Nuclear engineer job description templates for reactor developers, licensing consultants, and radiation services: 6 variants with pay and clearance notes.
Nuclear Engineer Job Description Templates for Small Teams
6 templates for the companies that hire nuclear engineers without a staffing department: plant support, reactor design, licensing consulting, radiation protection, decommissioning, and entry level. Download as DOCX.
The first nuclear engineer job description I ever read closely belonged to a fourteen-person reactor startup, and it had been copied almost verbatim from a large utility. It referenced a fleet procedure library, a configuration management group, and an engineering programs department. None of those existed at the company doing the hiring. The founder could not understand why offers kept falling apart in the final round.
Nuclear is unusual that way. The postings that rank online were written by organizations with thousands of employees, and the employers who most need a template are the ones least like them: advanced reactor developers, licensing consultancies, radiation services businesses, and decommissioning contractors, most of them under a hundred people. National employment in the occupation is about 15,400, so almost every hire is a small-market hire in a national candidate pool.
At FirstHR we write hiring templates for companies without a staffing department. The six below cover plant support, reactor design at an early-stage developer, safety and licensing consulting, radiation protection, decommissioning and waste, and an entry-level associate role, each with the access, export control, and classification language the generic versions leave out.
TL;DR
A nuclear engineer job description has to name the setting, the analysis the role owns, the access authorization requirement, and the export control status, because all four disqualify candidates late otherwise. Nuclear engineers are exempt learned professionals with a national median of $133,970 (BLS OEWS, May 2025). Six templates below, downloadable as DOCX.
Who Actually Hires a Nuclear Engineer
Four kinds of employer hire nuclear engineers, and the job differs so much between them that a single generic posting serves none of them well. The variable that matters is whether a licensing basis already exists, because that determines the scope, the qualifications, and the access requirements.
At an operating plant, the design and licensing basis is fixed and the work is changing things correctly inside it. At an advanced reactor developer, the engineer being hired will write the analysis that becomes the licensing basis. Those are different jobs with the same title.
Operating plant or fleet support
A licensing basis already exists
The design and licensing basis is fixed, the procedures are written, and the job is to change things correctly inside that framework. Access authorization and fitness for duty apply from day one, so clearance timing drives the start date more than notice periods do.
Advanced reactor or fusion developer
The basis is still being written
A small team, pre-revenue, paying partly in equity, hiring engineers whose analysis becomes the licensing basis later. The scope is broader and less defined, which attracts a different candidate and demands a very different posting.
Licensing and safety consulting firm
Billable, client-facing, portable
Small firms selling safety analysis and regulatory strategy. Utilization targets, travel, and client site access requirements belong in the posting because they define the job as much as the technical scope does.
Radiation services and decommissioning
License conditions run the job
Irradiation, isotope production, radiography, remediation, and waste work under an NRC or Agreement State materials license. The license conditions, not a reactor safety analysis report, set the qualifications you must write down.
Write the Posting from the License, Not from the Job Title
Before you write a word, answer two questions. What license does the work sit under, an NRC reactor license, an NRC or Agreement State materials license, or none yet because you are pre-application? And what specific analysis will this person own and sign? The answers give you the qualifications, the access requirements, and the export control posture in one pass. Starting from the job title instead produces a posting that describes the occupation rather than the job, and the occupation is not what anybody is applying to.
What Belongs in a Nuclear Engineer Posting
A nuclear engineer posting does four jobs: it describes the company honestly, it filters on qualifications that genuinely matter, it protects you legally, and it closes a candidate who almost certainly has another offer. Most postings do only the first, and vaguely. Here is the full inventory.
The parts candidates read first
Facility or program type, stated in one sentence
Which analysis this role actually owns
Team size and who checks the work
Where the design or licensing basis stands today
The parts that filter applicants
Degree field and level, marked required or preferred
Specific codes, methods, and tools used daily
Access authorization and fitness for duty requirement
Travel, outage, or field-work expectations
The parts that protect you
FLSA classification stated on the posting
Export control status written accurately, not casually
Essential functions including physical and radiological conditions
Equal opportunity statement
The parts that win the hire
Salary range, and equity structure if you offer it
Professional Engineer support and exam reimbursement
A realistic first-year scope, not a wish list
A named person and a real timeline to decision
The omission that costs small employers most is scope. Candidates want to know which analysis they will own, which codes they will use, and who reviews the work. Vagueness there reads as a company that has not decided what it needs, and experienced engineers avoid it. Our guide to writing a job description covers the general structure, and the rest of the hiring template library covers adjacent roles.
