Director, Power Distribution & Microgrid Systems (Equity)

Valar Atomics Inc.; New Mexico; On-site; USD 225,000 - 290,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive base salary

Equity ownership

Comprehensive medical benefits

Unlimited PTO

Free daily lunch and dinner onsite

PPE stipend

High-impact startup environment

Rapid career growth

Job summary

Valar Atomics is seeking a Director of Electrical - Power Distribution to architect and deliver islanded power systems across microgrids up to multi-gigawatt scale. You will own the electrical system from generator terminals to customer meters, shaping protection, stability, and reliability across phased deployments.

You will build and lead a team of engineers, set design standards, and define requirements for generators, controls, and interconnection with reactor safety interfaces.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering with a power systems focus.
• 15+ years of power systems engineering experience in utility, generation, transmission, or large industrial power systems, including 7+ years leading engineering teams.
• Deep expertise in power system analysis, including load flow, short circuit, protection coordination, and dynamic stability, with hands-on experience in ETAP, PSS/E, PSCAD, PSFactory, or equivalent.
• Experience architecting and delivering HV/EHV substations, switchyards, and transmission or large collector systems from concept through energization.
• Strong command of protection and relaying philosophy, relay settings, and protection system design for generators, transformers, lines, and buses.
• Experience with large generation interconnection, generator controls, and frequency and voltage control behavior.
• Proven ability to build teams from the ground up, hire strong engineers, and deliver on aggressive schedules.

Responsibilities

• Build and lead an in-house Power Distribution engineering organization, including hiring, organizational design, technical standards, and development of power systems, substation, transmission, and protection engineers.
• Own the electrical architecture of islanded multi-gigawatt microgrids from generator terminals to customer meter, including voltage levels, topology, redundancy, and expansion strategy as reactor units and customer loads come online in phases.
• Engineer generator step-up transformers, medium-voltage collector systems, HV/EHV switchyards, on-site transmission, and customer-facing substations through conceptual, preliminary, and detailed design.
• Own power system studies, including load flow, short circuit, protective device coordination, arc flash (IEEE 1584), insulation coordination, harmonics, motor starting, and grounding (IEEE 80).
• Own grid stability for islanded operation, including transient and small-signal stability, frequency and voltage control, EMT studies, load rejection and large load-step response, unit trip and cascading-failure analysis, system restoration, and black start strategy.
• Own protection and relaying philosophy and design for generators, transformers, buses, lines, and feeders, including relay settings, coordination, special protection and load-shedding schemes, and protection testing and commissioning.
• Define functional requirements for generator controls, governors, excitation systems, and microgrid control and dispatch, and work with the automation and controls and OT teams that implement them.
• Coordinate with customer engineering teams on load characteristics, demand ramp rates, interconnection points, and phased load growth.
• Set the design basis and electrical equipment standards for repeatable deployment across sites, including standardized substation and switchyard designs that support rapid, serial construction.
• Develop equipment specifications and lead procurement strategy for long-lead power equipment, including large power transformers, HV breakers, GIS/AIS switchgear, and protective relaying; secure manufacturing capacity and manage supply chain risk.
• Support construction, testing, and energization, including commissioning plans, acceptance testing, and staged energization of a growing system.
• Own organizational budget, headcount plan, and engineering tools for the Power Distribution function.

Skills

Power systems engineering

Team leadership

Electrical engineering

Power system analysis

HV/EHV substations

Protection and relaying

Generator controls

Microgrid design

Budget and headcount management

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering (power systems)

Professional Engineer license or eligibility

Tools

ETAP

PSS/E

PSCAD

PowerFactory

Job description

Valar Atomics is seeking a Director of Electrical - Power Distribution to architect and deliver islanded power systems across microgrids up to multi-gigawatt scale. You will own the electrical system from generator terminals to customer meters, shaping protection, stability, and reliability across phased deployments.

You will build and lead a team of engineers, set design standards, and define requirements for generators, controls, and interconnection with reactor safety interfaces.