---
title: 'Lead Electrical Engineer at Valar Atomics'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/lead-electrical-engineer-valar-atomics-torrance-california-cgnncjt225c9'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-11'
---

# Lead Electrical Engineer at Valar Atomics

- **Company:** Valar Atomics
- **Location:** Torrance California, United States
- **Compensation:** $196k–$240k
- **Posted:** 2026-08-28
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-11
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/valaratomics/jobs/4377500009

## Job description

## 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 lead Valar Atomics' Electrical Engineering team within the Instrumentation, Control & Electrical (IC&E) organization. The team delivers the electrical infrastructure that powers and is powered by Valar's facilities, from utility and grid interconnection through generation, MV distribution, process area LV systems, and emergency power across the reactor program, fuel manufacturing operations, and power generation and distribution scope. You will work alongside I&C, mechanical, process, power conversion, and nuclear safety engineers in a hands-on environment where power system integrity directly supports production reliability and nuclear safety, with some of the most technically interesting generation and distribution challenges in the advanced nuclear sector. The team values technical depth, disciplined documentation, and a safety-first culture, and you will set that tone for the engineers you hire.

## The Role

Valar Atomics is seeking a Lead Electrical Engineer to lead and build our electrical engineering team, and to own electrical engineering delivery across the full plant scope, Reactor, Nuclear Fuel Manufacturing, Power Generation, and Power Distribution. This is a player-coach role: you will be both the team's leader, hiring, developing, directing, and growing electrical engineers across our career ladder, and its most senior technical voice while that team is built, with design responsibility spanning LV, MV, and HV systems from utility interconnection and the generation switchyard through medium voltage distribution to process and facility low voltage systems. You will own the electrical architecture of a first-of-a-kind nuclear power plant, including its power generation electrical scope: generator integration, excitation and protection, step-up transformation, and grid interconnection. This role builds the organization it will lead.

## Key Responsibilities

## Team Leadership and Organization Building

- Build the electrical engineering team: define roles and requisitions across the Engineer / Senior / Staff / Principal ladder with the Director, recruit and interview candidates, own hiring recommendations, and onboard and integrate new engineers.
- Lead the team day to day: assign and prioritize work across the four plant areas, direct and review technical output, manage performance, and develop each engineer's technical depth and progression along the ladder.
- Own engineering resourcing strategy: workload forecasting across Reactor, Nuclear Fuel Manufacturing, Power Generation, and Power Distribution scopes; internal versus contractor engineering allocation; and technical direction and oversight of engineering subcontractors and consultants.
- Establish the discipline's ways of working — checking practice, calculation and study bases, design standards, and documentation discipline — and evolve their ownership to Staff and Principal engineers as the team grows.

Technical Leadership and Delivery

- Own electrical engineering delivery across all four plant areas: the scope, quality, and schedule of power system studies, designs, specifications, and construction and commissioning support produced by the team.
- Own the plant electrical architecture end-to-end across voltage classes: HV utility interconnection and switchyard, generator and generator step-up (GSU) transformer integration, MV distribution, LV process and facility systems, emergency and standby power, and DC/UPS systems.
- Own the power generation electrical scope: generator specification and integration with the power conversion system, excitation and voltage regulation, generator and interconnection protection, synchronization, auxiliary power, and grid code and interconnection technical requirements.
- Serve as the discipline's senior technical authority: approve power system studies (load flow, short circuit, arc flash, protection coordination, grounding), one-line development, protection philosophy and relay settings, and major equipment specifications, delegating approval authority to Staff and Principal engineers as they are hired.
- Own the utility and AHJ technical relationships: interconnection studies and agreements, protection interface requirements, code interpretation and compliance strategy, and inspection support.
- Lead the electrical discipline in interdisciplinary design reviews, HAZOP studies, and licensing-support activities; represent the discipline's position at program level and own resolution of cross-discipline conflicts.
- Lead vendor engagement for major electrical packages: pre-qualification, technical bid evaluation, award recommendation, factory acceptance activities, and escalation of systemic vendor issues.

