Harnessing Engineer

About Us

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.

Formed in 2023, the Antares team hails from SpaceX, The White House, MIT, Rigetti Computing, The Air Force, General Atomics, Relativity Space, Ursa Major, and National Laboratories like Los Alamos, Idaho, and Oak Ridge. Antares has raised over $600M in venture capital from top-tier investors and has over $13M in government funding.

About the Role

Every system we build is tied together by wire and some of that wire carries safety-class functions. As our Harness Design Engineer, you'll own that layer end to end: from wire and connector selection, through schematic and routed 3D model, through a release package a supplier can build from without a single clarifying email, all the way to harnesses coming off the bench on our own floor.

In this role you would be responsible for interfacing harnesses between systems and the internal harnesses inside each electrical system and distribution cabinet, across both testbed and safety-class applications. Beyond the design itself, you'll own the toolchain, the release process, the BOM, the supplier relationships, and the in-house build. If you like being the person who defines how something gets done, not just the person doing it, this role is built for that.

Roles and Responsibilities:

• Own harness CAD design: Route, bundle, and constrain every harness in the 3D model: interface harnesses between systems and internal harnesses for each electrical system and distribution cabinet. Manage bend radii, service loops, strain relief, clearance to thermal and moving hardware, and connector accessibility for both assembly and field service.

• Own harness schematics: Develop and release wiring diagrams, wire lists and from-to charts, connector pinout tables, splice topology, and shield and grounding schemes for every harness.

• Own component selection: Choose wire type and gauge against current, derating, voltage drop, insulation, temperature, radiation, and flex requirements. Select connectors, contacts, backshells, and sealing. Specify and qualify the crimp tooling, dies, and calibration and pull-test regime that go with them.

• Design to safety-class requirements: Apply physical separation and independence between redundant divisions, respect qualification envelopes for cable and terminations, and maintain the design records and requirements traceability that support I&C classification and licensing.

• Own the harness design review and release process: Define what a review gate looks like, what a complete package contains, and how changes move through ECO and PLM under our QA program. Then improve it, including the software integrations that make release faster and less error-prone.

• Be the responsible engineer for our harness design software: Partner with our software applications engineers to improve how we build harnesses: connector and part library management, schematic-to-3D data flow, design rule checks, and automation of repetitive deliverables. Own license administration, version upgrades, and escalation with the tool vendor.

• Support supplier selection and qualification: Work alongside supply chain and quality to evaluate harness houses and electrical panel builders, capability assessments, supplier audits and approved supplier list entry, RFQ technical packages, quote reviews, and DFM feedback that lowers cost and build time.

• Own build packages and supplier technical communication: Hand off the package, resolve drawing questions, disposition deviations and nonconformances, support first article and source inspection, and drive workmanship and quality escalations to closure.

• Own the harness BOM and material readiness: Keep the BOM accurate and released, and work with supply chain and quality so parts land on site on time and clear receiving inspection, including certificates of conformance, lot traceability, and commercial grade dedication where hardware is destined for safety-class use.

• Manage in-house harness builds: Direct our harnessing technicians day to day: prioritize the queue, prepare formboards and work instructions, run operator training and crimp certification, set the workmanship bar, maintain inspection and test records, and be on the bench when something doesn't go together the way the model said it would.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering or a related field, or equivalent practical experience

• 2+ years designing production wire harnesses and cable assemblies, taking designs from schematic through a released, buildable package

• Experience in a dedicated electrical/harness CAD tool such as Zuken E3.series, Siemens Capital, Mentor VeSys, SolidWorks Electrical, CATIA Electrical, or Rapid Harness.

• Demonstrated experience with harness component selection: wire construction and derating, connector families, contacts, backshells, sealing, and the crimp tooling that terminates them

• Demonstrated knowledge of IPC/WHMA-A-620 and harness workmanship, inspection, and electrical test practice (continuity, insulation resistance, hipot)

• Experience designing and releasing hardware under a formal quality program, NQA-1, 10 CFR 50 Appendix B, AS9100, or comparable, including revision control, traceability, and nonconformance handling

• Experience directing technicians or build teams, and comfort spending real time on the shop floor

• Direct experience working with external harness or electrical panel suppliers

Preferred Skills & Experience

• Experience with hardware destined for safety-class or safety-related service, and familiarity with commercial grade dedication and 10 CFR 21

• Familiarity with the standards that govern our work, IEEE 323 and IEEE 383 for equipment and cable qualification, IEEE 384 for independence and separation of redundant circuits, and [SAE AS50881 / NASA-STD-8739.4] on the flight side

• Experience with high-voltage and/or high-current power distribution harnessing and cabinet or panel wiring

• Experience as a tool owner or admin: part and connector library management, design rule configuration, template and title block standards, license management

• Experience building or overhauling a design release process, not just working inside someone else's

• Working knowledge of ERP/MRP systems for BOM, shortage, and lead-time management

• EMI/EMC-aware design practice: shield termination strategy, twisted pair selection, circuit segregation, and filtering

• Scripting ability (Python or similar) to automate wire lists, BOM exports, or drawing checks

• Track record of standing up harness design standards and in-house build capability from scratch in a fast-moving environment

Salary Range:

Harnessing Engineer II: $135,000-$160,000

Senior Harnessing Engineer: $150,000-$185,000

Your actual level and base salary will be determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on the following considerations: job-related knowledge and skills, education, and experience.

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.