Manufacturing Engineer

Location: Oak Ridge, TN

Schedule: Full-Time

Standard Nuclear is fueling America’s nuclear renaissance at industrial scale. Our mission is to deliver the essential building blocks of nuclear power—enabling cost-effective, safe, and secure energy for the world.

The Manufacturing Engineer is responsible for improving the flow, scalability, and production readiness of Standard Nuclear’s fuel characterization activities. This role works at the intersection of characterization, manufacturing, quality, and engineering to ensure that sample preparation, measurement, data review, and reporting processes can support increasing production demand.

This is a hands-on engineering role focused on turning characterization from a development-oriented laboratory function into a reliable manufacturing support operation. The Manufacturing Engineer will help identify bottlenecks, improve workflows, develop standard work, support capacity planning, and implement process improvements that increase throughput, consistency, and traceability.

The role requires enough technical understanding of materials characterization to work effectively with scientists and technical staff, while bringing a practical manufacturing mindset focused on cycle time, repeatability, equipment utilization, data flow, and production support.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Characterization Process Improvement

• Analyze characterization workflows from sample receipt through preparation, measurement, review, reporting, and release

• Identify bottlenecks, queue times, rework loops, and process gaps that limit characterization throughput

• Develop and implement improvements to reduce cycle time, improve consistency, and support production schedules

• Establish standard work, process maps, visual management tools, and workflow controls for characterization activities

• Support transition of characterization methods from development workflows into repeatable production support processes

Manufacturing & Production Support

• Partner with manufacturing, fuel development, quality, and characterization teams to align characterization capacity with production needs

• Help define characterization requirements, timing, and readiness inputs needed to support fuel production

• Support production planning by providing characterization capacity assumptions, turnaround times, and constraint information

• Work with technical teams to ensure sample flow, data review, and reporting processes support manufacturing decision-making

• Assist in resolving production delays or quality issues related to characterization throughput, data availability, or sample processing

Capacity Planning & Throughput Analysis

• Develop and maintain capacity models for characterization equipment, sample preparation steps, technician workflows, and data review processes

• Track key metrics such as sample throughput, turnaround time, equipment utilization, backlog, rework, and schedule adherence

• Use data to identify constraints and support prioritization of equipment, staffing, automation, and process improvement needs

• Help forecast characterization demand based on production plans, development programs, and qualification activities

• Communicate capacity risks and resource constraints clearly to characterization leadership and cross-functional stakeholders

Laboratory Systems, Equipment & Workflow Support

• Support layout, workflow, and equipment utilization improvements within characterization laboratory areas

• Assist with implementation, qualification, and readiness of characterization and sample preparation equipment

• Work with technical staff to improve equipment scheduling, preventive maintenance coordination, and tool availability

• Support sample tracking, data handoff, records management, and reporting systems

• Identify opportunities for automation, image analysis improvements, data capture improvements, and reduced manual handling&n