OT Engineer

Valar Atomics•Torrance, CA

5d•$145,000 - $175,000

About The Position

Valar Atomics is developing high-temperature gas-cooled small modular reactors through licensing, construction, commissioning, and operations. The OT Engineer is a hands-on engineer supporting integrated operational technology across reactor, fuel, and power-conversion programs. The role combines SCADA platform engineering, OT networking and cybersecurity, operational data systems, verification and commissioning, and technical procedure development. The engineer executes design, configuration, integration, testing, documentation, and field tasks with guidance from senior and lead engineers, while progressively taking ownership of larger systems and work packages. The position provides direct exposure to SCADA, networks, infrastructure, operational data, cybersecurity, verification, and commissioning. Success requires disciplined execution, strong fundamentals, curiosity, rapid learning, recoverable and correctly documented work, and asking for help when uncertainty could create risk. Frequent travel and hands-on field work in Orangeville are required. Formal degrees and certifications are not required; equivalent technical experience is acceptable. Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States as a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident.

Requirements

Direct production experience with Rockwell FactoryTalk View SE, Linx, Historian SE/AVEVA PI, and AssetCentre, including distributed or redundant deployment, administration, backup and recovery, and troubleshooting.
Strong capability in packet capture, protocol analysis, structured-cabling validation, network and data monitoring, and root-cause troubleshooting across Layer 1–7.
Ability to build automation, services, test aids, and evidence-collection tooling using C#, PowerShell, CMD, or equivalent tools.
Strong technical writing, configuration-control, vendor-management, and field-troubleshooting skills.
Frequent travel and hands-on field work in Orangeville are required.
Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States as a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident.

Nice To Haves

End-to-end ownership of industrial OT platforms, networks, data systems, verification, and commissioning in a demanding operational environment.
Experience with operator-facing HMI, alarms, tags, graphics, licensing, configuration and change control, and recovery testing in distributed or redundant SCADA environments.
Deep Layer 1–7 networking knowledge and hands-on experience with Arista, Palo Alto, or equivalent switching and firewall platforms; segmentation; copper, fiber, and optics; air gaps; and unidirectional data flows.
Experience with time-series and relational data platforms, OPC UA/MQTT/API/ETL pipelines, semantic models, data quality and lineage, and Grafana or equivalent visualization tools.
Working knowledge of virtualization, Windows Server, SQL, isolated Windows/Linux systems, Active Directory/PKI, service accounts, certificate authentication, RAID/ZFS or equivalent storage, and disaster recovery.
Experience performing authorized network, SCADA, Windows/Linux, identity, and data-system cybersecurity testing and converting findings into practical remediation.
Experience authoring and independently executing requirements-based FAT, SAT, System Operational Verification Testing, commissioning, cybersecurity, failure and recovery, performance, and interface procedures with traceable evidence.
Experience in nuclear energy, power generation, oil and gas, chemical processing, aerospace, advanced manufacturing, or another regulated or safety-conscious industry, including first-of-a-kind or greenfield delivery through commissioning and operations.
Experience with high-rate operational data, historian collectives, high-availability or remote-site networks, precision timing, centralized monitoring, buffering and replay, and data-diode or unidirectional egress.
Experience with MES/LIMS/QMS integration, incident response or forensics in isolated environments, and scalable OT standards, templates, runbooks, automated diagnostics, or test harnesses.

Responsibilities

Own assigned work packages and contribute to integrated OT architecture, standards, roadmaps, interfaces, lifecycle, security zones, addressing, naming and context, retention, configuration baselines, and technical health across company programs.
Design, deploy, administer, test, and recover FactoryTalk View SE, Linx, Historian SE/AVEVA PI, and AssetCentre environments, including HMI, alarm, and tag standards, licensing, source control, audit, and change management.
Administer virtualization, Windows and SQL, Active Directory and PKI, service accounts, storage, backup, and disaster-recovery infrastructure using controlled baselines.
Design, configure, and troubleshoot Layer 1–7 OT networks; define routing, switching, segmentation, firewall policy, redundancy, time synchronization, monitoring, racks, structured cabling, copper, fiber, and optics.
Design and validate air-gapped boundaries, unidirectional data flows, controlled remote access, and OT, enterprise, and cloud interfaces that do not interfere with control or credited safety functions.
Deploy and operate historians, InfluxDB/SQL, virtualized data services, and RAID/ZFS or equivalent storage; build OPC UA, MQTT, API, and ETL pipelines, semantic models, data contracts, and Grafana or query interfaces while preserving data integrity and access boundaries.
Integrate PLCs, industrial protocols, FactoryTalk, historians, servers, endpoints, and operator and engineering systems while maintaining clear ownership across IC&E, infrastructure, SCADA, network, and data boundaries.
Validate racks, patch panels, copper, fiber, optics, labeling, link performance, and physical-path diversity with infrastructure engineers and field contractors.
Engineer and test retention, compression, query performance, collectives, buffering, replay, replication, high availability, backup and restore, and loss and duplicate detection; document failure behavior and recovery limits.
Write and execute test procedures covering prerequisites, hazards and controls, configuration, tools, steps, expected results, evidence, rollback, and restoration.
Implement monitoring, logging, configuration backup, capacity, data-quality, pipeline-health, and audit controls; automate deployment, validation, evidence collection, and recovery using C#, PowerShell, CMD, or equivalent tools.
Troubleshoot the full stack using packet capture, protocol analysis, data-path tracing, logs, and queries; conduct authorized OT cybersecurity testing and support hardening, patching, remediation, and incident response.
Translate technical, regulatory, quality, and cybersecurity requirements into traceable verification plans and execute FAT, SAT, System Operational Verification Testing, cybersecurity, failure and recovery, failover, performance, and interface tests.
Control test configurations and evidence; document discrepancies, support root-cause analysis, define retests, track corrective actions, and maintain diagrams, matrices, data models, build records, procedures, manuals, and runbooks.
Lead or support design reviews, vendors, systems integrators, installation validation, integration, commissioning, failure testing, escalation, turnover, startup, outage, and incident activities.

Benefits

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
Opportunity to help build and scale transformative energy technology from the ground up