6 Nuclear Engineer Job Description Templates to Download
Download all six as one file or copy them individually. Each follows the same structure: company overview, position summary, key responsibilities, required and preferred qualifications, a compliance note written for that setting, an equal opportunity statement, and how to apply. The bracketed fields are the only parts you need to change.
Download All 6 Nuclear Engineer Job Description Templates
Plant support, reactor design, safety and licensing, radiation protection, decommissioning, and entry level. All in one download.
Nuclear Engineer, Plant Support
Design changes and evaluations
The core operating-plant role: engineering evaluations, design change packages, corrective action, and outage support inside an established licensing basis.
Reactor Design Engineer
Advanced reactor developer
For an early-stage developer: modeling and analysis that sets design parameters, plus the equity and export control language a startup posting needs.
Safety and Licensing Engineer
Consulting, client-facing
For a consulting firm: safety analysis, license amendment requests, change evaluations, and the utilization and travel terms stated up front.
Radiation Protection Engineer
Health physics, materials license
For a licensed materials facility: shielding and dose analysis, ALARA, dosimetry, and the named Radiation Safety Officer question handled honestly.
Decommissioning and Waste
Finite, project-based scope
For remediation and dismantlement projects: waste characterization, packaging and transport, final status survey support, and an honest project duration.
Associate Nuclear Engineer
Entry level, supervised
For a new graduate: supporting calculations under review, a written development path, and a longer onboarding runway than any other role on this page.
Template 1: Nuclear Engineer, Operating Plant Support
The core operating-plant role: engineering evaluations, design change packages, corrective action, and outage support inside an established licensing basis. If your scope is mostly rotating machinery or plant systems, compare it against the mechanical engineer templates before you commit to the nuclear framing.
For an early-stage developer where the design basis is still being set. It carries the equity, scope, and export control language a startup posting needs, and it asks candidates to describe one analysis they owned end to end.
Template 3: Nuclear Safety and Licensing Engineer, Consulting
For a consulting firm: safety analysis, license amendment requests, change evaluations, and regulator correspondence. Utilization targets and travel are stated in the posting rather than revealed in week two.
Nuclear Safety and Licensing Engineer Job Description (Consulting)
NUCLEAR SAFETY AND LICENSING ENGINEER JOB DESCRIPTION (CONSULTING)
Company: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [Practice Lead / Principal / Owner]
Employment type: Full-time [hybrid / remote with travel]
FLSA status: Exempt (learned professional; see classification note)
Compensation: $_ per year, [utilization target ___%]
ABOUT [COMPANY NAME]
[Company Name] is a [number] person consulting firm supporting [utilities /
reactor developers / fuel cycle facilities / research reactors] with safety
analysis, licensing documents, and regulatory strategy. Our clients hire us
because they need the work defended, not just delivered.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Nuclear Safety and Licensing Engineer prepares and defends safety analyses
and licensing submittals, evaluates proposed changes against the licensing
basis, and serves as the technical point of contact for client and regulator
•Perform and review 10 CFR 50.59 and equivalent change evaluations
•Support probabilistic risk assessment work and risk-informed submittals
•Track regulatory developments and assess their impact on client licensing bases
•Respond to regulator requests for additional information with clear, sourced
technical argument
•Support client audits, inspections, and readiness reviews
•Record billable time accurately against project codes and scope
•Mentor junior engineers on documentation standards and review expectations
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•Bachelor's degree in nuclear engineering or a related engineering field;
advanced degree preferred
•[Number] years in nuclear safety analysis, licensing, or regulatory affairs
•Demonstrated authorship of submittals that went to a regulator
•Writing that survives hostile review: this is the core skill of the job
•Willingness to travel to client sites [percentage] of the time
•[U.S. person status required / export control review required: choose one]
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
•Prior NRC, Agreement State, or national laboratory experience
•Professional Engineer license
•Experience across more than one reactor technology or facility type
CLASSIFICATION AND BILLING NOTE
Two traps sit inside consulting roles at small firms. The first is
misclassification: a salaried engineer performing advanced analysis is normally
an exempt learned professional, but a firm that pays hourly with no overtime, or
that engages engineers as independent contractors while setting their schedule,
their tools, their rate, and their method, is exposed on both fronts. The second
is the utilization target. If you set one, publish it in the posting rather than
revealing it in week two, and be explicit about whether proposal work, training,
and travel are billable. Clients may also impose their own access authorization
and fitness for duty requirements on your staff before site work. This is
general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per year, [bonus tied to ___], [travel policy]
To apply, email __ with your resume and one writing sample
you are permitted to share.
