Senior Technical Advisor for Materials Engineering
What you'd do
This position is located in Division of Advanced Reactor Science. This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies within the agency. The supervisor is Ravi Penmetsa. This position is subject to Public Financial Disclosure reporting requirements. This position is subject to security ownership restriction reporting requirements.
Major duties
The successful candidate will serve as an agency authority on materials science and engineering for advanced nuclear reactors, including structural and pressure-boundary materials, fuel and cladding materials, graphite and ceramic composites, and coolant-compatible materials, across the full lifecycle of design, fabrication, operation, and decommissioning, with particular emphasis on materials qualification, performance, and degradation in the high-temperature, high-fluence, and chemically aggressive environments characteristic of advanced reactor technologies. Duties include but are not limited to: Serves as an agency staff technical expert on advanced reactor materials. Advises senior management on highly complex safety and licensing issues associated with materials behavior, qualification, and degradation in advanced reactor environments. Provides independent and expert evaluation of NRC and industry approaches to materials selection, qualification, fabrication, in-service surveillance, aging management, and end-of-life characterization for advanced reactors. Performs independent technical reviews of, or leads and directs teams charged with resolving, significant and complex materials issues, including high-temperature creep and creep-fatigue, irradiation-induced damage, environmentally assisted cracking, thermal aging, helium embrittlement, void swelling, graphite oxidation and dimensional change, fuel-cladding chemical interaction, and coolant compatibility, affecting the design, operation, and licensing of advanced reactor facilities. Independently pursues resolution of highly complex issues of safety significance which involve coordination and communication with many parts of the agency, applicants, the Department of Energy (DOE), industry, and the public. Represents the agency on national and international working groups, code and standards committees (e.g., ASME Section III, Section II, and Code Cases for non-LWR materials; ASTM E10 on nuclear technology; ANS materials standards committees), and technical conference committees associated with the development and use of advanced reactor materials. Engages with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), the Generation IV International Forum (GIF) Materials and Component Integrity working groups, and bilateral counterparts on advanced reactor materials matters.
What you need to qualify
In order to qualify for this position, you must have at least ten years of specialized experience at the next lower grade level in the Federal service or equivalent experience in the private or public sector. SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE is defined as: an extensive theoretical and applied background in one or more of the technical disciplines important to advanced reactor materials; experience applying NRC regulatory frameworks (10 CFR Parts 50, 52, 53 and 57) to materials qualification and performance evaluation; strong knowledge of NRC's regulatory policies and practices; and extensive experience in communicating complex technical and regulatory information The ideal candidate will be able to demonstrate the following: Demonstrated extensive knowledge of and experience in the theories, principles, and especially practices in the field of materials science and engineering as it relates to the design, fabrication, qualification, operation, and especially safety analysis of advanced nuclear reactors, including non-light-water reactors, small modular reactors (SMRs), and microreactors, with emphasis on materials behavior in high-temperature, high-fluence, and chemically aggressive environments. Equal emphasis is placed on the ability to frame and evaluate materials issues in the context of the broader advanced reactor safety case, including the role of materials performance and uncertainty in licensing basis events; the selection, classification, and special treatment of safety-related and non-safety-related with special treatment structures, systems, and components; defense in depth; and the integrated safety analyses supporting advanced reactor licensing decisions. Demonstrated extensive knowledge of, and experience as a recognized expert in, the theories and principles, methods, and especially practical applications of the NRC's licensing and regulatory frameworks for advanced reactor materials, including 10 CFR Parts 50, 52, 53, and 57; the General Design Criteria and principal design criteria for non-light-water reactors as they relate to reactor coolant pressure boundary integrity, fuel design, and reactor coolant system materials; and fuel qualification methodologies (e.g., the framework reflected in NRC Regulatory Guide 1.232 and associated guidance for non-LWR fuel qualification). Extensive experience with the development, content, and regulatory use of endorsed industry codes and standards, and ANS standards relevant to advanced reactor materials and fuels. Applications should clearly demonstrate ability to achieve significant and useful results. Equal emphasis is placed on demonstrated problem-solving ability and a record of developing technically sound and regulatorily defensible solutions, including alternative approaches, exemptions, license conditions, programmatic commitments, staff positions, and other regulatory pathways, that enable successful licensing actions for advanced reactor designs under conditions of incomplete data, novel materials, or evolving qualification methods. Demonstrated extensive knowledge of, and experience as a recognized expert in, the theories and principles, and methods of advanced reactor materials qualification and licensing, and demonstrated leadership in establishing new approaches and leveraging emerging technologies to address novel materials challenges that do not easily lend themselves to traditional qualification methods (e.g., use of historical irradiation databases, accelerated qualification approaches, surrogate and small-specimen testing, integrated computational materials engineering (ICME), digital twins, physics-based and data-driven modeling, machine learning and advanced data analytics applied to materials databases, and risk-informed treatment of materials uncertainties to support timely deployment of advanced reactors). Demonstrated advanced oral and written communication skills, and experience effectively conveying and presenting complex and detailed information of a technical and/or policy nature to colleagues, peers, senior management officials, and representatives of other institutions, agencies, or organizations. Equal emphasis is placed on demonstrated experience advising senior leadership on both the technical aspects and the regulatory implications of complex advanced reactor materials issues, including counseling management on the likely effect of technical positions, policy decisions, code endorsements, and licensing precedents on the broader advanced reactor regulatory framework and licensing pipeline. Demonstrated ability to function as an organizational representative and liaison on substantive technical and policy issues, and to achieve cooperation and consensus among parties engaged in joint or parallel efforts. Equal emphasis is placed on the ability to function as an effective contributing member of multi-disciplinary internal review teams, integrating materials judgments with inputs from thermal-fluids, reactor physics, fuel performance, structural, instrumentation and control, and probabilistic risk assessment specialists, to support timely and integrated advanced reactor licensing actions. A description of how you possess the specialized experience as well as how you meet the qualifications desired in an ideal candidate must be addressed in your resume. Applicants may also use the supplemental vacancy question to provide additional information pertaining to the specialized experience and ideal candidate criteria. PLEASE BE CLEAR AND CONCISE. WE WILL NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE.
Before you apply
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