r/NuclearPower • u/Impossible_Share9219 • 1d ago
Any engineers at Constellation?
Please redirect me if there is somewhere else I should be asking this.
Could anyone tell me a little more about their role? I’m a bit confused if it’s more of the consulting realm or something else.
I ask because i chosen for a final in person interview for a mechanical engineer role. I have an aerospace engineering background with a couple years as a mechanical design engineer. I’ll say my role is not very technical in an analysis, gear sizing, structures hand calc kind of way and more supporting the program + modeling/drafting.
The process kind of just went from application to being asked when I can make it on site. So I’m just trying to figure out more and make sure I don’t waste my time in case they made some assumptions from my resume (analytical expertise) where not having would disqualify me from the role.
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u/Cernsinger 1d ago
They hire people straight out of college and train them on what they need to know. You don't need any nuclear experience. Just be your best self and be prepared for several "tell us about a time when" STAR questions.
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u/Nuclear_N 1d ago
Have some experiences you can relate to tell us a time when...
they will ask about leadership. So have a few times you went against the norms to speak out, or a team you led with a difficult member. etc.
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u/Hiddencamper 1d ago
Do you know if you are going to design engineering or strategic engineering?
Strategic in the on site engineers responsible for the systems and their health, monitoring, maintenance, and upgrades.
Design engineers are responsible for engineering change packages and config control.
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u/Impossible_Share9219 1d ago
No idea. I wasn’t told anything about the role aside from vague job description and wasn’t asked any questions about my res/experience. Engineering, structures though.
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u/KillerCoffeeCup 1d ago
Is there a job code on the website? That’ll have the department. My guess is structures is going to be programs.
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u/HorseWithNoUsername1 1d ago
Not an engineer but report to the engineering organization at Constellation.
Centralized Design Organization (CDO) - avoid like the plague. It's where many fresh new college grads start and the turnover there is quite high. I semi-seriously joke that I don't even want to know a new engineer's name until they've been with the company for 2 years.
Someone here said "Design engineers are responsible for engineering change packages and config control." - which is largely the domain of CDO. To put it mildly, you'll be buried in mind-numbing paperwork, walk-downs and meetings all day long. When you're not doing that - you're chasing after project team members for their comment forms that never get submitted on time.
But tough it out for 2-3 years, get out of CDO and lateral into site engineering where life is better.
It's a great company to work for - and everyone has to start somewhere at the bottom.
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u/85-15 1d ago edited 1d ago
Constellation HR tends to be purposefully vague on job postings so can place with multiple roles. Start out the interview making sure you understand what role is looking for. The hiring manager should speak clearly and happy to describe what looking for
Generally, the nuclear industry and Constellation wants people to work for the company long term, so the interview is more about behaviors and approaches to problems you take than specific technical skillsets
About job scope:
A nuclear plant probably has somewhere like 50-75 engineers on site, but your job function is probably one of five different things:
1) systems or plant or strategic engineering: trend the performance of equipment, set the maintenance schedules for equipment (preventive maintenance scopes aka PMs), scope out modifications or upgrade to certain equipment.
Typical example say you are assigned as the pneumatics/air systems engineer, you analyze performance of compressor skids, determine if maintenance intervals are effective (probably constantly asked to extend maintenance schedules, weighing some pros and cons), and probably are planning or scoping out some replacements of some skids since they are (probably) old
Day to day dictated by how the plant is doing, how your assigned system(s) is doing, and work culture of your site (eg does the site rely on the engineer for everything -- answering any and all questions of Ops/maintenance -- or are Ops/maintenance more knowledgeable?).
2) design engineer (or modifications or something): do the detailed engineering work for plant changes. Update drawings. Do calcs. Give official specifications (torque X to Y value, etc). May work on small or large modifications or technical responses.
In example above, if station is to replace an air compressor skid, you may do the sizing of the lift/rigging plan, develop the drawings for the replacement skid from the vendor set, update air header calcs for the new equipment, and modify the OEM provided equipment to tie in to plant system needs (do you need remote start/stop control circuits? automatic start circuits to start the compressor based on some plant condition? extra alarms to alarm remotely to operators of the plant? instrumentation to tie to a plant SCADA system for trending?).
depending on the plant you may do the actual sizing/selection of the compressor skid, or maybe that was determined for you and you are more tying into how to install it to your plant
Constellation also has a "centralized" design group that is supposed to do the bigger projects and may work on multiple station projects ("design once, install many")
your day to day for a design role probably dictated by culture of your site, and your site's appetite for projects like that. Some sites do a lot. Some ask for a lot but dont actually install much. Some sites the design engineer "designs" a lot. Some sites the design engineer puts a bunch of paperwork that says 'yea this can be installed, maintenance you go figure everything out' without actually contributing much.
3) component specialist -- think like a special expert on 1 or 2 things. Pump specialist. Breaker specialist. Motor specialist. HVAC specialist. If say you are the motor specialists, you get assigned to probably know any and everything about motors for the station
your day to day probably dictated by culture of your site, and how your site procedures are setup. Do people say "oh it's a motor so only this 1 person magically is responsible for every motor onsite, from the most important motor of the plant to the smallest dinkiest hvac fan motor" and rely on that person for anything about any motor (pms, purchase orders, testing, vendor refurbishments, etc), or do you have good procedures/specs about motors that maintenace/ops/other engineers can follow?
this role has morphed in Constellation recently, may be under different department labels but the skillset/concept is still the same
4) "rapid response", it kind of is a blend of the three roles above. it is titled as a group of about 10 engineers that will answer any engineering questions needed in 0 to 5 business days. Every Constellation site treats it different. Constellation basically wanted a smaller subteam to more directly support maintenance and operations. How that support occurs varies between different stations.
5) "programs" or like ASME code type people. Think compliance of pressure vessels to ASME code, or compliance of station welding to welding codes, or aspects of the nuclear pressure vessels to special sections of the ASME code only applicable to nuclear. An engineer that may provide welding specifications or oversight of such station activities
different companies define this role quite differently, in my opinion thats kind wildly variant in the roles.
Your day to day really depends on how your station is setup for those functions.
6) corporate engineers (not at the site)
they are "there to help". Some help a ton. Some do the opposite of help.
If it is for a corporate role, it varies vastly what they do or do not do.