Principal Software Engineer, HPC DevOps

Job description

ABOUT RADIANT Radiant is an El Segundo, CA-based startup building the world’s first mass-produced, portable nuclear microreactors. The company’s first reactor, Kaleidos, is a 1-megawatt, fail-safe microreactor that can be transported anywhere power is needed and run for up to 5 years without refueling. Portable nuclear power with rapid-deploy capability can replace similar-sized diesel generators and provide critical asset support for hospitals, data centers, remote sites, and military bases. Radiant’s unique, practical approach to nuclear development leverages modern software engineering to rapidly deliver safe, factory-built microreactors that use existing, well-qualified materials. Founded in 2020, Radiant is on track to test its first reactor at the Idaho National Laboratory this summer, with initial customer deliveries beginning in 2028. ABOUT THE ROLE Radiant is seeking a driven Principal Software Engineer to own developer productivity, high performance compute infrastructure, and scientific computing workflows. You'll build and maintain the on-site HPC infrastructure and scientific computing environments that hard-science users depend on daily, working closely with the software team to design scalable, resilient tooling that lets engineers focus on their science, not their infrastructure. As a technical lead, you'll define team scope, shape individual responsibilities, and serve as the primary liaison between engineering and software teams, the subject-matter expert on workflows, tooling, and compute optimization. The ideal candidate is patient and organized, comfortable managing high volumes of cross-disciplinary requests, and capable of diving deep into complex legacy stacks to synthesize findings. The infrastructure and culture you build will help design, run, and mass-produce the first high-temperature gas-cooled portable microreactor ever to be commercialized. RESPONSIBILITIES & DUTIES - Own workflows, tooling, and performance for scientific computing, including Ansys, STAR-CCM+, and Abaqus, covering licensing, environment setup, job orchestration, and results infrastructure. - Serve as the go-between for engineering teams and software, fielding HPC questions, simulation software issues, and infrastructure needs from nuclear, thermal, materials, mechanical, and electrical engineers, translating them into actionable work. - Triage inbound infrastructure requests, HPC/MPI/Linux debugging, job failure analysis, and shell and systems mentorship, while prioritizing effectively and communicating clearly across stakeholders. - Modernize legacy scientific computing systems and tooling, migrating to current stacks to improve maintainability, performance, and developer experience. - Partner with DevOps engineers to architect and maintain systems across AWS and on-premises Linux environments, ensuring high availability, security, and performance for mission-critical workloads. - Architect tools supporting build systems, testing frameworks, deployment automation, and developer environments. REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS & SKILLS - Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Physics or a related technical field. - 8+ years of professional experience in developer productivity, site reliability, DevOps, infrastructure, or platform engineering. - Deep Linux and sysadmin fluency, file systems, process management, and networking, with a hard-science approach to problem-solving. - Strong proficiency in one or more languages: Python, Golang, Rust, C#, or C/C++. - Strong code review skills, including the ability to read stack traces and chase down dense rabbit holes in high-compliance, legacy scientific software environments. - Exceptional communication skills; organized and effective when fielding a high volume of questions and requests from engineering stakeholders. - Ability to dive deep into complex, nested legacy stacks and then zoom out to synthesize findings clearly for a broader technical audience. DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS & SKILLS - Master's degree or higher in Computer Science, Engineering, Physics, or a related technical field. - Hands-on physical infrastructure experience: server hardware, rack configuration, data center ops, or high-throughput networking (InfiniBand, Slingshot, AWS EFA). - Experience working cross-functionally with engineering teams across mechanical, electrical, materials, and nuclear disciplines. - Working experience with Kubernetes and Docker for orchestration and deployment. - Cloud infrastructure experience with Ansible, Terraform, or AWS in a cloud-native or hybrid environment. - Hands-on experience with HPC environments, simulation workloads, or academic/research computing (SLURM, PBS, MPI, Lustre, EFS, AWS ParallelCluster, or similar). - Comfortable picking up frontend work when needed, React or general JavaScript experience is a plus; an open mind toward full-stack contributions is more important than depth here. ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS: - Must be willing to work extended hours and weekends as necessary to accomplish our mission. - Must work 100% onsite at El Segundo HQ. BENEFITS AND PERKS - Stock: Substantial incentive stock plan for all full-time employees. - Medical: 100% up to base silver level plan for employee + 50% dependents, offers up to Platinum plans. - One Medical: Sponsored memberships for employees and their dependents. - Vision: 100% top tier plan coverage + 50% for dependents. - Dental: 100% top tier plan coverage, orthodontia extra, 50% for dependents. - Voluntary life, accident, hospital, critical illness, commuter and FSA/HSA are offered as employee contributed benefits. - 8-weeks of paid parental leave for all parents. Additional paid pregnancy leave for CA employees. - Daily catered lunch. Free snacks and drinks. - Flexible PTO policy. Remote workday allocation. - Company and team-bonding events, happy hours and in-person camaraderie. - Beautiful El Segundo headquarters close to the Pacific Ocean. Total Compensation and Benefits Radiant compensates people for impact and invests in those who continue to raise the bar. Radiant’s new hire compensation package includes base salary, substantial equity grants, and comprehensive health benefits. Total compensation and level are determined through a rigorous evaluation of interview performance, experience, education, and qualifications, and are designed to support continued growth as scope, responsibility, and impact expand at Radiant. The best of today’s advanced reactor builders don’t wait for job postings. They join the winning team. If that’s you, contact us directly for immediate opportunities: recruiting@radiantnuclear.com. We are an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, age, national origin, disability status, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. This position involves access to technology that is subject to U.S. export controls. Any job offer made will be contingent upon the applicant’s capacity to serve in compliance with U.S. export controls.