Production Quality Engineer

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.

As part of the Regulations & Safety organization, Quality Assurance establishes the systems and standards that ensure products and processes consistently meet the highest levels of quality and compliance. The team promotes continuous improvement and operational excellence across the company.

As Production Quality Engineer, you will provide technical quality engineering support directly to the production floor for HTGR reactor component and fuel-related manufacturing activities. This role sits within the Torrance manufacturing and fuel fabrication environment.

This role serves as the technical quality authority for production processes, working alongside Production Quality Supervisors, Technicians, and Inspectors to define inspection methods, evaluate process capability, disposition nonconforming material, and drive root cause and corrective action for production quality issues. You will partner closely with Manufacturing Engineering, Design Engineering, and Operations to ensure production processes are controlled, verifiable, and capable of meeting engineering requirements at production tempo.

This is a hands‑on floor engineering role. You will spend significant time directly on the production floor evaluating process performance, reviewing nonconformances, supporting inspection planning, and working through technical problems with operators, technicians, and manufacturing engineers in real time.

• Develop and maintain inspection plans, control plans, and verification methods for production processes, ensuring alignment with engineering drawings, specifications, and process control requirements.
• Serve as the technical disposition authority for production nonconformances, making timely, technically defensible use‑as‑is, rework, repair, or scrap decisions with appropriate engineering justification, even under schedule pressure.
• Lead root cause analysis and corrective action (CAPA) for production quality issues, applying structured problem‑solving methods (8D, 5‑Why, fishbone, etc.) and taking ownership of issues through to closure.
• Evaluate process capability and measurement system performance, including Cp/Cpk studies, Gauge R&R, and other Measurement Systems Analysis (MSA) activities, favoring data‑driven decisions over reflexive inspection or rejection.
• Work directly on the production floor alongside operators, technicians, and manufacturing engineers to solve quality problems in real time.
• Partner with Manufacturing Engineering and Design Engineering to resolve manufacturability issues, process deviations, and engineering change impacts affecting production quality.
• Support Production Quality Supervisors and Technicians with technical guidance on inspection methods, gauge selection, sampling plans, and verification strategy.
• Support development and technical content of Quality Plan Certification Training Syllabi for Operator Verification Certification (OVC), enabling delegated verification where appropriate.
• Analyze production quality data and trends to identify systemic issues, recurring nonconformances, and opportunities for process improvement.
• Participa…