
Director, Component Engineering
Kairos Power · Alameda, CA
- Level
- Director+
- Team
- Manufacturing
- Base pay
- $235k–$294k
- Travel
- 20%
- Degree
- Preferred
- Experience asked
- 15+ years
- Industry
- Industrial
- Posted
- Today
The role in 30 seconds
A director-level manufacturing role at Kairos Power (industrial) in Alameda, CA.
- They ask for
- 15+ years · degree preferred
- Base pay
- $235k–$294k
- Day to day
- about 20% travel
Read from the posting. The full description is below.
From the plant jobs report · week of November 2, 2026
Manufacturing Engineer roles in California: typical posted base $112k–$168k. This one lists $235k–$294k.
Median of the low and high ends of 147 live postings that list pay, out of 388 manufacturing engineer openings in California, read from manufacturers' own careers sites.
California plant jobs report →Pay by team and state →What moves pay →
How this role compares
Against 387 other live manufacturing postings in California.
- Base pay
- About 99% above similar roles
- Experience asked
- More than usual (15+ vs 5+)
Typical $110k–$157k, from 127 postings that list pay.
Similar roles usually ask 5+ years.
Skills these teams ask for most
- Tooling 52%
- New product launch 47%
- Root cause 38%
- Automation 35%
- CATIA / NX 27%
- Machining 27%
✓ = this posting asks for it too. % = share of similar postings that mention it.
At a glance
Pulled from the posting text. If it's not listed here, the posting didn't say.
How to get in at this plant
Five moves over a week or two. The first one takes ten minutes.
- 1
Pick 2–3 people on the Manufacturing team at Kairos Power
Engineers who joined in the last year or two reply the most. Use the team search on this page to find them.
- 2
Send a short, curious note
One real question about their work. No favors yet. Each person gets a different note, written for this role.
- 3
Turn a reply into a short call
Questions worth asking about this team:
- What does a normal week look like on your team?
- Is the work mostly new product launches or sustaining existing lines?
- How much time do you spend on the floor versus at a desk?
- The posting says about 20% travel. Between which sites?
- How did you land the job? What stood out in your interviews?
- 4
Apply with someone vouching for you
If the call went well, ask whether they’d pass your résumé to the hiring manager. Send your résumé link, apply that day, and let them know.
- 5
Bring proof to the interview
One page of before-and-after numbers from projects you led: scrap, OEE, cycle time, cost. Plant managers hire on results.
This plant: Kairos Power in Alameda
2 other open roles at this site.
- Senior Director, Power Plant Engineering · Production · Director+
- Quality Control Technician (Machining) · Quality · Technician
Full description from Kairos PowerAs posted on their careers site.ShowHide
Job Summary
The Director, Component Engineering leads the organization responsible for mechanical component design and design activities under applicable ASME programs. This role oversees teams responsible for converting system, manufacturing, code, materials, and analysis inputs into complete component designs and design documentation, including drawings. This position requires cross-functional collaboration, technical leadership, and coordination across engineering and manufacturing teams to ensure successful design execution, integration, and compliance.
Responsibilities
- ◆Own the development and delivery of mechanical component and system designs, drawings, models, and analyses, in coordination with Design Analysis and Methods, [JH1.1][RS1.2]to system owners in the Power Plant Engineering and other requesting KP departments.
- ◆Works closely with Design Analysis and Methods group to ensure requests from Component Engineering for structural, thermal, and piping analyses are supported.
- ◆Mature and maintain strategies for implementation the ASME Section VIII design and construction program and the ASME Section III-guided design and construction program.
- ◆Lead component design work performed under applicable ASME Section VIII
requirements
and company quality procedures, including support for the development of User Design Specifications and preparation of required design documentation.
- ✓Lead guided design work under applicable ASME Section III
requirements
and company procedures, including the planning, preparation, review, and release of required design documentation. Ensure code classification, design basis, load definitions, design inputs, documentation, and required reviews are identified and integrated into the component design approach.
- ✓Coordinate and reconcile
requirements
from design teams in Power Plant Engineering, Materials, and Manufacturing; provide inputs to Design Analysis and Methods around required methods to support design work, as well as inputs to Materials on new materials and material data.
- ✓Oversee resolution of fabrication and testing issues affecting component designs, coordinating technical dispositions and incorporating lessons learned into subsequent designs.
- ✓Translate company strategy into measurable organizational priorities and decision principles.
- ✓Determine and communicate explicit scope, schedule, risk, and resource tradeoffs across the organization.
- ✓Maintain accountability for organizational outcomes and the consequences of scope, schedule, risk, and resource decisions within delegated authority, including decisions delegated to others.
- ✓Ensure execution of strategic priorities, take corrective action when results are off track, and remove barriers teams cannot resolve.
- ✓Establish organizational technical direction and decision boundaries are established, consistent with company strategy and designated technical authorities.
- ✓Ensure material technical and safety risk, their potential consequences, and proposed mitigations are clearly documented and communicated to the appropriate authority, with risk acceptance decisions explicitly recorded.
- ✓Personally engage in mission-critical technical or organizational decisions, crises, external reviews, or critical deliverables when judgment materially changes the outcome.
- ✓Build the organization and leadership pipeline required for current and future strategy, including recruitment, staffing, and leadership development.
- ✓Hold senior leaders and technical leads accountable for team capability, succession, performance, engagement, and retention.
- ✓Ensure systemic operational or compliance weaknesses are corrected and that improvements are sustained across the organization.
- ✓Communicate organizational direction and tradeoffs consistently to leadership, teams, and cross-functional partners.
- ✓Establish alignment across teams, resolve cross-functional conflicts, and escalate tradeoffs that require broader leadership decisions.
- ✓Set the organizational tone for accountability, integrity, psychological safety, and mission stewardship, and reinforce these values through visible decisions, resource choices, recognition, and corrective action.
- ✓Drive effective collaboration across Materials, Design Analysis and Methods, and Manufacturing groups to ensure integrated outcomes.
- ✓Other duties as required.
Qualifications
- ✓Bachelor’s degree or higher in mechanical engineering, mechanical engineering technology, or related discipline; Professional Engineer (PE) license preferred.
- ✓15+ years of experience in mechanical design, including significant involvement with ASME pressure vessel design.
- ✓7+ years of engineering leadership experience managing cross-functional and multi-disciplinary design teams.
- ✓Experience managing engineering managers or technical leads with accountability for outcomes across multiple teams and work sites.
- ✓Experience in interpretating ASME Section III and Section VIII
requirements
and implementing design processes consistent with applicable code provisions and program requirements.
- ✓Demonstrated success delivering mechanical designs from concept through to fabrication and testing.
- ✓Experience in design and analysis of pressure components and piping in industries such as nuclear, oil & gas, or petrochemical.
- ✓Familiar with ASME BPVC Sec III, Sec VIII, ASME B31.1 and B31.3 piping codes.
- ✓Prior experience working within product lifecycl
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Company Overview
Kairos Power is a new nuclear energy technology and engineering company whose mission is to enable the world’s transition to clean energy, with the ultimate goal to dramatically improve people’s quality of life while protecting the environment. This goal will be accomplished through the commercialization of the fluoride-salt-cooled, high-temperature reactor (FHR) that can be deployed with robust safety, affordable costs, and flexible operation to accommodate the expansion of variable renewables.
