Copy of Staff Automation and Controls Engineer

valaratomics; Torrance (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Valar Atomics seeks Staff Automation and Controls Engineers to serve as discipline technical authorities for control software across reactor and nuclear fuel manufacturing facilities. You will own PLC/DCS programming, SCADA/HMI, ISA-88 batch control, alarm management, safety logic, historians, enterprise integration, and OT infrastructure, from capital project execution through ongoing plant operations.

You will set coding standards, template libraries, and configuration management practices,

Qualifications

• Demonstrated ability to serve as discipline technical authority for controls software.
• Experience defining standards, libraries, and configuration management for software.
• Proven track record leading complex controls software across projects.

Responsibilities

• Review and approve PLC/DCS code and SCADA/HMI applications and safety logic.
• Establish and enforce discipline software standards and change control practices.
• Lead control strategy and software architecture development for novel plant problems.
• Lead interdisciplinary design reviews, HAZOPs, and licensing-support activities.
• Define platform and integrator strategies, including standardization and vendor oversight.
• Mentor engineers, conduct code reviews, and contribute to hiring and training.

Skills

PLC programming

DCS programming

SCADA systems

HMI design

ISA-88

Alarm management

Safety logic

Industrial networking

Code reviews

Mentoring

Tools

Rockwell ControlLogix

Siemens S7/TIA Portal

Emerson

Ignition

FactoryTalk

AVEVA

HP/HMI architectures

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.

The Team

You will be joining Valar Atomics' Automation and Controls team within the Instrumentation, Control & Electrical (IC&E) organization. Automation and Controls 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 a staff engineer, you will be one of the technical anchors of this team: the engineer others come to when the problem is novel, ambiguous, or high-consequence. The team values operator-focused design, data integrity, disciplined documentation, and a safety-first culture.

The Role

Valar Atomics is seeking Staff Automation and Controls Engineers to serve as discipline technical authorities for control system software across our reactor and nuclear fuel manufacturing facilities. The role spans the full controls software domain: PLC and DCS programming, SCADA and HMI applications, ISA-88 batch control, alarm management, safety logic, historians, enterprise integration, and OT infrastructure, from capital project execution through ongoing plant operations. This is a staff position: in addition to owning the most complex controls software scope end-to-end, you will set the coding standards, template libraries, and configuration management practices the discipline runs on, lead resolution of first-of-a-kind plant control problems where no established solution exists, review and approve the work of other engineers, and provide technical direction and mentorship across the software team. You are accountable not only for your own code, but for the technical quality and consistency of controls software across projects and sites.

Key Responsibilities

Technical Leadership and Discipline Ownership

• Serve as the responsible engineer and discipline technical authority for controls software on assigned systems; review and approve PLC/DCS application code, SCADA applications, safety logic, and test documentation produced by other engineers, contractors, and integrators.
• Establish, maintain, and enforce discipline software standards including application coding standards, template and UDT libraries, the ISA-101/HPHMI display style guide, alarm philosophy implementation standards, testing standards, and the software configuration management and change control practice used across projects and sites.
• Lead control strategy and software architecture development for first-of-a-kind plant control problems where no established solution exists, including control approach trade studies, platform capability evaluation, prototyping, and validation planning.
• Lead controls software participation in interdisciplinary design reviews, HAZOP studies, control narrative reviews, and licensing-support activities; represent the discipline's position and own the resolution of cross-discipline technical conflicts.
• Define the controls platform and integrator strategy, including SCADA and PLC platform standardization, system integrator qualification and oversight approach, make-or-buy evaluations, and framework specifications that constrain downstream project work.
• Mentor senior and junior software engineers; run the structured code review practice; develop discipline training and qualification approaches; contribute to hiring and technical interviewing for the software team.

Design and Engineering Execution

• Own the PLC and DCS application architecture for assigned facilities - program structure, task and scan organization, template and library design, and inter-controller coordination on platforms such as Rockwell ControlLogix, Siemens S7/TIA Portal, Emerson, or equivalent, per IEC 61131-3.
• Own SCADA application architecture on platforms such as Ignition, FactoryTalk, AVEVA, or WinCC, including tag database and UDT design, scripting architecture, template systems, and server, client, and redundancy architecture.
• Own the HMI design system to ISA-101 and HPHMI principles - display hierarchy, navigation model, faceplate standards, and situational awareness approach - and approve display packages against it.
• Own the ISA-88 batch arch