Test Manager, Helium Test Facility
$150,000–$187,500 year
On-siteRockville, Maryland, United States
Job Summary
Lead test campaign execution and design decisions for the XE-100 helium test facility, managing planning, vendor coordination, and facility operations to ensure high-quality engineering deliverables. Create and implement test plans, review output data, and produce reports based on findings while maintaining strict adherence to Quality Assurance requirements. Manage a multidisciplinary team of engineers and contractors, driving convergence of efforts across design, vendors, and operators to meet schedule and budget targets. Make high-stakes go/no-go decisions that shape program outcomes and commercial deployment timelines. Work within a multidisciplinary engineering team to create the next generation nuclear reactor technologies.
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in mechanical, electrical, or nuclear engineering or related discipline from an accredited university or college
- Ten plus years of professional experience in engineering after completion of undergraduate study
- Experience estimating time and resources needed to execute engineering activities
- Hands on experience with hardware development, testing and experimentation
- Demonstrated experience with design of experiment and test planning
- Experience working under a formal quality assurance framework such as ISO 9000, ASTM or NQA-1
- Leadership experience on hardware and testing related projects
Desired Qualifications
- Proven track record leading industrial-scale test campaigns in high-pressure, high-temperature environments — particularly helium loops, gas-cooled systems, or similarly demanding test conditions where failure costs millions and delays programs
- Cross-disciplinary technical fluency spanning mechanical, fluid, electrical, and systems engineering — enabling you to bridge specialist silos, make informed trade-off decisions across domains, and spot integration risks others miss
- Demonstrated success managing and holding vendors accountable for complex test hardware or facility deliverables — including negotiating technical specifications, evaluating vendor proposals, adjudicating non-conformances, and making accept/reject decisions on high-value equipment
- Working knowledge of ASME and ASTM codes governing pressure vessels, piping systems, and structural materials in extreme environments — sufficient to challenge vendor interpretations, guide design decisions, and ensure regulatory defensibility of test infrastructure
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