Template 4: Radiation Protection / Health Physics Engineer
For a facility operating under an NRC or Agreement State materials license: shielding and dose analysis, ALARA planning, dosimetry, and the named Radiation Safety Officer question handled honestly. Pair it with the quality engineer templates if the same person will also own your quality program.
Radiation Protection / Health Physics Engineer Job Description
RADIATION PROTECTION / HEALTH PHYSICS ENGINEER JOB DESCRIPTION
Company: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [Radiation Safety Officer / RP Manager / Plant Manager]
Employment type: Full-time
FLSA status: Exempt when the primary duty is professional analysis (see note)
Compensation: $_ per year
License basis: [NRC license / Agreement State license] number _____
ABOUT THIS ROLE
[Company Name] operates under [an NRC / an Agreement State] radioactive
•Support radioactive waste characterization, storage, and shipment
•Write and revise radiological procedures and deliver worker training
•Prepare for and support regulatory inspections and license renewals
•Investigate radiological events and drive corrective actions
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•Bachelor's degree in health physics, nuclear engineering, physics, or a
related field
•[Number] years in radiation protection at [a licensed facility / a plant /
a laboratory]
•Working knowledge of 10 CFR Part 20 standards for radiation protection and of
the conditions on our specific license
•Competence with survey instrumentation and dose assessment methods
•Ability to obtain any access authorization our site requires
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
•Certification by the American Board of Health Physics
•Experience serving as or deputizing for a named Radiation Safety Officer
•Transport experience under Department of Transportation requirements
LICENSE AND CLASSIFICATION NOTE
If this role will be named on your license as the Radiation Safety Officer, say
so in the posting, because the named RSO must meet the training and experience
criteria your license specifies and a license amendment is required to change
the name. Many states regulate byproduct material themselves as Agreement
States, so confirm whether your requirements come from the NRC or from your
state agency before you write the qualifications. On classification: a health
physics engineer performing professional analysis is normally exempt, while a
radiation protection technician performing surveys and monitoring under
direction is normally non-exempt, hourly, and owed overtime. Classify on the
actual primary duty, not on the word engineer in the title. This is general
information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per year, [shift or callout premium], [benefits summary]
To apply, email __ with your resume.
Template 5: Decommissioning and Radioactive Waste Engineer
For remediation and dismantlement projects: waste characterization, packaging and transport, final status survey support, and an honest statement of project duration. Site remediation work often overlaps with the environmental engineer templates.
Decommissioning and Radioactive Waste Engineer Job Description
DECOMMISSIONING AND RADIOACTIVE WASTE ENGINEER JOB DESCRIPTION
Company: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [Project Manager / Decommissioning Director]
For a new graduate or a candidate leaving the naval nuclear program: supporting calculations under independent verification, a written development path, and the longest onboarding runway of any role on this page.
•Ask questions early and escalate anything that looks wrong
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•Bachelor's degree in nuclear engineering or a related engineering field
•Coursework or project work in [reactor physics / thermal-hydraulics /
radiation transport / materials]
•Programming or scripting ability in [language]
•Careful, legible technical writing and a willingness to have work checked
•Ability to obtain the access authorization our work requires
•[U.S. person status required / export control review required: choose one]
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
•Internship, co-op, or national laboratory research experience
•Fundamentals of Engineering exam passed or scheduled
•Experience with [any code or tool you actually use]
DEVELOPMENT PATH
•Months 1 to 3: training, procedures, shadowing, supporting calculations
•Months 4 to 12: owning defined calculations with independent verification
•Year 2: independent scope, preparing documents for approval
•Beyond: [analysis lead / project engineer / licensing / PE track]
CLASSIFICATION AND ONBOARDING NOTE
Entry-level is the one nuclear engineering role where the FLSA salary test can
actually bite. The learned professional exemption requires both the advanced
knowledge duty and payment on a salary basis at no less than the standard
salary level of $684 per week, which is $35,568 per year. Nuclear engineering
salaries clear that threshold comfortably, but a part-time, reduced-schedule, or
stipend arrangement may not, so check the arithmetic rather than assuming.
