Principal OT Engineer

Valar Atomics is a nuclear energy company focused on scaling high-temperature gas reactors (HTGRs) for grid-independent industrial applications. The company is developing what it calls gigasites, large-scale facilities housing hundreds of nuclear reactors intended to power heavy industry, data centers, hydrogen production, and clean hydrocarbon fuel synthesis. Their reactor design uses TRISO fuel, a graphite moderator, and helium coolant, a combination the company highlights for its strong safety profile and proliferation resistance. By operating outside the traditional electricity grid, Valar Atomics aims to unlock economies of scale that have historically eluded the nuclear industry. Valar Atomics' mission centers on making nuclear energy the cheapest and most reliable energy source in the world, with a particular emphasis on decarbonizing industrial processes and enabling clean fuel production. Their hydrogen output, generated via a sulfur-iodine thermochemical cycle, can be combined with captured CO2 to produce synthetic hydrocarbons through a modified Fischer-Tropsch process, offering a pathway to drop-in clean fuels. The company also targets the surging power demands of AI data centers, which are projected to require over 200 additional terawatt-hours of grid power by 2030. The company is currently advancing its Ward 250 project, a test reactor being developed in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy, the San Rafael Energy Research Center, and the State of Utah, with a target go-live date of July 4, 2026, America's 250th birthday. The reactor has already been physically transported to Emery County, Utah, with logistical support from the U.S. military. Four executive orders issued under the Trump administration provided a mandate supporting the project's accelerated deployment timeline.

About Valar Atomics

At Valar Atomics, we're redefining what's possible in energy. Our mission is to make clean, high-temperature nuclear power scalable—unlocking abundant energy for industry, hydrogen, and next-generation manufacturing. We are a team of builders, engineers, and operators who believe nuclear energy should be fast to deploy, factory-made, and built for the real world. Our first pilot plant in Orangeville, Utah will demonstrate how advanced nuclear systems and fuel fabrication can power the future. Joining Valar Atomics means becoming part of a company where autonomy, ownership, and impact exist at every level.

The Team 

As part of the Engineering organization, Instrumentations & Controls designs the systems that monitor, automate, and protect Valar's facilities and reactor technologies. The team develops reliable control architectures that enable safe and efficient operations.

The Role 

Valar Atomics is a young startup that turns ambitious engineering into working hardware. Before our third anniversary, we designed, built, commissioned, and operated a DOE-authorized research reactor outside the national laboratory system. That pace defines how we work: learn quickly, make sound decisions, and build systems that perform. Analysis must lead to decisions and delivery, and we expect people to take ownership and see their work through. If you want hard problems, real responsibility, and the freedom to build with urgency, bring your judgment and drive to Valar. 

Take on the department's most difficult technical problems and step into hands-on engineering work across its disciplines when needed. Combine broad working capability with deep expertise in several areas to resolve failures and integration problems that cross system boundaries. Your day-to-day work would include escalations, developing designs, writing standards, and developing verification procedures all with the goal of improving the systems and supporting the team that builds and operates them. 

OT Engineering delivers power and rack infrastructure, compute, networks, identity, security (physical & cyber), operational data, and industrial software platforms (FactoryTalk). FactoryTalk scope covers backend deployment, configuration, integration, and recovery. PLC programming and controls-code development are outside this role. 
 

Key Responsibilities 

• Lead technical investigations of consequential failures and complex integration problems across physical, software, network, and data dependencies.
• Step into implementation, commissioning, troubleshooting, or recovery work where the department needs technical coverage.
• Test explanations against incomplete or conflicting evidence, establish supported causes, and verify recovery.
• Develop and review architectures, detailed designs, standards, and acceptance methods for demanding systems and interfaces.
• Resolve technical gaps between disciplines, involving specialists when additional depth is needed.
• Turn difficult failures and field lessons into improved designs, usable procedures, and knowledge the team can apply. 
• Travel to our Orangeville, UT facility approximately 15% of the time.

You Will Be Successful in This Role if  

• Highly organized, with disciplined task tracking, accurate documentation, clear priorities, and reliable follow-through.
• Broad technical capability and the judgment to recognize missing knowledge and bring in the right expertise.
• Persistent problem solving that connects symptoms across systems, tests competing explanations, and verifies the fix.
• Ability to move between urgent hands-on work and sustained design work, leaving systems and documentation others can maintain. 

Basic Qualifications

• Broad practical capability across power and rack infrastructure; compute, storage, and virtualization; networking; industrial backends and data; Windows domains and access control; centralized services; cybersecurity; and log and packet analysis.
• Deep hands-on expertise in several disciplines, demonstrated by resolving difficult failures across systems, evaluating incomplete evidence, and verifying recovery when established procedures are insufficient.
• Authorship and validation of designs, standards, requirements, procedures, and acceptance criteria, with sound engineering judgment.
• Technical leadership of complex integration, commissioning, or recovery work, and usable technical records.
• Broad departmental coverage is preferred over deep specialists

Preferred Skills and Experience  

• Experience developing reusable architectures or technical standards across multiple facilities or programs.
• Experience turning lessons from major incidents into tested recovery practices adopted by multiple teams.
• Deep expertise in additional disciplines or product families beyond the required breadth. 

What We Offer  

• Competitive base salary 
• Equity ownership in a rapidly growing advanced energy company 
• Comprehensive medical benefits 
• Unlimited PTO
• Free daily lunch and dinner provided onsite 
• Generous PPE stipend
• High-impact startup environment with significant ownership and autonomy 
• Opportunities for rapid career growth and internal advancement 
• Direct collaboration with experienced operators, engineers, and industry leaders 
• The opportunity to help build and scale transformative energy technology from the ground up

 

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

Valar Atomics is an equal opportunity employer. We consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected status under applicable law.

We are committed to providing a workplace free of discrimination and harassment and will provide reasonable accommodation as required by law.

Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States as a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident (green card holder).