TITLE:                   Principal Software Developer

LOCATION:          Bellevue, WA

TerraPower is a nuclear technology company based in Bellevue, Washington. At its core, the company is working to raise living standards globally through a more affordable, secure and environmentally friendly form of nuclear energy along with innovations in medical isotopes to improve human health. In 2006, TerraPower originated with Bill Gates and a group of like-minded visionaries who evaluated the fundamental challenges to raising living standards around the world. They recognized energy access was crucial to the health and economic well-being of communities and decided that the private sector needed to take action and create energy sources that would advance global energy deployment. TerraPower’s mission is to be a world leader in new nuclear technologies, while developing innovators and future leaders in the nuclear field. As a result, the company’s activities in the fields of nuclear energy and related sciences are yielding significant innovations in the safety and economics of nuclear power, hybrid energy and medical applications – all for significant human health benefits.

TerraPower is seeking to hire highly motivated and forward-thinking professionals who are interested in focusing on advanced nuclear reactor research and development and influencing change within the nuclear power landscape and bringing forward the critical production of medical isotopes.  TerraPower is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We do not discriminate in hiring on the basis of sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religious creed, national origin, physical or mental disability, protected Veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law. In addition, as a federal contractor, TerraPower has instituted an Affirmative Action Plan (AAP) in an effort to proactively recruit, hire, and promote women, minorities, disabled persons and veterans.

Principal Software Developer

TerraPower is seeking to hire a highly skilled full stack developer to help build and maintain of our primary data management application, called Atom. This tool is a key part of our plan to improve the world’s ability to deliver data-heavy nuclear power construction projects on time and budget. It contains a nuclear reactor project-specific data model linking the plant safety functions, requirements, scientific analyses, documentation, tests, and more. It acts as a single source of truth across the project to help coordinate design and construction efforts. It facilitates workflows that satisfy project procedures. This role will work closely with engineering management, QA, and the internal user base to continue to build and refine the tool’s capabilities, improve the quality pedigree, monitor and improve performance as needed, and to fix bugs as they are identified. 

The tool is a Python/Django/DRF backend running on Linux servers with a JavaScript/Vue3/Quasar frontend SPA user interface. The developer team is relatively small: only ~5 people. We’re looking for someone who takes pride in the craft of software development, is willing to learn and understand our somewhat obscure use case and needs, and is highly focused and self-motivated. TerraPower is an equal opportunity employer.

Responsibilities:

• Design, implement, document, and test software based on formally defined requirements and bug reports from the in-house user base,
• Design and implement refactorizations and maintenance to maximize near- and long-term productivity of users and developers,
• Identify and prioritize tasks without them being explicitly assigned to you,
• Support verification and validation efforts to prove that the codes meet specifications and are correct,
• Systematically identify performance or productivity bottlenecks; design and implement solutions to eliminate them,
• Perform administrative data management operations on the backend based on user and management needs,
• Understand and translate new feature requests into formal software requirements,
• Train and support reactor designers to use the software system,
• Provide mentoring to other developers,
• Support software build and testing systems (like our Jenkins instance and related dashboards),
• Support server configuration and maintenance needs, 
• Facilitate design reviews for ongoing developments to keep review/approval process as productive as possible,
• Review proposed code changes and provide detailed feedback before allowing it to go live,
• Ensure compliance with quality standards and regulatory requirements for software.

Key Qualifications and Skills:

• 8+ years of relevant experience on web application development,
• Expert-level programming skills in Python and JavaScript,
• 5+ years in-depth experience and expertise with Django and DRF,
• 5+ years in-depth experience with least one JavaScript framework like Vue3,
• 5+ years regularly writing software tests,
• Expert capabilities with software development tools, including git, IDEs, profilers, debuggers, test frameworks, packaging tools,
• Please do not apply if you aren’t already comfortable interactively rebasing (or similar)
• Ability to focus and comfort with delivering a challenging project under evolving conditions, during rapid-paced development,
• Ability and professionalism to work within the robust regulatory environment of nuclear reactor design and construction,
• A strong commitment to software best practices, 
• Good understanding of software quality assurance and the software development life cycle,
• Ability to provide and receive professional feedback 

Preferred Qualifications:

• Degree in computer science, applied mathematics, or similar,
• Expertise building and maintaining Linux application and database servers,
• Expertise in configuring and maintaining Continuous Integration systems
• Strong expertise in Vue3 and Quasar specifically,
• Expertise with celery
• Expertise with Cypress, 
• Experience with major industrial construction projects,
• Experience working in NQA-1 environments, 
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

TerraPower’s technology is controlled for export by various agencies of the U.S. Government.  TerraPower must evaluate applicants who are foreign nationals (other than asylees, refugees, or lawful permanent residents) in accordance with U.S. Government export control requirements.  To facilitate TerraPower’s export control reviews, you will be asked as part of the application process to identify whether you are a U.S. Citizen or national, asylee, refugee, or lawful permanent resident of the United States.  Government export authorization approval times vary.  Based on the business needs for a particular position, TerraPower may not consider a foreign national from a country if it is impracticable to obtain timely Government export approval.   

Job details 

Salary Range Level 12:  $ 163,702  - $ 226,844

Salary Range Level 13:  $ 187,088  - $ 268,939

*Typically, our employee salaries are within .90 – 1.0 of the mid-point of the posted salary band.  Any salary offered within the posted salary band is based on market data and commensurate with the selected individual’s qualifications and experience.  This range is specific to Washington State.

Job Type:  Full-time

Benefits: 

• Competitive Compensation
• Salary, eligible to participate in discretionary short-term incentive payments
• Comprehensive Medical and Wellness Benefits Medical
  • Vision
  • Dental
  • Life
  • Life and Disability
  • Gender Affirmation Benefits
  • Parental Leave
• 401k Plan
• Generous Paid Time Off (PTO)
  • 21 days of annually accrued PTO
• Generous Holiday Schedule
  • 10 paid holidays
• Relocation Assistance
• Professional and Educational Support Opportunities
• Flexible Work Schedule

TerraPower Career and Benefits information:  https://www.terrapower.com/contact-us/careers/

Please visit www.terrapower.com to apply