Lead OT Engineer - Fuel

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. Safe operation, disciplined testing, and regulatory rigor are non-negotiable. 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.

Own the fuel program's daily OT work plan, team workload, and delivery commitments at our Orangeville site. Keep local installation, testing, and maintenance aligned with manufacturing needs and dependable handoffs with the Torrance team. Technical expertise is preferred, not required; people-management and decision authority develop through explicit delegation.

OT Engineering delivers power and rack infrastructure, compute, networks, identity, security, operational data, and industrial software platforms. Factory Talk scope covers backend deployment, configuration, integration, and recovery.

Key Responsibilities

• Set local priorities and maintain a realistic work plan around manufacturing needs, maintenance demands, site resources, and delivery commitments.
• Assign work, set clear expectations, coach team members, give candid feedback, and address missed commitments within delegated authority.
• Coordinate installation, testing, maintenance, and vendor activities with production and engineering stakeholders.
• Arrange specialist support across Orangeville and Torrance, with clear task ownership, prerequisites, and handoffs.
• Maintain as built structured cabling drawings for site and fuel network systems
• Maintain accurate status, issue records, and completion evidence; resolve obstacles and elevate site constraints promptly.
• Obtain required engineering and acceptance decisions, then carry work through testing, documentation, and operational turnover.

You Will Be Successful in This Role If

• Highly organized, with disciplined task tracking, accurate documentation, clear priorities, and reliable follow-through.
• Calm, practical direction when production needs, maintenance demands, or site priorities change.
• Consistent coaching, candid feedback, and fair accountability that build dependable local execution.
• Highly proficient in contractor management and leading a team that is majority contractors for a time
• Reliable cross-site communication that keeps work moving and preserves ownership through handoffs.
• Practical judgment in balancing installation, maintenance, and production support while maintaining agreed priorities.

Basic Qualifications

• Direct people-management or supervisory experience, including assignments, expectations, coaching, feedback, and accountability for completion.
• Experience coordinating concurrent technical or operational work involving specialists, vendors, resources, schedules, and dependencies.
• Ability to maintain clear priorities, realistic work plans, accurate status and issue records, and dependable follow-through under pressure.
• Experience removing delivery obstacles, escalating consequential issues, and coordinating handoffs against engineers' requirements and acceptance decisions within delegated authority.
• Coordinate local installation, maintenance, testing, and documentation with dependable production-facing and cross-site handoffs.
• Technical specialization is preferred, not required. Qualified…