Senior Quality Engineer

Valar Atomics; Hawthorne (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity ownership

Free daily meals onsite

High-impact startup environment

Rapid career growth and advancement

Direct collaboration with engineers

Job summary

Valar Atomics is building a transformative Quality leadership role in a fast-moving R&D-to-commercial environment. You will declare and execute the Quality strategy, owning critical quality problems in the first 6–12 months while shaping the future Quality organization.

You will partner with engineering, regulators, and operators, defining a roadmap for a scalable QMS, implementing pragmatic controls, and using data, automation, and AI to speed safe execution.

Qualifications

• Prior experience in nuclear quality assurance sufficient to innovate responsibly.
• Broad quality engineering background spanning design, manufacturing, suppliers, and testing.
• Experience building or significantly reshaping quality systems, not just operating mature ones.
• Demonstrated ability to execute with minimal direction in incomplete systems.
• Strong pattern recognition and judgment under pressure.
• Comfort working in high‑intensity, rapidly changing environments.

Responsibilities

• Act as a solutions owner for quality-related challenges across R&D and early commercial activities, embedding directly with teams to understand real constraints and enable compliant execution at speed.
• Develop creative, defensible approaches to demonstrating compliance without unnecessary drag.
• Co-architect Valar's Quality Management System from the ground up, defining near-term quality fundamentals and a roadmap for scaling rigor as Valar transitions from R&D to commercial execution.
• Build prevention-focused systems that scale cleanly rather than inspection-heavy controls that calcify.
• Apply nuclear quality assurance principles with judgment, distinguishing between regulatory intent and historical habit.
• Serve as a credible technical interface with regulators, auditors, and external stakeholders.
• Leverage modern tools, data, automation, and AI responsibly to increase speed and rigor simultaneously, treating quality as an information system as much as a compliance system.
• Operate as a servant leader, anchoring every decision in Valar's mission, investing in the team, and ensuring quality serves as an enabler of safe execution.
• Mentor others and help lay the foundation for a future Quality organization as Valar scales.

Skills

Nuclear QA

Quality engineering

Quality systems design

Autonomous work style

Pattern recognition

High-intensity environment

Education

Bachelor's degree in engineering

Job description

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 Role

Valar Atomics is building something that has not existed before: a path to scale nuclear energy for heavy industrial power and clean hydrocarbon fuel production, at speed, with credibility, and with purpose. This role exists to ensure that quality enables that mission rather than constrains it, while preserving the safety, rigor, and trust that nuclear technology demands.

This is not a traditional quality role. It is a founding leadership position for someone who will operate as the Quality Lead's right hand—executing tactically today while architecting the Quality organization and systems of tomorrow's highly vertically integrated enterprise—and converting to a people leader when the time is right. Valar Atomics operates in a fast-moving R&D environment with rapidly evolving designs and ambitious schedules. Our Quality program is designed to be fit-for-purpose and risk-informed, ensuring appropriate rigor and compliance while enabling rapid learning and iteration as the technology advances. In the first 6–12 months, you'll independently own and close critical quality problems, become a sought-out partner to engineering teams, put early-stage quality controls in place that regulators, customers, and leadership can trust, define a clear roadmap from today's pragmatic controls to a future world-class Quality Management System, and begin shaping the structure, tooling, and cultural norms of the future Quality organization.

Key Responsibilities

• Act as a solutions owner for quality-related challenges across R&D and early commercial activities, embedding directly with teams to understand real constraints and enable compliant execution at speed.
• Develop creative, defensible approaches to demonstrating compliance without unnecessary drag.
• Co-architect Valar's Quality Management System from the ground up, defining near-term quality fundamentals and a roadmap for scaling rigor as Valar transitions from R&D to commercial execution.
• Build prevention-focused systems that scale cleanly rather than inspection-heavy controls that calcify.
• Apply nuclear quality assurance principles with judgment, distinguishing between regulatory intent and historical habit.
• Serve as a credible technical interface with regulators, auditors, and external stakeholders.
• Leverage modern tools, data, automation, and AI responsibly to increase speed and rigor simultaneously, treating quality as an information system as much as a compliance system.
• Operate as a servant leader, anchoring every decision in Valar's mission, investing in the team, and ensuring quality serves as an enabler of safe execution.
• Mentor others and help lay the foundation for a future Quality organization as Valar scales.

You Will Be Successful in This Role If

• You operate effectively in ambiguity and make defensible, context-aware decisions grounded in safety, technical rigor, and regulatory intent.
• You build credibility with engineers, operators, and leadership, becoming a partner rather than a gatekeeper.
• You think in systems, anticipating second- and third-order effects rather than optimizing locally.
• You distinguish regulatory intent from historical habit and apply nuclear quality assurance principles with judgment, not reflex.
• You earn trust across disciplines through transparency, competence, and follow-through.
• You're comfortable leading without authority and accepting authority later without ego.
• You use modern tools, including AI, to compress cycle time without sacrificing rigor, and you believe technology should augment human judgment rather than replace accountability.
• You're deeply aligned with Valar's mission and make decisions through the lens of long‑term impact rather than local optimization.

Basic Qualifications

• Prior experience in nuclear quality assurance (R&D, commercial, or both) sufficient to innovate responsibly.
• Broad quality engineering background spanning design, manufacturing, suppliers, and testing.
• Experience building or significantly reshaping quality systems, not just operating mature ones.
• Demonstrated ability to execute with minimal direction in incomplete systems.
• Strong pattern recognition and judgment under pressure.
• Comfort working in high‑intensity, rapidly changing environments.

Preferred Skills and Experience

• Experience interfacing directly with regulators, auditors, or external stakeholders in a nuclear or other safety‑critical industry.
• Experience leading or mentoring quality teams through periods of organizational growth.
• Background applying modern tools, automation, or AI to quality systems and workflows.
• Exposure to advanced reactor, fuel fabrication, or other first‑of‑a‑kind nuclear programs.

What We Offer

• Equity ownership in a rapidly growing advanced energy company
• Free daily lunch and dinner provided onsite
• 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

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

Valar Atomics is an equal opportunity employer. We consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected status under applicable law.

We are committed to providing a workplace free of discrimination and harassment and will provide reasonable accommodation as required by law.

Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States as a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident (green card holder).