or decision.
• Your principal specialty or specialties: program development, regulation, licensing, safety, safeguards, security, owner/operator readiness, project delivery, siting, grid integration, workforce, fuel services, waste management, financing, or another clearly identified area.
• Your U.S. location, travel availability, availability during the anticipated performance period, and proposed hourly rate or fixed-price basis.
• A self-attestation that you are either a U.S. citizen or a lawful permanent resident and, if you would contract directly as an individual, that your principal place of business is in the United States. Applicants proposing engagement through a firm should identify the firm and confirm that it meets the applicable solicitation definition of a U.S. firm.
• Any relevant professional licenses, regulatory or operator experience, clearances or access authorizations currently held, and nuclear-specific credentials. Do not provide clearance numbers, access credentials, protected personal information, or supporting identity documents with the initial application.
• Any known organizational conflicts, current client restrictions, vendor relationships, or planned pursuits of potentially related USTDA-funded work.

Do not submit classified information, Controlled Unclassified Information, Safeguards Information, Restricted Data, Formerly Restricted Data, Export Controlled Information, proprietary reactor-design information, security-sensitive information, passport or green-card copies, Social Security numbers, clearance documentation, or other protected records. Public, authorized, and appropriately anonymized project descriptions are sufficient for the initial application. Axyde will request only the documentation and information needed at the appropriate stage of selection and engagement.

Axyde considers qualified applicants without regard to any status protected by applicable law. The citizenship or permanent-residence limitation above applies solely to work covered by the stated U.S. government contract requirements.