Onboarding for this role is longer than most: access authorization, fitness for
duty enrollment, radiological training, and quality assurance training all
precede independent work. Sequence them before the start date where you can,
because a new graduate sitting idle for three weeks is an expensive way to begin.
This is general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per year, [relocation], [tuition support], [benefits]
To apply, email __ with your resume and transcript.
Access Authorization Is a Hiring Gate, Not Onboarding Paperwork
At an NRC-licensed facility, a candidate who cannot obtain unescorted access authorization cannot perform the essential functions of the job. That makes access a hiring gate rather than a formality to handle after the start date, and it is the single biggest scheduling difference between nuclear hiring and other engineering hiring.
The requirements come from the NRC rule on fitness for duty programs, which obliges covered licensees to run access authorization, behavioral observation, and drug and alcohol testing programs, and to determine that a person is trustworthy and reliable before granting unescorted access. Background investigation, employment and education verification, criminal history, credit review, and psychological assessment are typical components.
Access authorization is a hiring gate
At an NRC-licensed facility, the fitness for duty rule requires covered licensees to run access authorization, behavioral observation, and drug and alcohol testing programs, and to determine that a person is trustworthy and reliable before granting unescorted access. A candidate who cannot clear that process cannot perform the essential functions of the job, however strong the resume is. Treat it as a hiring gate rather than onboarding paperwork: state the requirement in the posting, make the offer contingent on it in writing, start the background investigation the day the offer is accepted, and set the start date from the clearance timeline rather than from the candidate’s notice period. The same requirements usually flow down to contractors and subcontractors, so a consulting firm sending an engineer to a client site inherits them too. This is general information, not legal advice.
Export control shapes your candidate pool
Transferring controlled nuclear technology or assistance to a foreign national can require authorization from the Department of Energy under its rule on assistance to foreign atomic energy activities, and the rule reaches transfers that happen entirely inside the United States, including sharing know-how with your own employee. That is why nuclear postings so often carry a citizenship line. The mistake small employers make is copying that line without a determination behind it. An unjustified citizenship or immigration status requirement creates its own legal exposure under federal anti-discrimination provisions, and a requirement that is genuinely necessary needs to be described accurately rather than as a blanket citizens-only rule. Get the determination from counsel for the specific scope of the role, then write exactly what the determination supports. This is general information, not legal advice.
Nuclear engineers are exempt learned professionals
Engineering appears by name in the Department of Labor guidance on the learned professional exemption as a field of science or learning, and a nuclear engineer performing advanced analysis meets the duties test comfortably. The exemption also carries a salary test: payment on a salary or fee basis at no less than the standard salary level of $684 per week, which is $35,568 per year. At a national median well above $130,000 a year that test is not close, so the practical risks sit elsewhere. Watch three of them. Radiation protection technicians and engineering technicians performing routine work under direction are typically non-exempt and owed overtime. Reduced-schedule or stipend arrangements can fall under the weekly salary floor. And engaging engineers as independent contractors while controlling their schedule, tools, rate, and method is misclassification regardless of the title on the agreement. This is general information, not legal advice.
PE licensure is a state question, not an industry rule
There is no federal engineering license. Professional Engineer licensure is granted by state boards, and whether your role needs one depends on the state, on whether the work involves sealing documents, and on whether an industrial exemption in that state covers engineers working on their employer’s own products and facilities. Plenty of experienced nuclear engineers have never needed a PE, and plenty of consulting engagements require one. Decide before you post, then mark it required, preferred, or not required and mean it, because candidates read that line as a signal about the work itself. If you mark it preferred, say what you will fund: exam fees, review courses, and study time are inexpensive benefits that read as serious investment to an engineer weighing two offers. Confirm the requirement with your state licensing board. This is general information, not legal advice.
Practically, that means the offer letter carries written contingencies and the start date is set from the clearance calendar rather than the candidate's notice period. Our guides to running a background check and to state background check laws cover the notice and consent mechanics that apply on top of the nuclear-specific requirements.
