Senior Licensing Engineer

About the role

The Senior Licensing Engineer will serve as the deputy to the Licensing Manager and will play a leadership role in all licensing and regulatory activities throughout the project lifecycle. This position requires strong technical judgment, systems thinking, and the ability to integrate information across a broad range of engineering disciplines while effectively interacting with regulators, executive leadership, project management, and technical organizations.

Responsibilities

• Support the Licensing Manager in leading all regulatory interactions associated with the review of the License Application.
• Coordinate preparation and execution of NRC technical meetings, management meetings, audits, inspections, and public meetings.
• Lead preparation of Requests for Additional Information (RAI) responses.
• Coordinate technical inputs from engineering organizations to ensure responses are technically sound, complete, and consistent.
• Track NRC review activities, action items, commitments, and correspondence.
• Develop executive briefing materials for project leadership.
• Ensure regulatory commitments are accurately captured and communicated across the project.
• Support preparation of licensing supplements and updates requested by the NRC.
• Monitor licensing schedule performance and identify regulatory risks requiring management attention.
• Maintain and develop the approved licensing basis throughout the project lifecycle.
• Evaluate proposed design changes for licensing impacts.
• Coordinate licensing evaluations supporting engineering change packages.
• Ensure design evolution remains consistent with NRC-approved commitments.
• Prepare and coordinate license amendment requests.
• Support NRC review of amendments and associated technical documentation.
• Carefully coordinate responses to NRC questions during amendment reviews.
• Support NRC inspections conducted during construction.
• Aid engineering organizations in resolving regulatory issues identified during construction.
• Support development of licensing documentation required for commissioning and startup.
• Coordinate regulatory activities associated with operational readiness.
• Maintain regulatory commitment tracking systems.
• Monitor changes to NRC regulations and industry guidance.
• Evaluate regulatory impacts of future plant modifications and capacity expansions.
• Support licensing strategy for future operational improvements.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Nuclear Engineering or a related engineering discipline.
• Minimum 10 years of experience in commercial nuclear licensing, nuclear engineering, or nuclear regulatory affairs.
• Demonstrated experience interacting directly with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
• Strong knowledge of: 10 CFR regulations, NRC licensing processes, nuclear safety analysis, Regulatory documentation, Configuration management.
• Excellent technical writing and communication skills.
• Ability to travel frequently between Oak Ridge and NRC Headquarters.

Preferred Experience

• Supporting NRC review of major license applications.
• Experience with uranium enrichment or fuel cycle facilities licensed under 10 CFR Part 70.
• Experience supporting NRC inspections and audits.
• Experience managing licensing basis documents.
• Experience preparing License Amendment Requests (LARs).
• Experience supporting construction and commissioning of nuclear facilities.

Desired Competencies

• Excellent systems thinking and technical integration skills.
• Strong project management and organizational abilities.
• Outstanding written and verbal communication.
• Ability to influence multidisciplinary organizations.
• Strategic thinking balanced with attention to technical detail.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to work effectively under schedule pressure while maintaining regulatory quality.
• Collaborative leadership style with the ability to build consensus among diverse technical organizations.