Automation and Controls Engineer

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' Automation and Controls Team within the Instrumentation, Control & Electrical (IC&E) organization. I&C Software Engineers own the logic and data layer PLC and DCS application code, ISA-88 batch sequences, SCADA and HMI applications, historian infrastructure, and enterprise integration across the reactor program and fuel manufacturing operations. You will work alongside I&C Hardware, electrical, process, and nuclear safety engineers in an environment that blends traditional control systems with modern software and data integration practice. As an early-career engineer, you will be surrounded by senior, staff, and principal engineers whose job includes developing you. The team values operator-focused design, data integrity, disciplined documentation, and a safety-first culture. 

The Role

Valar Atomics is seeking Automation and Controls Engineers to help develop, configure, test, and commission the control system software for our reactor and nuclear fuel manufacturing facilities. Working under the technical direction of senior and staff engineers, you will contribute across the controls software domain PLC programming, SCADA and HMI development, batch control, alarm configuration, historian work, and control system testing, with steadily increasing independence and ownership. This is an early-career position built for growth: you will write real application code that runs a real plant, spend time at panels and in the field during loop checks and commissioning, have your work reviewed and tested by experienced engineers, and learn nuclear-grade software discipline on a first-of-a-kind reactor program. We expect engineers at this level to develop toward independent ownership of controls software scope within their first few years. 

Key Responsibilities 

• Develop and modify PLC and DCS application code on platforms such as Rockwell ControlLogix/CompactLogix, Siemens S7/TIA Portal, or equivalent, using IEC 61131-3 languages, working within established coding standards and template libraries and with structured code review by senior engineers.