Cycle Performance Engineer - Turbomachinery
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.
About the Team
As part of the Engineering organization, Power Conversion develops the technologies that efficiently transform reactor-generated heat into usable electrical power. The team focuses on maximizing system performance, reliability, and commercial viability.
Responsibilities
- Develop and maintain a thermodynamic model of the power conversion system
- Aggregate, interpret and integrate the contributions of component owners into the overall cycle model
- Partner with turbomachinery, secondary flow, and heat exchanger owners to input their component performance into the system model
- Define instrumentation plans to calibrate the cycle model to tested results
- Evaluate system level trades to drive the cycle to the optimal business outcome
Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering
- 3 years experience in analyzing thermodynamic cycles in a thermodynamic solver (NPSS, Aspen, GateCycle, Flownex, EES, etc.)
Skills
You will be successful in this role if you:
- Are excited to be a part of a complex turbomachinery product from the beginning
- Thrive in ambiguous environments without defined turbomachinery design best practices
- Want to be part of turbomachinery design beyond a singular aerodynamic, structural or manufacturing perspective
Preferred Skills and Experience
- Master's degree in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering
- Experience with modeling closed cycles
- Test experience with turbomachinery
- Experience with supercritical CO₂
- Experience analyzing turbomachinery at a component design level
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
Pay
$140,000 USD - $215,000 USD
Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States as a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident (green card holder).