Job DescriptionPosition Title: Lead Fuel Qualification Statistics & Uncertainty Quantification
Position Description: Protingent Staffing has an exciting direct hire Lead Fuel Qualification Statistics & Uncertainty Quantification opportunity.
Job Responsibilities:- Qualification Statistics Strategy: Develop and maintain the KRONOS Fuel Qualification Statistics and Uncertainty Quantification Plan, including required confidence, acceptance probabilities, decision rules, and independent concurrence points.
- Sampling & Population Definition: Establish statistically defensible sample sizes and population definitions for kernels, TRISO particles, FCM pellets, manufacturing lots, irradiation specimens, PIE populations, and safety-test specimens.
- Defect & Failure Fractions: Define methods for estimating exposed-kernel, defective-SiC, particle-failure, fuel-failure, and fission-product-release fractions, including treatment of zero-failure and censored datasets.
- Measurement Uncertainty: Establish uncertainty budgets for characterization, irradiation conditions, PIE measurements, materials properties, safety testing, and derived qualification parameters.
- Model Validation & UQ: Define statistical requirements for model calibration, validation, bias evaluation, sensitivity analysis, uncertainty propagation, applicability limits, and comparison with experimental evidence.
- Manufacturing Demonstration: Develop design-of-experiments, process-capability, variability, sampling, and acceptance methods that demonstrate qualification lots represent repeatable production-intent fuel.
- Data Review & Regulatory Support: Review proposed data exclusions, outliers, missing data, anomalous observations, and extrapolations; author clear statistical conclusions and uncertainty statements for qualification and licensing documents.
Job Qualifications:- Education: Advanced degree in Statistics, Applied Mathematics, Reliability Engineering, Nuclear Engineering, Materials Science, or a closely related quantitative discipline.
- Materials Qualification: 5+ years of experience supporting nuclear fuel, materials qualification, reliability, manufacturing qualification, model validation, or another safety-critical technical program. Demonstrated expertise in design of experiments, acceptance sampling, uncertainty propagation, reliability methods, statistical inference, and model calibration or validation.
- Development of Statistical Approaches: Experience in developing statistical methods before data collection and defending conclusions based on sparse, censored, zero-failure, or heterogeneous datasets. Proficiency with controlled statistical-computing workflows and the ability to document calculations, software, data transformations, assumptions, and independent reviews.
- Technical Reporting and Documentation: Strong technical writing and communication skills, including the ability to translate statistical limitations into clear engineering, safety, and regulatory decisions.
Preferred Job Qualifications: - Direct experience with TRISO, FCM, HTGR, advanced nuclear fuel, or high-temperature ceramic qualification.
- Experience estimating low-probability defect or failure fractions at regulator-relevant confidence levels.
- Familiarity with ASME NQA-1, nuclear software quality assurance, configuration control, and regulator-facing technical reports.
- Experience integrating manufacturing process capability, experimental uncertainty, and model-form uncertainty into qualification decisions.
Job Details:- Job Type: Direct Hire
- Salary Range: TBD
- Location: Oak Ridge, TN (Onsite)
Meet Your RecruiterAbhishek Singh 
