Reliability Engineer

General Matter, Inc. is an American nuclear energy company based in California that is focused on developing domestic nuclear energy solutions. The company aims to harness nuclear technology to increase national energy prosperity, reduce dependence on foreign energy sources, and support the expansion of American capabilities in the energy sector. Their work centers on making nuclear energy more accessible and practical by advancing technologies that can be developed and deployed within the United States. General Matter's mission is rooted in the belief that nuclear power represents a critical pathway toward a cleaner, more energy-independent future. By turning domestic nuclear potential into operational reality, the company positions itself at the intersection of national security, economic growth, and climate-conscious energy production. Their approach emphasizes building nuclear energy infrastructure that is homegrown rather than reliant on foreign supply chains or expertise. The company brings together leaders from nuclear engineering, technology, government, and finance, reflecting a multidisciplinary approach to solving the complex challenges of modern nuclear energy development. As a startup operating in the green and climate technology sector, General Matter represents a new wave of private investment in nuclear energy as a viable and scalable low-carbon power source for the United States.

About the Company

General Matter enriches uranium.

We are designing, building, and operating the world’s lowest-cost enrichment services, here in the US.  

In the process, we are restoring America’s ability to produce nuclear fuel to power AI, advanced manufacturing and critical industries our country relies on to remain competitive. 

Fuel drives the cost of advanced reactor electricity production, and enrichment drives the cost of the fuel that advanced reactors consume.  Reliable, low-cost enrichment is the catalyst for the nuclear Renaissance now under way.

Our mission is to make nuclear not only the cleanest and safest source of baseload power, but also the most affordable.  We believe abundant nuclear energy will lead to a post-scarcity society. 

We were incubated inside Founders Fund, like Anduril and Palantir before us, and are backed by over a dozen of the world's top venture capital firms.  

Our lean, world-class team of engineers and operators is applying a first-principles approach to solving the problem of nuclear fuel production.  

We are a mission-driven company with a culture of urgency, accountability, and transparency. 

Help us build a high-energy society by making the cleanest, safest form of baseload energy the most affordable. 

About This Role 

As a Reliability Engineer at General Matter, you'll own the reliability of the hardware we build. You'll design and lead the test campaigns that tell us how our systems hold up over their life — how they fail, when, and why — and bring the analytical rigor to make those answers trustworthy. This is a hands-on, systems-level role embedded closely with our test organization: you'll turn requirements into test plans, make sense of the results, and feed what you learn back into design so reliability is built in rather than discovered late. As General Matter scales, you'll help lay the foundation for a dedicated reliability test capability. 

Responsibilities 

• Design and lead accelerated life test (ALT), life-leader, and component reliability test campaigns across our hardware. 

• Develop reliability test plans that map applied stresses to field conditions using appropriate acceleration models. 

• Perform the statistical analysis that determines test article quantities, sample sizes, test durations, and confidence/reliability targets (e.g., reliability demonstration testing, Weibull/life-data analysis, sudden-death testing). 

• Define and allocate reliability requirements across systems and components. 

• Analyze test and field data to characterize failure modes, life distributions, and reliability growth. 

• Lead failure analysis and root-cause investigations and drive corrective actions to closure. 

• Develop and maintain reliability models and artifacts — FMEA/FMECA, reliability block diagrams, fault trees, and life predictions. 

• Work embedded with test engineering to execute campaigns, instrument test articles, and interpret results. 

• Partner with design, manufacturing, and quality to embed design-for-reliability (DfR) practices across the product lifecycle. 

• Establish reliability metrics, tracking, and reporting to give leadership a clear view of hardware maturity and risk. 

Basic Qualifications 

• Strong understanding of engineering fundamentals. 

• Ability to perform trade studies and make clear recommendations using first principles and engineering fundamentals even with partial information. 

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Aerospace, Reliability, Industrial Engineering, or a related field. 

• Experience designing and executing reliability test campaigns (e.g., accelerated life testing, HALT/HASS, durability, or component reliability testing). 

• Strong applied statistics for reliability — life-data (Weibull) analysis, reliability demonstration and sample-size determination, design of experiments (DOE), confidence intervals, and acceleration modeling. 

• Proficiency with reliability and statistical tools (e.g., ReliaSoft Weibull++/ALTA, Minitab, JMP, Python, or R). 

• Experience with FMEA/FMECA and reliability modeling methods. 

• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills. 

• Strong verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to convey technical information to diverse audiences. 

• Ability to work collaboratively in a team-oriented environment. 

Preferred Skills and Experience 

• Evidence of exceptional ability (prior projects, portfolio of work, completed products, etc). 

• Experience in a fast-paced engineering environment or a highly technical role requiring a resourceful, entrepreneurial approach to complete tasks within tight timeframes or budget constraints. 

• Experience in a hardware-intensive industry such as automotive, aerospace/defense, semiconductor, industrial equipment, or energy. 

• Experience building a reliability program or reliability test capability from the ground up. 

• Familiarity with physics-of-failure methods and accelerated stress modeling. 

• Certified Reliability Engineer (CRE) or similar certification. 

• Advanced degrees. 

Additional Requirements 

• Ability to work extended hours and weekends as necessary. 

Equal Opportunity Employer

General Matter is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with General Matter is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by 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.

Compensation and Benefits

The base salary range for this role is $140,000-$200,000 annually. 

Compensation bands are determined by role, level, location, and alignment with market data. Individual level and base pay is determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on job-related skills, education, experience, technical capabilities and internal equity. Please note that the stated salary range is an estimate and may be adjusted based on market conditions, business needs, or other factors. In addition to base salary, for full-time hires, you may also be eligible for long-term incentives, in the form of stock options, and access to medical, vision & dental coverage as well as access to a 401(k) retirement plan.