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Antares

Senior Mechanical Design Engineer (PCS)

Location

Los Angeles, CA

Wage

$145,000 – $185,000/yr

Employment Type

Full-time

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Posted on September 15, 2026

Job Description

Overview

Antares is on a mission to make clean energy abundant from Earth to the Asteroid Belt by building mass-producible, inherently safe, deployable microreactors. The Senior Mechanical Design Engineer will design hardware for the Power Conversion System, integrating various components into a functional power plant.

Responsibilities

  • Own the mechanical arrangement and pressure budget of the Power Conversion System.
  • Design the working-fluid pressure boundary including piping, joints, and penetrations.
  • Define the mechanical arrangement and maintenance architecture for rotating machinery.
  • Manage mechanical interfaces to major PCS components, reactor, and safety systems.
  • Support test rig design and instrumentation placement.
  • Engineer components for high-temperature and high-stress service.
  • Perform design-for-manufacturability and assembly assessments.
  • Collaborate with Mechanical, Electrical, Safety, and Nuclear teams.

Requirements

  • Bachelor's degree in Mechanical, Aerospace, or a related engineering discipline.
  • 5+ years of experience including hands-on CAD, analysis, fabrication support, and test.
  • Experience designing pressure-retaining or leak-tight fluid hardware.
  • Experience releasing production-intent mechanical drawings and models for fabrication.
  • Experience designing hardware for elevated-temperature or high-stress service.
  • Experience working the mechanical interfaces between multiple components.

Benefits

Additional Information

  • Location: Torrance, CA in a new facility with large open spaces for collaboration and R&D.
  • Facility has easy access to major freeways.
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How this job compares in Los Angeles, CA

Pay in context

At roughly $79/hr, this posting sits about 84% above the $43/hr median for welding jobs in Los Angeles, CA — toward the top of a $34–$60/hr middle band drawn from 61 postings with published pay. Put another way, it pays more than about 95% of the comparable postings we have wage data for. Pay that far above local median usually comes attached to something: a harder cert requirement, travel, night shift, or overtime that isn't really optional. Worth establishing which before you accept.

The local market in Los Angeles, CA

We're tracking 84 other active welding openings in Los Angeles, CA right now, from 59 different employers. 31 of them were added in the last week. Across California as a whole we're tracking 623 other active welding openings from 288 employers. A metro this active generally means you have real leverage — employers here are competing for the same welders. Browse every welding job in Los Angeles, or widen the search to California.

Antares currently has 4 other openings live in California, which is usually a sign of either steady growth or steady turnover — worth asking which in the interview.

The most active employers in California at the moment, by number of open welding reqs, are SpaceX (34), Vast (22), and Relativity Space (20). Volume like that usually means either a genuine expansion or a staffing agency working several client sites — worth knowing which before you apply.

Within California, the best-paying metros we track by median hourly rate are Redondo Beach at $71/hr, Long Beach at $54/hr, and Torrance at $43/hr. If you can relocate or commute, that spread is worth factoring in.

Similar openings near Los Angeles, CA

Pay figures are medians computed from live postings in the Welding Pros index, not from survey data, and they move as employers post. Senior Mechanical Design Engineer (PCS) figures were last recalculated when this page was built.