Do Not Let an Engineer Start Before Clearance Because the Schedule Is Tight
The most expensive mistake small nuclear employers make is bringing someone on site or into controlled technology while authorization is still pending, because a project milestone is slipping. Access requirements typically flow down to contractors and subcontractors as well as employees, so a consulting firm sending an engineer to a client site inherits the client's requirements too. Build the timeline backward from the day you need the person productive, assign one owner per step, and hold the line. A shared checklist with real dates beats a mail thread and a spreadsheet every time.
Export Control and Your Candidate Pool
Export control is the second gate, and it is the one small employers get wrong most often. Transferring controlled nuclear technology or assistance to a foreign national can require authorization from the Department of Energy, and the rule reaches transfers that happen entirely inside the United States, including sharing know-how with your own employee.
The governing regulation is the DOE rule on assistance to foreign atomic energy activities, which covers transfers of documents, electronic media, and knowledge and expertise related to controlled nuclear technology. Some destinations carry a general authorization; others require case-by-case approval from the Secretary of Energy.
What employers write
What it should be instead
Citizens only, copied from a large employer's posting
The restriction your own determination supports for this specific scope
Nothing at all about export control
A plain sentence stating that the role is subject to export control review
Must be able to obtain a security clearance
Unescorted access authorization, unless federal clearance is genuinely required
Clearance handled after start
Offer contingent on access authorization, start date set from the clearance timeline
Background check required
The specific components: investigation, verification, psychological assessment, testing
PE license required
Required, preferred, or not required, decided against your state board and the work
An overbroad citizenship requirement is not a safe default. Federal anti-discrimination provisions reach unjustified citizenship and immigration status restrictions, so a rule you cannot tie to an actual determination creates exposure of its own. Get the determination from counsel for the role as scoped, then write exactly what the determination supports and nothing more.
What to Pay a Nuclear Engineer
Nuclear engineering sits near the top of the engineering pay range, and the national spread is wide enough that the median alone will not price your role. Experience, security posture, and geography all move the number substantially.
National Wage Distribution, Nuclear Engineers
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025), nuclear engineers earned a median annual wage of $133,970, which is $64.41 per hour. The distribution runs from $92,960 at the tenth percentile and $108,690 at the twenty-fifth, up through $163,630 at the seventy-fifth and $196,290 at the ninetieth. Total employment was about 15,400 in 2024 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS national estimates).
The percentile ladder is the useful part. A candidate with a decade of licensing experience and current access authorization is priced near the seventy-fifth percentile, not the median, and an associate straight out of a program sits closer to the tenth. Benchmarking against adjacent occupations also helps when you are staffing a mixed team.
Occupation
National median (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
Note for small employers
Nuclear engineers
$133,970 per year
About 15,400 employed nationally; a national, not local, market
Physicists
$172,250 per year
Relevant when you are competing for research-heavy candidates
Nuclear power reactor operators
$122,890 per year
Licensed operator role, not an engineering role; different regulation
Electrical engineers
$120,630 per year
Common cross-hire for instrumentation and controls scope
Health and safety engineers
$115,160 per year
Benchmark for a radiation protection or safety engineering role
Nuclear technicians
$110,240 per year
Technician scope is usually non-exempt; classify on the actual duties
Mechanical engineers
$104,110 per year
The gap here is what a nuclear premium actually costs you
Industrial engineers
$102,440 per year
Useful floor when pricing process and operations support roles
Publish a good-faith range wherever pay transparency laws apply, and if you are an early-stage developer paying partly in equity, state the cash range and the equity structure separately. Candidates leaving a utility or a national laboratory are pricing risk, and they will not guess in your favor.
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A nuclear engineer is an exempt learned professional under the FLSA, so overtime does not apply to the engineering roles on this page. Engineering is named in Department of Labor guidance as a field of science or learning, and the advanced-analysis duties test is met without difficulty.
The exemption still carries a salary test. The professional exemption fact sheet requires payment on a salary or fee basis at no less than $684 per week, which is $35,568 per year. Nuclear engineering salaries clear that easily, so the practical risk sits in adjacent roles rather than in the engineer role itself.
Technicians are where small employers get caught. A radiation protection technician running surveys under direction, or an engineering technician collecting data, is typically non-exempt and owed overtime past forty hours in a week. The word engineer in a title does not settle the question; the actual primary duty does.
