Nuclear Engineer Jobs in Energy: Demand, Pay & Skills
Part of Plutarch’s ongoing analysis of skill demand in energy hiring — last updated 5 October 2026, based on 110 tracked postings.
As of 5 October 2026, Plutarch tracked 110 unique open Nuclear Engineer postings at energy employers. 37 postings disclosed annual pay, with a United States median of USD 163,000.
Demand for nuclear engineers is concentrated heavily in the United States, with a much smaller volume of postings in Canada and minimal activity elsewhere. The title mix spans a wide range of seniority, with a large share unspecified and a near-equal share calling for senior, lead, principal, staff or manager level experience, alongside a meaningful early-career pipeline. Titles frequently reference specific plant sites and specialized engineering disciplines such as civil, structural, electrical and reactor design work, suggesting employers are hiring against detailed technical and site-specific requirements rather than generic nuclear engineering backgrounds.
Open postings
Where
- United States · 90
- Canada · 10
- Sweden · 2
- Bulgaria · 1
- Czechia · 1
- Other or not stated · 6
Seniority
- Early career · 18
- Level not stated in title · 46
- Senior, lead, staff or manager · 42
- Leadership · 4
Disclosed pay by country · annual
| Country | Lowest to highest employer midpoint | Median | Postings stating pay |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | USD 118,000–291,000 | USD 163,000 | 37 of 76 |
| Canada | CAD 111,000–156,000 | CAD 155,000 | 9 of 10 |
Directional, not conclusive. Each figure is the midpoint of a salary range an employer disclosed in a public job posting, derived from public market sources and rounded to the nearest thousand. Samples are small, so a country appears only when at least 5 open postings disclose annual pay. At these sample sizes, do not compare one role’s median against another’s — the difference between them is smaller than the error on either.
How many employers state pay
- United States · pay stated in 47 of 76 postings we could read
- Canada · pay stated in 9 of 10 postings we could read
- Sweden · pay stated in 0 of 2 postings we could read
- Bulgaria · pay stated in 0 of 1 posting we could read
- Czechia · pay stated in 0 of 1 posting we could read
Counted from the same open postings as above, leaving out postings whose text we could not read for pay. Pay disclosure tracks local pay-transparency law more closely than employer policy, so a low rate is not evidence that employers here pay less.
Who is hiring
| Employer | Open postings |
|---|---|
| Radiant Industries | 14 |
| Duke Energy | 13 |
| Hatch | 12 |
| Dominion Energy | 9 |
| Antares Nuclear | 7 |
| NextEra Energy | 7 |
| Constellation Energy | 6 |
| Worley | 6 |
| TerraPower | 4 |
| Blykalla | 3 |
| PSEG | 3 |
| Thea Energy | 3 |
| Other employers | 23 |
How these roles are titled
The titles employers use for this role, most repeated first. Titles shown without a count appeared once.
- Nuclear Engineer · 5 postings
- Nuclear Operations Engineer · 3 postings
- Senior Nuclear Engineer · 3 postings
- Director, Nuclear Engineering · 2 postings
- Mechanical Engineer - Nuclear · 2 postings
- 12114 CFAM Radiation Protection / Chemistry
- 2027 New Graduate - Nuclear Engineer
- 2027 New Graduate - Reactor Operations Engineer
- Civil Nuclear Engineer III or Senior Civil Nuclear Engineer – McGuire Nuclear Station
- Civil/Structural Design Engineer I/II – Catawba Nuclear Station
- Civil/Structural Engineer, Senior, Nuclear
- Computational Nuclear Engineer
- Director of Nuclear Engineering
- Electrical Design Engineer I OR Electrical Design Engineer II - Oconee Nuclear Station
- Electrical Design Engineer III OR Senior Electrical Design Engineer - Oconee Nuclear Station
What employers ask for
Skills and tools named in the text of 77 open postings we could read in full, most named first.
| Skill or tool | Postings naming it | Employers |
|---|---|---|
| Python | 12 of 77 | 8 |
| Cybersecurity | 10 of 77 | 2 |
| Excel | 9 of 77 | 5 |
A skill counts when the posting names it anywhere — requirements, role description or the employer’s own introduction. A skill is shown only when at least 3 postings from at least two employers name it. Postings whose full text we did not read are left out of these counts rather than counted as asking for nothing.
Certificates and licences named
Credentials named in the same 77 postings. A mention is what employers ask for; it does not mean a law requires it.
| Certificate or licence | Postings naming it | Employers |
|---|---|---|
| Professional Engineer licence (PE / P.Eng) | 15 of 77 | 4 |
Patterns in the job titles
- Civil and structural nuclear design engineering
- Nuclear fuels engineering and design
- Senior and principal-level nuclear engineering leadership
- Mechanical engineering within nuclear settings
Nuclear Engineer job description template
An outline to start from. The requirements are the skills energy employers most often name for this role, with how often each is named — not a model's guess.
Already have a draft? Paste it for a hiring-feasibility brief and a sharpened version. For the credential line, see which credentials the law requires, and where.
What the postings suggest about filling this role
The sizable share of senior, lead and principal-level titles points to competition for experienced, site- and discipline-qualified engineers, which tends to lengthen hiring timelines. At the same time, a notable junior and intern pipeline suggests some employers are building talent from entry level, which can ease pressure compared to roles relying solely on experienced hires.
Read from employer demand only. These sources show what employers advertise, not how many people are available to hire, so this is a reading of the vacancies rather than a measure of scarcity.
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Check your role — two briefs freeCounts are unique open postings seen in the last three weeks, taken from the named employers’ own published job postings; a vacancy posted in several places is counted once. Employers are named because they published these postings publicly themselves. The written summary is AI-generated from those postings and contains no figures and no employer names. Posting figures are direct counts; pay figures are the median and range of the salaries those employers disclosed. Terms of use.