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Nuclear engineer skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

5 min read

Quoted experts

Erin Blumsack,

Mary Lou Dunzik-Gougar Ph.D.

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical nuclear engineer skills. We ranked the top skills for nuclear engineers based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 10.7% of nuclear engineer resumes contained security clearance as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a nuclear engineer needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 nuclear engineer skills for your resume and career

1. Security Clearance

Here's how nuclear engineers use security clearance:

Maintained Confidential Security Clearance, Department of Defense.
Company Confidential security clearance obtained.

2. Oversight

Having oversight of someone means to monitor a process or a situation. If someone has oversight of something, they are responsible for the completion of the project. Oversight is usually given to experts as they monitor their juniors or newbies as they go through a project.

Here's how nuclear engineers use oversight:

Provided continuous oversight in work planning to ensure maximum power plant operations, ensuring successful completion of 367 corrective maintenance items.
Provided technical and project management oversight to the U.S. Department of Energy contractor team.

3. Project Management

Here's how nuclear engineers use project management:

Provided project management services and engineering support during nuclear facility outages, primarily concerning fuel-handling robotics systems.
Provided project management, maintenance and repair technical work documents, and established priorities for shipboard systems.

4. Safety Analysis

Safety Analysis refers to the examination of whether a position meets all necessary health and safety standards. This process is typically broken down into four steps: 1) choosing a job to review; 2) deconstructing the job into various steps; 3) reviewing the position and identifying all potential hazards; and 4) recording these hazards and suggesting safety measures to fix these hazards.

Here's how nuclear engineers use safety analysis:

Performed reactor core design, optimization and safety analysis support for various nuclear power customers.
Develop initial core design and associated calculations for input to safety analysis.

5. DOE

DOE, DOX, or design of experiments is a term used to refer to a part of applied statistics whose main focus is to conduct and observe controlled tests with the ultimate goal of understanding and explaining how information and results might vary under different hypotheses and circumstances and how such variables affect the results and tests. Design of experiments is used in marketing, politics, various sciences, and, of course, experiments.

Here's how nuclear engineers use doe:

Performed verification and inspection activities of components and systems; and provides recommendation of product acceptance to DOE and NASA customers.
Evaluated the reactor components used in a DOE production reactor to ensure compliance with technical specifications.

6. DOD

Definition of Done (DoD) is a set of deliverables that are needed to devise software. These deliverables are valuable to the system and can be exemplified by writing code, coding comments, unit testing, integration testing, design documents, release notes, and so on.

Here's how nuclear engineers use dod:

Specialized in DOD confidential nuclear instrumentation panels.

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7. Technical Support

Technical support or tech support are the services provided by any hardware or software company to users. They help in solving the technical difficulties the customers face with their products or services. Moreover, the tech support employees maintain, manage, and repair the IT faults. They are also responsible for resolving the network problems, installing and configuring hardware and software.

Here's how nuclear engineers use technical support:

Coordinated technical support between government contractors and shipyard personnel.
Provided technical support to PWR plants in areas of core monitoring, fuel licensing and reactor operations.

8. Radiological

Here's how nuclear engineers use radiological:

Facilitated mutual integration of multiple US Agencies' radiological and nuclear detection projects in support of Consequence Management operations and concepts.
Trained 5+ engineers about the process of evaluating radiological storage facilities for space efficiency.

9. Nuclear Reactor

Here's how nuclear engineers use nuclear reactor:

Supervised/monitored naval Nuclear Reactor instrumentation alignments.
Served as technical leader and nuclear engineer supporting nuclear reactor licensing and operation.

10. Nuclear Safety

Here's how nuclear engineers use nuclear safety:

Analyzed plant data, planned modifications, reviewed technical practices, and resolved technical problems pertaining to nuclear safety.
Assessed nuclear safety by analyzing core reactivity coefficients and kinetics behavior.

11. Naval Nuclear

Here's how nuclear engineers use naval nuclear:

Prepared and presented training material for new engineers on equipment, operations and administrative requirements associated with naval nuclear refueling.
Tasked with overseeing naval nuclear power plant operations during overhaul periods and supervising engineers and technicians during support operations.

12. Program Improvements

Here's how nuclear engineers use program improvements:

Supervised continuous process and program improvements, raising standards in administration and industrial work practices.
Developed program improvements using various updated technology for aircraft carriers.

13. Technical Reports

Technical reports are a type of document that is used to indicate either the progress, result, or process of scientific research or the state of problems occurring within such research. A technical report may also showcase the report's overall conclusion and may also include recommendations. This kind of report does not require a peer review and isn't published officially but distributed within the organizations where it was formed.

