---
title: 'Project Manager, Commercial Projects at Valar Atomics'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/project-manager-commercial-projects-valar-atomics-torrance-jk43yns8httm'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-16'
---

# Project Manager, Commercial Projects at Valar Atomics

- **Company:** Valar Atomics
- **Location:** Torrance, CA
- **Compensation:** $200k–$300k
- **Posted:** 2026-05-18
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-16
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/valaratomics/jobs/4250687009

## 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.

## About the role

The Project Manager will lead development execution for one of Valar’s first commercial projects. This role is responsible for managing the project from early site development through major investment and delivery readiness milestones, with continued involvement after handoff to support continuity, decision-making, and alignment with the construction and delivery teams.

The Project Manager will own the integrated development schedule, coordinate across internal teams and external partners, support vendors and internal planning before construction handoff, track development-phase cost and risk inputs, and help define the project control’s structure Valar will use as it scales. This is a hands-on leadership role for someone who has managed complex capital projects and can operate in a fast-moving startup environment. The right person will bring strong project discipline without creating unnecessary bureaucracy. Success in this role means building a project development model that is clear, practical, repeatable, and strong enough to support future commercial sites.

## Key Responsibilities

- Develop and maintain the integrated project development schedule from site development through major investment decision, delivery readiness, and construction handoff.
- Run regular schedule updates, critical path reviews, look ahead planning, and schedule risk analysis during the development and pre-construction phases.
- Drive readiness for key project gates, including early engineering, development milestones, regulatory milestones, customer milestones, and internal investment decisions.
- Own the master milestone list, gate decision log, and project development execution calendar.
- Support internal engineering and major vendor planning during the development and pre-construction phases, including scope definition, schedule inputs, commercial readiness, and handoff preparation, working closely with the Project Delivery team.
- Coordinate with Supply Chain, Engineering, Delivery, and Construction leadership on long-lead equipment planning and major vendor readiness before execution handoff.
- Help define the information, documentation, and decision packages required for a clean handoff to the Delivery and Construction teams.
- Participate in contractor coordination and executive contractor reviews as needed during development and handoff, while supporting the Delivery team as the primary owner of construction execution.
- Maintain visibility into key vendor, internal engineering, schedule, cost, and risk items after handoff to support continuity between project development and construction execution.
- Produce weekly project status reports covering schedule, cost, risk, open decisions, and major actions during the development phase.
- Prepare monthly executive updates and quarterly board-level project updates in coordination with company leadership.
- Maintain the project risk register during development, run regular risk reviews, and escalate major risks to leadership.
- Partner with cost estimating, finance, and project controls teams on estimates, cost reporting, capital planning, and earned value management inputs.
- Help define the project controls function, including tools, reporting structure, cost coding, change control, and document control practices.
- Coordinate closely with Engineering, Licensing, Delivery, Finance, Supply Chain, Real Estate, Public Relations, Government Relations, and executive leadership.
- Serve as a senior project development representative in Utah and support local stakeholder engagement with government, community, and regional partners.

You will be successful in this role if:

- You can own a complex development schedule and drive action when the schedule is unclear, incomplete, or off track.
- You understand how to manage large capital project development without slowing the team down with unnecessary process.
- You are comfortable working across engineering, licensing, finance, construction, procurement, and external contractors.
- You can bring structure to a fast-moving project before every process already exists.
- You communicate clearly with executives, technical teams, contractors, and local stakeholders.
- You know how to identify project risks early and drive practical resolution.
- You can build repeatable project practices that help Valar execute future commercial sites more efficiently.
- You understand the importance of a clean handoff between development and delivery teams.
- You are willing to be hands-on and operate in both Hawthorne and Utah as the project requires.

## Basic qualifications

- 8+ years of experience on major capital projects.
- Experience supporting or managing projects with total installed cost of $1B or more.
- Demonstrated ownership of CPM schedules for infrastructure, industrial, energy, or similar project delivery environments.
- Working experience with Primavera P6, Microsoft Project, or similar scheduling tools.
- Experience with stage-gate project development, formal project controls, or major capital project governance.
- Experience coordinating with contractors, major vendors, or complex contractor teams during development, pre-construction, or execution planning.
- Strong understanding of project cost, schedule, risk, change control, and reporting.
- Ability to operate in a fast-moving environment with incomplete information.
- Strong judgment about when additional controls are useful and when they create unnecessary overhead.
- Comfort with relocation to, or substantial presence in, Utah.
- U.S. person status required.

## Preferred qualifications

- PMP certification or equivalent major capital project credential.
- Experience with LNG, refinery, petrochemical, data center, energy, infrastructure, or industrial megaprojects.
- Operator-side major capital project experience at companies such as ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, BP, TotalEnergies, or similar organizations.
- Experience with first-of-a-kind projects, startup project execution, or first-of-program delivery.
- Experience with hyperscaler or large data center construction programs.
- Familiarity with earned value management, cost-loaded schedules, WBS/CBS structures, and formal change control.
- Experience working with regulated industries such as energy, nuclear, aerospace, defense, or heavy manufacturing.
- Curiosity about advanced nuclear technology. Nuclear experience is helpful but not required.
- Clear potential to grow into broader project development or program leadership

## What we Offer

- Competitive base salary
- Equity ownership in a rapidly growing advanced energy company
- Comprehensive medical benefits
- Free daily lunch and dinner provided onsite
- 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 $200,000—$300,000 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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