Staff OT Engineer

Valar Atomics•Torrance, CA

About The Position

Valar Atomics is hiring a Staff OT Engineer within its Engineering organization, supporting Instrumentation & Controls. The role translates operational needs into technical decisions, practical designs, and standards that execution teams can implement and verify. The engineer defines how systems should be built and tested, explains the engineering basis for decisions, and resolves questions through implementation. The scope may focus on a specialty or span connected disciplines. OT Engineering covers power and rack infrastructure, compute, networks, identity, physical and cybersecurity, operational data, and industrial software platforms (FactoryTalk). FactoryTalk responsibilities include backend deployment, configuration, integration, and recovery. PLC programming and controls-code development are outside the role. The position calls for disciplined ownership of design outcomes, precise documentation, sound judgment in ambiguous situations, and use of commissioning, operational, and failure evidence to improve designs and standards.

Requirements

Authorship of technical designs, standards, or procedures successfully used by implementation or operations teams.
Ability to translate operational needs into requirements, interface definitions, engineering decisions, and measurable acceptance criteria.
Ability to evaluate alternatives, dependencies, failure modes, security, recovery, and lifecycle consequences using evidence.
Ability to review work, resolve ambiguity, guide execution, and validate documentation against implementation and test results.
Meet the general qualifications and demonstrate expertise in at least one listed specialty; expertise across every specialty is not required.
Highly organized, with disciplined task tracking, accurate documentation, clear priorities, and reliable follow-through.
Engineering judgment to turn incomplete information into justified, implementable decisions.
Precise writing and diagramming that enable another engineer to build and test the intended system.
Ownership of design outcomes through implementation, including revising guidance when field evidence indicates it should change.

Nice To Haves

Experience developing technical standards used across multiple projects, programs, or sites.
Hands-on installation, commissioning, troubleshooting, or operational support that informs practical engineering guidance.
Experience reviewing interfaces and shared dependencies across multiple infrastructure disciplines.

Responsibilities

Translate operational needs into clear requirements, interfaces, design choices, and measurable acceptance criteria.
Develop standards, drawings, engineering manuals, and procedures detailed enough to support implementation and testing.
Evaluate alternatives for reliability, security, compatibility, recovery, maintainability, and lifecycle needs within the assigned technical scope.
Resolve ambiguous or conflicting requirements and document the technical basis for consequential decisions.
Work with execution teams to answer design questions, review implementation evidence, and correct gaps in guidance.
Use commissioning, operational, and failure evidence to improve designs and standards.
For the relevant specialty, define and document technical designs, interfaces, requirements, standards, and acceptance tests.
Review work, guide execution, and validate documentation against implementation and test results.

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