Principal Nuclear Instrumentation & Controls Engineer – Hardware

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  

You will be joining Valar Atomics' Instrumentation, Control & Electrical (IC&E) organization, working on the Reactor side of the program. Nuclear I&C Hardware Engineers own the instruments that measure the reactor itself neutron flux across startup, intermediate, and power ranges, core and primary loop temperatures and pressures, and radiation levels throughout the plant along with the signal chains that carry those measurements to the protection and control systems. You will work alongside I&C, electrical, reactor physics, thermal-hydraulics, and nuclear safety engineers in a hands-on environment where measurement quality directly supports reactor safety. As a principal engineer, you will be among the discipline's most senior technical voices: an architect of its measurement systems, a final checker of its highest-consequence work, and a standard-setter for the engineers who will build their careers here. The team values technical depth, disciplined documentation, and a safety-first culture.  

 

The Role 

Valar Atomics is seeking Principal Nuclear I&C Engineers to own the technical direction of nuclear instrumentation plant design for our high temperature gas-cooled reactor program. The role spans the full domain neutron flux detection, radiation monitoring, reactor protection system sensors and signal chains, and process instrumentation in nuclear service, but at the level of measurement architecture, application and qualification strategy, and design authority rather than routine design execution. The focus is the application of vendor-supplied instrumentation in plant design, not instrument or detector development. This is a principal position: you will define the reactor measurement architecture and instrumentation application strategy for a first-of-a-kind reactor, hold final technical approval within assigned domains for safety-significant instrumentation designs and qualification bases, direct the resolution of the hardest measurement application problems in the program, represent the discipline in licensing and regulatory engagements, and build the engineering capability of the organization around you. Where a Staff Engineer owns the discipline's design bases and quality, the Principal Engineer owns where the discipline is going.  

 

Key Responsibilities  

Measurement Architecture and Technical Strategy  

• Define and own the reactor measurement architecture across the program: the neutron flux measurement strategy across startup, intermediate, and power ranges, the reactor protection system sensor architecture, radiation monitoring architecture, and the measurement strategy for primary-loop process variables in high-temperature helium service.  

• Author and own the discipline's philosophy and basis documents: instrumentation design basis, signal chain design philosophy, setpoint and uncertainty methodology basis, and the environmental and radiation qualification program basis that constrain and guide all downstream instrumentation engineering.  

• Own the instrumentation application strategy for first-of-a-kind reactor conditions: technology and vendor selection across available detector and sensor platforms, application-specific qualification strategy, standardization across the plant and future units, and supply continuity and obsolescence strategy for critical instruments.  

• Own the discipline's standards program within assigned domains: set the framework and priorities for design bases and standards, delegate authorship to staff and senior engineers, and approve them for release; drive convergence across the program.  

• Evaluate emerging, commercially maturing measurement technology, advanced detectors, distributed and optical sensing, digital signal processing platforms, and decide what is adopted into plant design, what is piloted, and what is excluded, balancing capability against qualification burden, licensing risk, and long-term supportability.  

Design Authority and Technical Governance  

• Serve as a discipline design authority: hold final technical approval, within assigned domains, for safety-significant instrumentation designs, qualification bases and dispositions, deviations from design bases, and concessions; adjudicate technical disputes within the discipline and represent it in cross-discipline conflicts at program level.  

• Own the technical integrity of reactor protection instrumentation within assigned domains: channel architecture, independence and separation (IEEE 603, IEEE 384 principles), qualification pedigree, and approval of safety-significant design changes.  

• Lead the discipline's engagement in the highest-consequence program reviews: preliminary and critical design reviews, safety analysis and licensing reviews, qualification program reviews, and instrumentation readiness reviews for fuel load, startup testing, and power ascension milestones.  

• Direct investigations of the most significant instrumentation problems and anomalies, spurious protection actuations, channel failures, qualification anomalies, and approve corrective action strategy, ensuring findings are institutionalized in design bases, standards, and training.  

