Permitting Manager at Radiant in Washington, DC

Job description

About Radiant Radiant is an El Segundo, CA-based startup building the world’s first mass-produced, portable nuclear microreactors. Rising energy demand is straining the U.S. grid and driving up utility costs, emissions, and interconnection backlogs. Radiant decentralizes energy, producing power close to where it’s used. Its first reactor, Kaleidos, is a factory-built, 1-megawatt, fail-safe microreactor that can be transported by land, sea, or air and runs up to 5 years without refueling. Deployed locally without a decade-long build or permitting fight, Kaleidos provides independent power for critical infrastructure like military bases, data centers, hospitals, and remote sites. Founded in 2020, Radiant is under contract to deliver power to the U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy, and has pre-order agreements with Equinix, with deployments beginning in 2028. About the Role Radiant is seeking a Permitting Manager to own the final, on-the-ground step for operating an advanced microreactor: securing the state and local permits required to deploy Kaleidos at customer sites. This role is highly hands-on and execution-focused, translating policy and licensing groundwork into permits in hand. You will prepare and file permit applications, and coordinating tightly with the teams that make deployment possible. Responsibilities & Duties: • Own the end-to-end state and local permitting process for reactor transportation and deployment, from application through approval, ensuring Radiant is consistently getting faster and more effective at securing permits. • Manage relationships with contractors and consultants engaged to support permit applications, site work, and inspections. • Interface with Radiant's regulatory affairs, engineering, legal, and operations teams to ensure permit applications reflect accurate technical and site-specific information. • Interface with Radiant’s community engagement team to ensure strong local understanding and support. • Work directly with our customer’s permitting teams. • Support state and federal policy teams with on-the-ground information, to scope policy suggestions and requests and provide input to advocacy. • Track permit status and requirements across active and prospective deployment sites; flag risks or delays early to leadership. • Build repeatable permitting processes and playbooks to reduce time-to-permit as Radiant scales to new states and sites. • Maintain working knowledge of local and state permitting requirements (transportation, siting, zoning, environmental, construction) relevant to reactor deployment. • Support site selection efforts with permitting feasibility input, in partnership with leadership. Required Qualifications & Skills: • 5+ years of experience managing permitting processes for industrial, energy, infrastructure, or other highly regulated facility projects. • Proven experience managing contractors and/or consultants through a permitting or entitlement process. • Strong understanding of local and state permitting environments (zoning, siting, environmental review, construction permits). • Comfortable operating in ambiguity, working state-by-state without established precedent. Able to define State and Local permitting requirements independently, without primary reliance on support from large consultancies. • Clear communicator able to work equally well with customers, contractors, consultants, and internal technical teams. Desired Qualifications & Skills: • Experience with permitting for energy generation assets (nuclear, or other power generation). • Experience with permitting on military installations. • Experience with oversize load transportation across state boundaries. • Familiarity with the regulatory/licensing process that precedes permitting (NRC licensing, state PUC processes). • Experience supporting first-of-a-kind or novel infrastructure deployments. Additional Requirements: • Must be willing to work extended hours and weekends as necessary to accomplish our mission. •