Here's how nuclear engineers use technical reports:

Completed technical reporting to management and French nuclear authorities.
Reviewed EPRI BWRVIP technical reports to provide approval to publish and transmit to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

14. NAVSEA

Here's how nuclear engineers use navsea:

Organized and developed status presentations for the department for NAVSEA reviews.
Write and review procedures developed from approved NAVSEA technical manuals.

15. Nuclear Power

Nuclear power produces heat which is used to power machines and heat homes through nuclear reactions. This can be obtained when uranium atoms are split apart causing the release of energy inside a nuclear reactor in a process known as fission.

Here's how nuclear engineers use nuclear power:

Managed a contract comparing methods for characterizing activated metal wastes from commercial nuclear power plants.
Consulted with and observed other nuclear power plants performing complex modifications and repairs.

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What skills help Nuclear Engineers find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What nuclear engineer skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Erin Blumsack

External Relations Coordinator, Pennsylvania State University

I would hope that a gap year, especially after the turmoil of the past year, would be used to take a break and disconnect! However, if an engineering graduate has a goal in mind after the gap like getting a job or going to graduate school, that goal should inform where they focus their effort. If an engineering graduate wants to get a job, I would suggest researching thoroughly the industry or industries they might want to join and finding out what gaps exist in those industries. Trade publications, corporate websites, and career services at their alma mater can help with this. And I would suggest that they keep in mind that it is often more valuable to find out what you don't like than what you do. Don't have a fixed idea of what things will look like when you get a job because flexibility leads to opportunities.

For engineers, soft skills and multidisciplinary and innovative thinking are increasingly important to employers. Taking some online classes (if one has the means) in areas where you may feel you need improvement. Or if there's something missing from your resume, think about how you will address that when you eventually interview: take steps to either fill the gap or have a plan to do so once you start work. If an engineering students wants to go to graduate school, I would use the gap year making connections at institutions where you might want to apply. Having a connection with a faculty member can both better inform your graduate school decision and give you good information about what you need to do to get in. Many graduate schools are waiving fees and/or testing requirements due to the pandemic, so this may not be a good year to take a gap since it may be less arduous to fulfill entrance requirements this year.

What type of skills will young nuclear engineers need?

Mary Lou Dunzik-Gougar Ph.D.

President of the American Nuclear Society (2020-2021) Associate Professor of Nuclear Engineering Associate Dean of the College of Science and Engineering Idaho State University, American Nuclear Society

All the students leaving nuclear engineering degree programs have multiple opportunities for employment. Over the years, graduates have reported back that, in addition to the engineering know-how, their employers value the abilities to solve problems, work both independently and as a constructive team member, communicate in writing and verbally with many different audiences, and proactively learn new things needed to get the job done.

What technical skills for a nuclear engineer stand out to employers?

Rob Hayes

Associate Professor, North Carolina State University

Each discipline will have their own specificities which are characteristic of the degree title required (e.g., dental, electrical, mechanical, etc.) but they all prefer someone with experience. Basically, they assess each candidate by how much money the candidate can make them in terms of how long will they have to wait for them to be productive, how productive they will be and how long they will be productive (yes, it is a profit driver in the end). This has elements such as them being able to also be a team player or do projects alone as the taskings may require various flexibilities to make whatever product they sell to their customer (even in consulting). In STEM this is largely assessed by historical accomplishments (grades, awards, volunteer activities etc.) as your past performance is almost always the primary indicator that will be used to predict your future performance.

Do you want to know more?

List of nuclear engineer skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for a nuclear engineer resume and required skills for a nuclear engineer to have include:

Security Clearance
Oversight
Project Management
Safety Analysis
DOE
DOD
Technical Support
Radiological
Nuclear Reactor
Nuclear Safety
Naval Nuclear
Program Improvements
Technical Reports
NAVSEA
Nuclear Power
Nuclear Facilities

Test Procedures
CFR
Engineering Support
Design Changes
Technical Specifications
NRC
Plant Systems
Core Design
Engineering Design
Electrical Systems
Fire Protection
Fortran
QA
Technical Direction
Aircraft Carriers
Nuclear Systems

Nuclear Regulatory
Maintenance Procedures
Mechanical Systems
Technical Assistance
Technical Issues
Computer Codes
Nuclear Material
Radiation Exposure
PWR
Technical Procedures
Autocad
Radioactive Materials
HVAC
PRA
BWR

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

Updated January 8, 2025

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