Professional Engineer licensure is a separate question and a purely state one. There is no federal engineering license, state boards grant the credential, and whether your role needs one depends on the state, on whether the work involves sealing documents, and on whether an industrial exemption covers engineers working on their employer's own facilities. Decide before you post, mark it required, preferred, or not required, and say what you will fund if you mark it preferred.
Hiring a Nuclear Engineer Without an HR Department
Small nuclear employers fail in three predictable places: the posting describes somebody else's company, the clearance timeline has no owner, and the credential records scatter across four systems. Each has a fix that costs nothing but discipline.
Your posting was copied from a utility and describes a job your company does not have
The nuclear postings that rank online were written by organizations with thousands of employees, a fleet procedure library, and a staffing department. Copy one and you promise a structure you do not have, which is the fastest way to lose a candidate in month four. A fourteen-person reactor developer and a nine-person licensing consultancy are hiring for genuinely different jobs, and both differ from plant support. Say what your company actually is in the first sentence, name the analysis this person will own, and state who checks the work. Engineers leaving large organizations are usually looking for exactly that: scope they can hold end to end instead of a slice of somebody else’s calculation. That is a real advantage, but only if the posting says it out loud.
The clearance timeline collides with the start date and nobody owns the calendar
Nuclear hiring has a long tail that other engineering hiring does not. Access authorization, background investigation, psychological assessment, drug and alcohol testing, radiological worker training, quality assurance training, and export control determination all sit between the signed offer and the first useful day of work. At a large employer a dedicated group runs that sequence. At a small one it lands on whoever hired the person, gets tracked in a spreadsheet and a mail thread, and slips. Build the timeline backward from the day you need the engineer productive, assign one owner per step, and make the contingencies explicit in the offer letter so nobody is surprised. The candidate should know the sequence before accepting, not discover it afterward.
Credentials, training, and requalification records live in four places and expire quietly
Every engineer you hire arrives with documents that have dates attached: degree verification, PE license and its renewal cycle, health physics certification, radiological worker training, respirator fit test and medical clearance, hazardous materials transport training, dosimetry records, and access authorization with its own maintenance requirements. An auditor will ask for the current version of all of it. FirstHR was built for small teams carrying that load without an HR department: the onboarding wizard runs the same sequence for every new engineer, e-signature handles offer letters and policy acknowledgments, document management stores certificates and clearances against each employee profile with renewal dates attached, and training modules track completion. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR. Note that FirstHR is an onboarding and HR platform, not a payroll provider.
Once the offer is signed, the work becomes a repeatable onboarding checklist with dates attached to every item, run the same way for every engineer so nothing depends on remembering. That is the difference between a clearance sequence that completes on schedule and one that discovers a missing medical clearance in week three.
Key Takeaways
Four different employers hire nuclear engineers (operating plants, advanced reactor developers, licensing consultancies, and radiation services or decommissioning firms) and the job differs enough between them that one generic posting serves none of them.
Unescorted access authorization is a hiring gate, not onboarding paperwork: state it in the posting, make the offer contingent on it in writing, and set the start date from the clearance calendar.
Export control can require Department of Energy authorization before you share controlled nuclear technology with a foreign national, including inside the United States, so write the citizenship line from an actual determination rather than copying one.
Nuclear engineers earned a national median of $133,970 a year with a tenth-to-ninetieth percentile spread of $92,960 to $196,290 (BLS OEWS, May 2025), and total employment was only about 15,400.
Nuclear engineers are exempt learned professionals well above the $684 per week salary floor, but radiation protection and engineering technicians performing routine work under direction are typically non-exempt and owed overtime.
Professional Engineer licensure is decided by state boards and by whether an industrial exemption applies, so mark it required, preferred, or not required after checking, and say what you will fund.
Every nuclear hire arrives with documents that expire: degree verification, PE renewals, health physics certification, radiological training, fit tests, transport training, and access authorization with its own maintenance requirements. FirstHR runs the same onboarding sequence for every engineer, with e-signature for offers and acknowledgments, document storage for certificates and clearances, and renewal dates tracked so an audit never finds a gap. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a nuclear engineer do?