• Personally execute or lead engineering on the small set of measurement problems where the consequence of error or the degree of novelty warrants the discipline's most senior engineers and know which problems those are.  

External Representation and Licensing  

• Serve as a senior instrumentation voice in the nuclear licensing effort: contribute to and defend the instrumentation content of the safety analysis and licensing basis measurement capability claims, protection system instrumentation design bases, setpoint and uncertainty methodology, and qualification arguments, and support regulatory interactions and audits.  

• Represent Valar Atomics to strategic detector and instrumentation vendors at a senior technical level; own long-term vendor technical relationships, qualification expectations, supply continuity for critical detectors, and escalation of systemic vendor issues.  

• Represent the company in industry and standards forums as appropriate (IEEE Nuclear Power Engineering Committee working groups, IEC SC45A, advanced reactor industry groups); bring emerging standards and regulatory developments back into program strategy before they become constraints.  

Organizational Capability  

• Build the discipline's engineering capability: define the technical competencies the nuclear instrumentation organization needs, shape role definitions and the technical career ladder with the Director, set the hiring bar, and lead technical interviews for senior positions.  

• Mentor staff and senior engineers toward independent technical authority; sponsor their development through delegation of ownership with oversight rather than retention of scope.  

• Advise IC&E leadership on technical risk, resourcing, and sequencing for the instrumentation program; provide independent technical judgment on schedule and cost pressure where it intersects measurement integrity and reactor safety.  

• Maintain disciplined engineering records consistent with nuclear quality requirements, ensuring traceability of design decisions, analyses, and test results, and setting the example for the discipline's documentation culture.  

 

Basic Qualifications 

• Bachelor's degree in Nuclear, Electrical, Computer, or Mechanical Engineering, or a closely related discipline.  

• 10+ years of experience in nuclear instrumentation, radiation detection systems, or reactor I&C, including substantial nuclear application.  

• Demonstrated ownership of nuclear instrumentation or detection system scope across multiple significant programs, including at least one taken from concept or requirements through qualification, deployment, and initial operation.  

• Track record of architecture-level technical leadership: defining measurement strategy, instrumentation architecture, or design bases that were adopted across a program or organization, not just a single system.  

• Recognized technical authority in at least one deep area of the domain (for example: neutron flux instrumentation, detector physics and signal chains, environmental/radiation qualification, or protection system instrumentation), evidenced by design authority roles, published work, standards participation, or a verifiable reputation as the final technical reference.  

• Deep, hands-on command of the full domain: detector physics and operating regimes, wide-range channel design across pulse, fluctuation, and current modes, analog signal chain engineering, qualification methodology (IEEE 323/344), and nuclear I&C standards (IEEE 603, IEEE 497, IEC 61513).  

• Experience with formal approval or independent-review authority over safety-related or safety-significant instrumentation designs, analyses, or qualification bases.  

• Experience directing and developing other engineers, including senior-level engineers, and reviewing and approving their work as a formal checker or design authority.  

• Experience representing an engineering discipline to external parties — regulators, licensing bodies, standards organizations, major vendors, or client design authorities.  

 

Preferred Skills and Experience  

• Professional Engineer (PE) license.  

• Advanced degree (MS or PhD) in nuclear engineering, physics, or a related field.  

• Direct experience with NRC licensing interactions, safety analysis instrumentation content, or defense of instrumentation design bases before a regulator.  

• Experience defining instrumentation strategy for first-of-a-kind, advanced, or test reactors, particularly high-temperature gas-cooled or other non-LWR designs.  

• Experience applying instrumentation in advanced, test, or first-of-a-kind reactor plant designs, including harsh-environment installations, MI cable systems, and vessel or containment penetration interfaces.  

• Setpoint and uncertainty methodology expertise (ISA-67.04 or equivalent) at a methodology-ownership level.  

• Participation in IEEE NPEC, IEC SC45A, or equivalent standards development.  

• Working experience under NQA-1 / 10 CFR 50 Appendix B quality programs at a program-governance level.  

 

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).

Salary$196,000—$240,000 USD