Thermofluids Analysis Intern - Summer 2027

At Antares, our long-term mission is to make clean energy abundant from Earth to the Asteroid Belt. We’re fueled by the belief that advanced nuclear energy can strengthen our military, solve the climate crisis, elevate global living standards, and expand humanity's presence in outer space. To achieve our mission, we’re building mass-producible, inherently safe, deployable microreactors that can be used terrestrially, underwater, and in space.

The Antares team hails from SpaceX, the White House, the Pentagon, the Department of Energy, MIT, Rigetti Computing, General Atomics, Relativity Space, Ursa Major, and National Laboratories like Idaho, Oak Ridge, Los Alamos, and Savannah River. Antares has raised over $600M in venture capital from top-tier investors and has hundreds of million-dollars on contract with the military services, NASA, and the Department of Energy.

About the Summer Internship Program

Internships at Antares are anything but ordinary. You'll work alongside our team as we design, build, and test fission microreactors built to deliver reliable energy for critical missions on Earth, in space, and underwater.

Our interns contribute to real work from day one. Depending on your role, you may touch hardware, write and test software, support manufacturing and operations, or help build the systems that allow Antares to move quickly as we scale. You'll work alongside engineers, operators, and other experts solving challenging problems—and you'll leave your internship with hands-on experience that's difficult to find anywhere else.

We work hard, move quickly, and take pride in what we're building. If you're excited to learn by doing and want to contribute to the next generation of nuclear energy, we'd love to have you join us next summer.

We will be running two separate cohorts to accommodate students on both semester and quarter schedules:

Cohort #1

Monday, May 17 – Friday, August 13

Cohort #2

Monday, June 14 – Friday, September 10

All internship roles are based at our Torrance headquarters and require interns to work onsite five days per week. We will not be considering candidates for remote or hybrid arrangements.

Interns will receive a relocation and housing stipend as part of their offer package.

About the Team

The Analysis team at Antares develops and applies physics-based models to guide the design, testing, and development of reactor systems. The team works across engineering disciplines to size components, understand thermal and fluid performance, evaluate structural response, and turn simulation and test data into engineering decisions.

Interns begin with small starter projects and then quickly take ownership of a long-duration project that culminates in a technical deliverable and presentation. You will be integrated and evaluated as if you are a first-year junior engineer, not simply an intern. The bar for success is high: you will be expected to use your mentor and the resources around you thoughtfully, execute on your project, and identify additional issues and opportunities for improvement.

Roles and Responsibilities:

- Build CFD models of reactor components to evaluate fluid flow, heat transfer, and component performance.

- Build FEA models of reactor components to evaluate relevant thermal and structural behavior.

- Develop Python tools that support the sizing and evaluation of new designs.

- Process, review, and interpret test data; compare results with analytical and numerical predictions.

- Define model assumptions, boundary conditions, and inputs, and assess convergence, sensitivity, and model fidelity.

- Document methods, results, limitations, and recommendations in clear technical deliverables.

- Complete initial starter projects, then own a long-duration project through final technical presentation.

- Collaborate with mentors and cross-functional engineering partners while proactively identifying technical risks and opportunities for improvement.

Basic Qualifications:

- Currently enrolled in at least a bachelor's degree program in mechanical, aerospace, nuclear, chemical, or another relevant engineering discipline and entering the junior or senior year of study.

- Prior internship experience or more than one year of significant project-team, laboratory, or research experience.

Preferred Skills & Experience:

- GPA of 3.5 or above.

- Experience in a university club or organization; leadership experience is preferred.

- Strong interpersonal and technical communication skills, such as leading a student project team or presenting research at a conference.

- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with close attention to detail.

- Ability to work cross-functionally with different groups and teams.

- Ability to work effectively in a dynamic environment with changing needs and requirements.

- Ability to work independently and collaboratively, take initiative, and communicate effectively.

- Experience with Python and engineering data analysis.

- Experience with CFD, FEA, CAD, MATLAB, or related modeling and analysis tools.

- Coursework or project experience in thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, heat transfer, numerical methods, or solid mechanics.

Location

- We are located in Torrance, CA in a 322,000 square foot, brand new facility featuring large open spaces for team collaboration, R&D, and production, as well as easy access to the 405, 105, and 110 freeways. Our facility is in the heart of Los Angeles' vibrant emerging tech ecosystem alongside many other high growth startups and enterprises.

Culture

At Antares, we like to specifically tie each role to our founding document’s set of values–here are the top five cultural values we think you should believe at your core to be successful:

- Think in Systems - Energy and Defense are complex ecosystems with numerous stakeholders with competing priorities, conflicting policies, perverse incentives, and emergent and path-dependent properties. First principles thinking alone is insufficient. Think probabilistically and then take action. “If you want to be certain, then you are apt to be obsolete.” Over-optimizing the components often degrades the system

- Obsess over the End User - The customer and end user are often not the same. We will never build globally competitive commercial products if we lose sight of our end users and their entire interaction with the product life cycle

- Be Unconstrained by Convention - Our only limits are the laws of physics. Many, even experts, will say what we are working on is impossible. They said the same about SpaceX reusing rockets. Generationally impactful companies, by definition, must accomplish the seemingly impossible. If it were easy, it would have already been done. Never shy away from a solution because it has never been tried before, and never choose to do something because that's “how it's always been done”

- Go Where the Work Is - Never miss a chance to meet a customer, user, or stakeholder face to face, even if that means hopping on a plane. If you can’t make it, find a teammate who can channel your intentions and go in your place. Deep work can be done from anywhere, but we believe teams are built in person, and aim to maximize our time together

- Operate in the Grey - Embrace nuance in pursuit of truth. Question every fundamental assumption

Equal Opportunity

Antares is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Employment decisions are based solely on merit, competence, and qualifications, without regard to race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability, or any other legally protected status.

ITAR REQUIREMENTS

To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here https://www.pmddtc.state.gov/?id=ddtc_kb_article_page&sys_id=24d528fddbfc930044f9ff621f961987.