The Nuclear Company
Research Scientist
$150K–$173K
Washington, DC +1 · Full-time · Posted Jun 22, 2026
- Location
- Washington, DC
Washington, District of Columbia, United States - Experience
- No minimum years stated. Preferred: 2-5 years of post-PhD research experience with ownership of a research program.
- Education
- PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Operations Research, Economics, Applied Mathematics, or a closely related quantitative field — or MS with a demonstrable track record of independent research output (publications, patents, or equivalent deployed systems).
- Visa sponsorship
- Certain positions may involve access to information and technology subject to U.S. export controls, which may limit consideration of certain applicants.
About the job
Research and deploy AI decision-making models for nuclear construction scheduling, site and capital planning, and security operations across multiple sites.
What you'll do
- Formulate operational challenges as research problems; build simulation environments and conduct rigorous, reproducible experiments.
- Develop and evaluate optimization, reinforcement learning, and security models, including approaches for uncertainty and real-time disruptions.
- Work with engineering and operational stakeholders to deploy, monitor, communicate, and improve models used in production decisions.
What they ask for
- PhD in a quantitative field such as Computer Science, Machine Learning, Operations Research, Economics, or Applied Mathematics; or MS with a demonstrable track record of independent research output.
- Hands-on experience implementing and evaluating deep RL algorithms, including policy-gradient and value-based approaches.
- Experience building RL training environments and translating operational processes into MDP formulations.
- Production-quality Python, PyTorch, and research software practices for version control, testing, and reproducibility.
Nice to have
- Experience with offline/batch RL, combinatorial optimization and ML, multi-agent RL, robust optimization, or production RL deployment.
- Domain exposure in construction, infrastructure, energy, nuclear power, industrial control, or physical/cyber security.
Pay
$150,000 - $173,000 annually (USD), base salary
Tools
Python, PyTorch, PPO, TRPO, SAC, DQN, IQL, CQL
AI focus
Applied AI research and deployment, including reinforcement learning, simulation, optimization, uncertainty-aware planning, and security intelligence for nuclear infrastructure operations.
Model-written summary · the original posting is authoritative