Director, Balance of Plant

Kairos Power is seeking an experienced senior engineering leader to serve as Director, Balance of Plant (Power Generation System & Turbine Island), to provide strategic and technical leadership for multidisciplinary engineering teams. This role is responsible for the technical leadership, organizational capability, and execution of the engineering teams responsible for design and deployment for Structures, Systems, and Components that convert thermal energy to electricity and provide auxiliary plant functions necessary to support reliable and efficient plant operation. The ideal candidate combines broad power plant and thermal-fluid systems expertise with demonstrated success building engineering teams, working with external partners, and delivering complex, hardware systems from concept through commissioning and operation.

• Provide strategic and technical leadership for the development and integration of balance-of-plant (BOP) Systems, such as the Heat Transport Systems interfacing with high-temperature steam Rankine cycles, Power Generation System (PGS), and auxiliary systems such as service water, treated water, and compressed air systems.
• Establish department technical direction and decision boundaries consistent with company strategy and designated technical authorities.
• Lead engineering delivery from conceptual sizing through detailed design, vendor package review, and commissioning support, owning design reviews and technical risk.
• Ensures that system and discipline leads satisfy applicable requirements, codes and standards, safety functions,and align to program
• Ensure engineering deliverables—including requirements, calculations, analyses, specifications, drawings, design reports, interface documents, and test plans—are technically sound and meet established quality and schedule requirements.
• Oversee supplier technical execution, including supplier selection, bid evaluations, equipment specifications, design reviews, technical evaluations, qualification programs, factory acceptance testing, and resolution of supplier technical issues, to ensure supplier designs and deliverables meet Kairos Power requirements.
• Oversee evaluation of BOP design and supplier changes for impacts on system interfaces, plant performance, safety, and commissioning readiness, and ensure approved changes are incorporated into the controlled technical baseline.
• Build productive relationships with external organizations while maintaining clear accountability for Kairos Power technical requirements and engineering decisions.
• Translates company strategy into measurable organizational priorities and decision principles.
• Determine and communicate explicit scope, schedule, risk, and resource tradeoffs across the organization.
• Maintain accountability for organizational outcomes and the consequences of scope, schedule, risk, and resource decisions within delegated authority, including decisions delegated to others.
• Ensure execution of strategic priorities, take corrective action when results are off track, and remove systemic barriers teams cannot resolve.
• Establish organizational technical direction and decision boundaries are established, consistent with company strategy and designated technical authorities.
• Ensure material technical and safety risk, their potential consequences, and proposed mitigations are clearly documented and communicated to the appropriate authority, with risk acceptance decisions explicitly recorded.
• Personally engage in mission-critical technical or organizational decisions, crises, external reviews, or critical deliverables when judgment materially changes the outcome.
• Build the organization and leadership pipeline required for current and future strategy, including recruitment, staffing, and leadership development.
• Hold senior leaders and technical leads accountable for team capability, succession, performance, engagement, and retention.
• Ensure systemic operational or compliance weaknesses are corrected and that improvements are sustained across the organization.
• Communicate organizational direction and tradeoffs consistently to leadership, teams, and cross-functional partners.
• Establish alignment across teams, resolve cross-functional conflicts, and escalate tradeoffs that require broader leadership decisions.
• Set the organizational tone for accountability, integrity, psychological safety, and mission stewardship, and reinforce these values through visible decisions, resource choices, recognition, and corrective action.
• Other duties as assigned.
• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Mechanical Engineering, Nuclear Engineering, Chemical Engineering, or equivalent
• 15+ years of progressively responsible engineering experience involving power generation, thermal-fluid systems, process systems, nuclear systems, or other complex industrial systems.
• 7+years of progressive engineering leadership experience managing engineering teams with multiple engineering disciplines.
• Experience managing engineering managers or technical leads with accountability for outcomes across multiple teams and work sites.
• Experience working with suppliers, OEMs, engineering contractors, or other external technical organizations.
• Experience leading technical development and qualification of major equipment through external suppliers or OEMs.
• Experience supporting construction, commissioning, startup, or operation of complex power generation or industrial facilities.
• Experience with integrated power plant systems, including modern high-temperature steam Rankine cycles and the interactions between heat transport, power conversion, auxiliary systems, and plant infrastructure.
• Strong systems thinking with the ability to identify and resolve technical issues that cross traditional engineering and organizational boundaries.
• Lead and support recruitment and staffing requirements of group.
• Proactive, organized, adaptable, and able to thrive in fast-paced, multi-tasked environments.

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