Manager – Severe Accident and Containment Systems

Our Mission

At Rolls-Royce SMR, we are delivering one of the UK’s most ambitious clean energy programmes. Our Small Modular Reactor design will provide reliable, low-carbon power at scale, combining cutting-edge engineering with the highest standards of safety, security and regulatory compliance.

The Team

You will join the Reactor Safety Systems function within Engineering, responsible for systems that ensure plant safety and the confinement of radioactive materials.

Operating within a highly collaborative, multidisciplinary environment, you will lead a team focused on containment and severe accident systems, working closely with design teams, safety case specialists and regulators to support design maturity and licensing.

The Role

As a Severe Accident and Containment Systems, you will lead the design and delivery of containment and severe accident systems, ensuring solutions are technically robust, fully integrated and compliant with regulatory expectations.

This role combines technical leadership, systems engineering and programme delivery, with accountability for design development, substantiation, governance and team capability within a complex, safety-critical environment.

What We’ll Need You to Do:

• Lead and develop a team of engineers to deliver containment and severe accident system designs, ensuring outputs meet safety, quality and programme requirements.

• Define and manage system requirements while leading structured design activities, including optioneering, assessment and selection of engineering solutions.

• Ensure all design work is delivered in line with configuration control, governance processes and design assurance standards, maintaining compliance and traceability.

• Oversee the production and approval of key engineering documentation, including requirements specifications, design reports and P&IDs, ensuring alignment with best practice.

• Apply systems engineering methodologies to support design substantiation and demonstrate compliance with regulatory expectations, including E3S considerations and ALARP principles.

• Plan and deliver engineering work packages to agreed milestones, managing technical risks, issues and stakeholder interfaces while supporting regulatory and licensing activities.

What You’ll Bring:

• A degree in an engineering or scientific discipline (or equivalent experience) and proven delivery of complex systems design within regulated or safety-critical industries.

• Experience leading or coordinating engineering teams and delivering programmes to time, cost and quality expectations.

• Strong systems engineering capability, including requirements management, structured design development and design substantiation.

• Experience producing and reviewing engineering documentation such as design reports, specifications and P&IDs within controlled environments.

• Understanding of regulatory frameworks and safety principles, including environmental, safety, security and safeguarding (E3S) considerations and ALARP.

• Strong stakeholder management, communication and problem-solving skills, with the ability to lead through ambiguity and deliver high-quality engineering outcomes.