The Nuclear I&C Development Operations Engineer will support FPGA-based product development for nuclear safety applications, ensuring compliance with nuclear cybersecurity and quality standards. This role involves maintaining a Secure Development and Operational Environment (SDOE), developing internal tools, managing workflows, and ensuring audit-ready documentation.
Responsibilities
- Develop and maintain internal tools, scripts, dashboards, and automations supporting FPGA design and nuclear safety documentation.
- Automate tasks related to requirements traceability, verification workflows, build/test orchestration, data packaging, and simulation report generation.
- Support internal frameworks built around Subversion (SVN), Git, and CI/CD tooling.
- Ensure tools comply with nuclear-quality obligations such as auditability, reproducibility, configuration control, and verification independence.
- Evaluate engineering tools including Simulink, Intel Quartus, Xilinx Vivado, ModelSim/QuestaSim, and workflow automation platforms.
- Perform cyber-impact assessments for introducing or modifying tools within the SDOE.
- Lead supplier qualification, cybersecurity posture evaluation, and tool reliability reviews.
- Integrate approved tools into controlled design networks with appropriate SDOE documentation.
- Establish systematic processes for logging, triaging, reproducing, verifying, and tracking defects affecting FPGA tools or workflows.
- Collaborate with hardware/FPGA engineers, verification engineers, cybersecurity teams, and QA.
- Maintain traceable audit records consistent with nuclear QA and SDOE monitoring requirements.
- Identify recurring issues and propose long-term corrective actions or automation-based mitigations.
- Improve engineering workflows including model-based design, HDL design, simulation, synthesis, timing analysis, regression testing, and configuration reviews.
- Develop and maintain CI/CD pipelines adapted to nuclear-qualified toolchains and restricted SDOE networks.
- Ensure workflow alignment with SDOE requirements including role-based access control, logging, network separation, and artifact integrity.
- Support periodic SDOE reviews including cybersecurity assessments, environment hardening, and toolchain validation.
- Manage the Secure Development and Operational Environment (SDOE) used for nuclear safety FPGA development.
- Maintain controlled networks, secure repositories, isolated build servers, and toolchain validation environments.
- Coordinate with IT teams to maintain system patches, whitelisting, and defensive architecture controls.
- Ensure all development and operational workflows conform to SDOE technical and procedural requirements.
- Create and maintain documentation for tooling, FPGA workflows, SDOE procedures, cybersecurity controls, and configuration-controlled processes.
- Produce training materials and onboarding guides supporting safe engineering practices in the SDOE.
- Ensure documentation remains compliant with NQA-1, nuclear cybersecurity plans, and licensing expectations.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field.
- Experience with FPGA design workflows including VHDL/Verilog.
- Hands-on experience with Intel Quartus, Xilinx Vivado, ModelSim/QuestaSim, and Simulink.
- Experience with configuration management systems such as Subversion (SVN) and Git.
- Experience working within SDOE, CIP, or other regulated cybersecurity environments.
- Strong scripting abilities (Python, Bash, PowerShell, Matlab).
- Understanding of nuclear-industry QA processes and configuration control expectations.
- Ability to interpret timing reports, simulation logs, block diagrams, and verification artifacts.
- Excellent written communication and documentation skills.
Nice to Have
- Knowledge of NRC RG 5.71, NEI 08-09, and cybersecurity programs for digital I&C.
- Experience maintaining isolated or air-gapped engineering networks.
- Experience with toolchain qualification, trusted distribution, and cybersecurity configuration management.
- Familiarity with nuclear regulatory frameworks such as 10 CFR 73.54 and IEEE 7-4.3.2.
Tech Stack
FPGA, VHDL, Verilog, Intel Quartus, Xilinx Vivado, ModelSim, QuestaSim, Simulink, Subversion (SVN), Git, CI/CD, Python, Bash, PowerShell, Matlab
Benefits
- Opportunity to support national security and energy reliability.
- Technically challenging role with purpose and professional growth.
- Work with a team that
Team
Structure: Cross-functional collaboration with FPGA engineering, verification engineers, cybersecurity teams, and quality assurance (QA) teams.
