OT Engineer

Valar Atomics•Torrance, CA

4d•$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 work with guidance from senior, staff, principal, and lead engineers, while progressively taking ownership of larger systems and work packages. The position offers exposure across SCADA, networks, infrastructure, operational data, cybersecurity, verification, and commissioning. Success requires disciplined execution, producing correct and recoverable work, documenting systems, escalating uncertainty before it becomes a risk, and growing toward independent ownership through system and field experience. Frequent travel and hands-on field work in Orangeville are required.

Requirements

Direct production experience with Rockwell FactoryTalk View SE, Linx, Historian SE/AVEVA PI, and AssetCentre, including distributed or redundant deployment, administration, backup/recovery, and troubleshooting.
Strong capability in packet capture, protocol analysis, structured-cabling validation, network/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 (green card holder).

Nice To Haves

Demonstrated end-to-end ownership of industrial OT platforms, networks, data systems, verification, and commissioning in a demanding operational environment.
Experience with operator-facing HMI, alarm, tag, graphics, licensing, configuration/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/optics, air gaps, and unidirectional data flows.
Strong experience with time-series and relational data platforms, OPC UA/MQTT/API/ETL pipelines, semantic models, data quality/lineage, and Grafana or equivalent visualization tools.
Strong 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.
Demonstrated experience authoring and independently executing requirements-based FAT, SAT, System Operational Verification Testing, commissioning, cybersecurity, failure/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/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 Valar programs.
Design, deploy, administer, test, and recover distributed or redundant 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 supporting virtualization, Windows/SQL, Active Directory/PKI, service accounts, storage, backup, and disaster-recovery infrastructure using explicit ownership and controlled baselines.
Design, configure, and troubleshoot Layer 1–7 OT networks using Arista, Palo Alto, or equivalent platforms; 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 tightly controlled OT, enterprise, and cloud interfaces that cannot 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/ETL pipelines, semantic models, data contracts, and Grafana/query interfaces while preserving timestamps, quality, ordering, lineage, and access boundaries.
Integrate PLCs, industrial protocols, FactoryTalk, historians, servers, endpoints, and operator and engineering systems while preserving 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/restore, and loss/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; perform 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/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
The opportunity to help build and scale transformative energy technology from the ground up