Software Engineer, R&D Platforms

Antares is seeking a Research & Development Software Engineer to build the software systems that enable fast, rigorous experimental engineering across our R&D organization. This role supports test campaigns, prototype development, lab systems, engineering analysis, and verification and validation activities by creating the tools, automation frameworks, data workflows, and hardware/software interfaces that allow engineers to collect high-quality data and make better technical decisions.

The ideal candidate is a strong software engineer who is comfortable near hardware: someone who can write production-quality Python and C++, debug DAQ or networking issues in a lab, structure experimental data, build tools that other engineers actually use, and bring software engineering discipline to a fast-moving R&D environment. We are looking for someone who can operate across the stack, from quick analysis scripts to durable internal tools and test infrastructure, while helping establish the practices and alignment needed for R&D software and V&V workflows to scale.

Roles & Responsibilities:

• Build software-hardware interface tools that support R&D testing, experimental campaigns, prototype development, and engineering analysis.
• Develop test automation frameworks for lab equipment, instrumentation, DAQ systems, sensors, controllers, power supplies, and prototype hardware.
• Create software interfaces to collect, process, store, visualize, and report engineering test data.
• Build internal tools for experiment setup, test execution, data review, anomaly detection, and post-processing.
• Develop Python-based workflows for data acquisition, analysis, visualization, and automated reporting.
• Collaborate with mechanical, electrical, nuclear, controls, manufacturing, and test teams to understand experimental needs and build tools that fit real workflows and develop best practices.
• Support verification and validation (V&V) activities by improving test repeatability, data quality, traceability, and reporting.
• Create lightweight but robust software systems and infrastructure that help engineers move quickly without losing configuration control or data integrity.
• Debug software, instrumentation, networking, DAQ, and hardware-in-the-loop issues in lab and test environments.
• Maintain clear documentation for software tools, interfaces, data schemas, test automation frameworks, and operating procedures.

• Bachelor's degree in Software Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Systems Engineering, Physics, EECS, Nuclear Engineering, or a related technical field.
• 4+ years of experience developing software for engineering, test, R&D, lab, data acquisition, hardware integration, automation, simulation, or analysis environments.
• Strong programming ability in Python and C++.

Preferred Skills and Experience:

• Experience building software that interfaces with hardware, instruments, sensors, controllers, databases, APIs, or engineering tools.
• Experience with test automation, data acquisition, data processing, or engineering analysis workflows.
• Familiarity with software engineering fundamentals: version control, code review, testing, debugging, logging, documentation, and maintainable design.
• Ability to work directly with engineers and translate ambiguous R&D needs into useful software tools.
• Strong data analysis skills and ability to reason from experimental results.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Experience providing technical leadership, mentorship, or lightweight people management while remaining hands-on.
• Experience aligning software, test, data, and engineering workflows across R&D, hardware, analysis, controls, manufacturing, and operations teams.
• Experience with Python scientific and data tooling such as NumPy, pandas, SciPy, matplotlib, Plotly, Dash, Jupyter, or similar.
• Experience interfacing software with DAQ systems, lab instruments, sensors, serial communication, CAN, Modbus, TCP/IP, OPC UA, MQTT, SCPI, VISA, or similar protocols.
• Experience with NI hardware, LabVIEW, NI-DAQmx, cDAQ systems, or equivalent instrumentation platforms.
• Experience with HIL, SIL, simulation integration, test automation, or digital engineering workflows.
• Experience in regulated, safety-critical, aerospace, defense, automotive, nuclear, or other high-consequence engineering environments.
• Familiarity with requirements traceability, test evidence, configuration management, and engineering quality systems.
• Ability to operate across the stack, from quick scripts to production-quality internal tools, lab interfaces, data infrastructure, and user-facing engineering workflows.

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 $130M in venture capital from top-tier investors and has over $13M in government funding., 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