A nuclear engineer designs, analyzes, and supports systems that use nuclear reactions or radiation, and produces the calculations and documentation that prove those systems are safe. The day-to-day work varies enormously by employer. At an operating plant it is engineering evaluations, design change packages, and corrective action inside an established licensing basis. At an advanced reactor developer it is modeling and analysis that sets design parameters before any licensing basis exists. At a consulting firm it is safety analysis and licensing submittals defended in front of a regulator. At a licensed materials facility it is shielding, dose assessment, and radiological controls. Because the title covers all four, a posting that does not name the setting and the specific analysis the role owns attracts the wrong applicants and loses the right ones.
What should a nuclear engineer job description include?
A nuclear engineer job description should include the facility or program type in one sentence, the specific analysis the role owns, the codes and methods used daily, the degree field and level marked required or preferred, the access authorization and fitness for duty requirement, the export control status of the role, travel and outage expectations, the FLSA classification, the salary range, and any equity if you are an early-stage developer. The access and export control lines matter more here than in any other engineering posting, because both can disqualify a strong candidate after you have already invested weeks in the process. State them up front so candidates self-select. Add the equal opportunity statement, name a real person to apply to, and give a decision timeline.
How much does a nuclear engineer make?
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025), nuclear engineers earned a national median annual wage of $133,970, which is $64.41 per hour. The full distribution runs from $92,960 at the tenth percentile through $108,690 at the twenty-fifth, $163,630 at the seventy-fifth, and $196,290 at the ninetieth. That is one of the higher medians in engineering: mechanical engineers sat at $104,110 and electrical engineers at $120,630 in the same survey. Total employment was small, roughly 15,400 in 2024, so the market is national rather than local and candidates move for the right role. Benchmark against comparable employers rather than the national median, and publish a good-faith range wherever pay transparency rules apply.
Are nuclear engineers exempt from overtime?
Yes, in essentially every professional case. Engineering is named in Department of Labor guidance as a field of science or learning for the learned professional exemption, and a nuclear engineer performing advanced analysis meets the duties test. The exemption also requires payment on a salary or fee basis at no less than the standard salary level of $684 per week, which is $35,568 per year, and nuclear engineering salaries clear that comfortably. The real classification risks are adjacent. Radiation protection technicians and engineering technicians performing routine work under direction are typically non-exempt and owed overtime past forty hours in a week. Part-time or stipend arrangements can fall below the weekly salary floor. And engaging engineers as independent contractors while setting their schedule, tools, rate, and method is misclassification whatever the agreement says. This is general information, not legal advice.
Do nuclear engineers need a security clearance?
Most commercial nuclear roles need unescorted access authorization rather than a federal security clearance, and the two are different things. Access authorization is granted by the licensee under the NRC fitness for duty and physical protection rules, and involves a background investigation, employment and education verification, criminal history, credit review, psychological assessment, drug and alcohol testing, and ongoing behavioral observation. A federal security clearance is granted by a government agency and is normally required only for national security work, weapons programs, or certain Department of Energy sites. Treat access authorization as a hiring gate: state it in the posting, make the offer contingent on it in writing, and set the start date from the clearance timeline. The same requirements generally flow down to contractors working on site.
Can we hire a foreign national as a nuclear engineer?
Sometimes, but the answer depends on the specific scope of the role and it needs a determination rather than an assumption. Transferring controlled nuclear technology or assistance to a foreign national can require authorization from the Department of Energy under its rule on assistance to foreign atomic energy activities, and that rule covers transfers made inside the United States, including sharing know-how with your own employee. Some destinations are generally authorized and others need case-by-case approval. The mistake small employers make is copying a citizens-only line from a large employer's posting without a determination behind it, which creates exposure under federal anti-discrimination provisions when the restriction is not actually required. Get the determination from counsel for the role as scoped, then write exactly what it supports. This is general information, not legal advice.
How do I hire a nuclear engineer as a small company with no HR department?
Run a compressed, well-sequenced process, because the candidate pool is small and national. Write a posting that says what your company genuinely is, names the analysis the role owns, states the access and export control requirements, and publishes a range. Screen on documented analysis ownership rather than years served, and ask for one calculation or report the candidate can describe end to end. Move fast on the decision, then start the long tail immediately: access authorization, background investigation, training, and export control determination all sit between the signed offer and the first productive day. Assign one owner per step and make the contingencies explicit in the offer letter. FirstHR runs that onboarding sequence with e-signature, document management, and renewal tracking for certificates and clearances. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