Program Coordination

- Coordinate electrical scope and interfaces across the reactor, fuel manufacturing, power conversion, and site infrastructure programs, including load growth, sequencing of energisation, and shared distribution infrastructure decisions.
- Advise IC&E leadership on electrical technical risk, resourcing, and sequencing; provide independent technical judgment where schedule and cost pressure intersect engineering integrity.
- Maintain disciplined engineering records consistent with nuclear quality requirements, ensuring traceability of design decisions, analyses, and test results, and setting the example for the team's documentation culture.

## Basic Qualifications

- Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering or a closely related discipline.
- 10+ years of electrical engineering experience across power generation, utility, process, or industrial projects.
- Demonstrated experience leading an electrical engineering team: assigning and directing work, reviewing and approving other engineers' output, and developing engineers — not solely project or matrix leadership.
- Experience building an engineering team through direct hiring: defining roles, recruiting, interviewing, and onboarding engineers you then led.
- Substantial power generation electrical experience, including generator integration, excitation, generator and interconnection protection, GSU transformers, switchyard or substation scope, and grid interconnection requirements. Experience from cogeneration / combined heat and power (CHP) facilities fully satisfies this requirement.
- Demonstrated design proficiency across LV, MV, and HV systems — from utility/transmission-level interconnection and switchyards through MV distribution to LV process and facility systems, including the studies, protection, and equipment specification appropriate to each voltage class.
- Expert-level proficiency in power system analysis (SKM Power Tools, ETAP, PSS/E, or equivalent), including ownership or approval of load flow, short circuit, arc flash, and protection coordination studies.
- Demonstrated end-to-end ownership of electrical scope on at least one major capital project, from front-end design through energisation and commissioning.
- Strong working knowledge of applicable codes and standards (NEC/NFPA 70, IEEE including the C37 protection series, NEMA, ANSI, IEC), sufficient to set and defend discipline standards.
- Experience representing an electrical discipline to external parties — utilities, AHJs, regulators, or major vendors.

## Preferred Skills and Experience

- Professional Engineer (P.E. / P.Eng.) registration or equivalent.
- Experience leading utility interconnection from application through energisation, including interconnection agreements and PPA technical interfaces.
- Nuclear facility electrical experience, including nuclear classification and separation requirements (IEEE 384, Class 1E concepts) or work under NQA-1 / 10 CFR 50 Appendix B quality programs.
- Generator protection expertise (IEEE C37.102) and experience with synchronization, black start, or islanded operation schemes.
- Experience with IEC 61850 substation automation and protection communication.
- Experience with emergency and standby power system design, DC systems, and battery sizing (IEEE 485/1115).
- Experience on first-of-a-kind, prototype, or early-stage plant programs where the electrical organization and its standards had to be built rather than inherited.

## 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

## About Valar Atomics

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Valar Atomics is scaling nuclear energy through grid-independent, high-temperature gas reactors (HTGR) for hydrogen production, data center power, heavy industrial power, and clean hydrocarbon fuel synthesis.
- **Entity Type**: Private (total funding $494M–$600.5M, latest round Debt - II)
- **Headquarters**: El Segundo, California, United States (additional location in Orangeville, Utah)
- **Founded**: 2023
- **Founders**: Not publicly listed (key executives include President Muhammad Shahzad and CNO Mark Mitchell)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Nuclear energy / advanced nuclear reactor technology
- **Target customers**: Large-scale industrial users (hydrogen producers, data centers, heavy industry), grid-independent operations, and fuel synthesis plants (B2B, Enterprise)
- **Mission or purpose**: “Nuclear needs scale” – unlock economies of scale by building hundreds of reactors on Valar gigasites, divorcing industrial power from the traditional grid.

## Products & Services
- **[Ward 250 Reactor]**: A grid-independent HTGR using TRISO fuel, designed for high-volume, non-bespoke production. Achieved criticality in June 2026 under DOE’s pilot program. Product type: Hardware (nuclear reactor).
- **[Hydrogen Production]**: Reactors paired with a sulfur-iodine cycle process to produce cheap, abundant hydrogen. Product type: Industrial energy product.
- **[Data Center Power]**: Dedicated on-site nuclear power for AI data centers, targeting AI’s projected 200+ TWh additional demand by 2030. Product type: Service / infrastructure.
- **[Heavy Industrial Power]**: Grid-independent power for processes like green steel and bauxite electrolysis. Product type: Service / infrastructure.
- **[Clean Hydrocarbon Fuels]**: Combines cheap hydrogen with captured CO₂ via a modified Fischer-Tropsch process to create synthetic fuels. Product type: Fuel product.
- **[Modular Citadel Shielding]**: Pre-cast, self-tensioning shielding system for mass-manufactured reactor protection. Production line capable of 1,000+ blocks per year. Product type: Hardware component.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation / Market Cap**: Not disclosed (CB Insights shows valuation as hidden)
- **Key Metric**: Total funding reported as $494M (LinkedIn) or $600.5M (CB Insights, conflicting reports); latest round debt financing in November 2025.
- **Notable Investors**: Palmer Luckey, Shyam Sankar, Day One Ventures, DTX Ventures, Contrary, Riot Ventures (led Seed), Snowpoint Ventures (led Series A), and 28+ others.
- **Growth Signals**: Headcount of 74 employees (+232% YoY, +9.6% monthly); 30 active job postings; Ward 250 reactor achieved criticality in June 2026; partnerships with DOE, San Rafael Energy Research Center, and State of Utah; opened first nuclear site (San Rafael) in February 2026.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Proven HTGR design** with unmatched safety profile and proliferation resistance when paired with TRISO fuel.
- **Grid-independent “gigasite” model** that avoids traditional grid constraints, enabling mass manufacturing of standardized reactors.
- **Vertical integration**: In-house design of reactors, fuel processing (sulfur-iodine cycle), and shielding systems (Modular Citadel).
- **Speed to market**: Ward 250 is on track for power operations before July 4, 2026, under a DOE mandate.
- **Talent base**: Attracts engineers from Ultra Safe Nuclear, X-energy, Anduril, and other advanced hardware companies.

## Strategic Focus
- **Scale manufacturing**: Transition from project-based nuclear to high-volume production through gigasites.
- **Achieve operational milestones**: Achieve hot criticality and power operation at Ward 250 by mid-2026.
- **Expand product lines**: Deliver grid-independent hydrogen, data center power, and synthetic fuels to meet industrial and AI energy demands.
- **Grow headcount rapidly**: Aggressively hiring in engineering, operations, quality, and technical roles.

## Why Work Here
- **Mission-driven culture**: “Hardware is the only thing that counts” – emphasis on building real reactors, not just pitching.
- **High growth environment**: Company doubled headcount in the past year; roles offer significant ownership and impact.
- **Locations**: Hawthorne (CA), El Segundo (CA), Orangeville (UT), and Huntington (UT) – roles span design, manufacturing, and field operations.
- **Work style**: Likely on-site/hybrid for technical roles (e.g., Build Engineer, Nuclear Operations Manager, Machinist).
- **Perks & culture**: Rapid advancement opportunities, exposure to cutting-edge nuclear and chemical engineering, and a team with deep ties to defense and deep-tech.
- **Current openings**: 30+ roles including mechanical engineers, plant operators, quality engineers, finance systems engineers, and technical recruiters.

## Sources
1. [valaratomics.com](https://valaratomics.com/)
2. [Greenhouse careers](http://job-boards.greenhouse.io/valaratomics)
3. [CB Insights](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/valar-atomics)
4. [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/valar-atomics)

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