Senior Process Engineer, Numenor (Reactor)

The role

The Senior Process Engineer will own helium process systems including services, purification, and interfaces with the primary helium loop. You will take these systems from concept through design, build, test, and commissioning for the first unit and drive them into scaled production.

What you will do

• Own the process architecture and design of helium systems from concept through design freeze.
• Perform process analyses including mass and energy balances, pressure drop, heat transfer, equipment sizing, gas flow, and transient system behavior.
• Develop PFDs, P&IDs, equipment and piping specifications, engineering calculations, and operating procedures.
• Specify and integrate process equipment including pressure vessels, heat exchangers, adsorption systems, compressors, valves, piping, instrumentation, and gas analyzers.
• Present designs at design reviews and participate in HAZOPs, FMEAs, and system safety analyses.
• Take designs to hardware through technical requirements, vendor selection, proposal review, and approval of manufacturing documentation.
• Lead fabrication oversight, inspections, issue resolution, and acceptance testing with internal manufacturing and suppliers.
• Lead system integration, installation, startup, commissioning, and troubleshooting through first operation.
• Design for manufacture and repeatability.
• Work closely with mechanical, systems engineering, safety, IC&E, quality, and supply chain.

Required qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Nuclear Engineering, or a related field.
• 5+ years designing industrial process systems, gas handling systems, thermal-fluid systems, or related energy systems.
• Proven track record taking complex engineered systems from concept through build, test, and commissioning.
• Strong foundation in thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and process engineering principles.
• Experience developing PFDs, P&IDs, process calculations, equipment specifications, and operating procedures.
• Familiarity with industrial instrumentation, process controls, and gas analysis systems.

Nice to have

• Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Nuclear Engineering, or a related field.
• Helium, cryogenic, high-pressure gas, gas purification, or vacuum systems, including sealing and leak tightness.
• Familiarity with helium coolant chemistry, impurity control, moisture management, graphite compatibility, and gas sampling.
• First-of-a-kind system experience in aerospace, power generation, oil and gas, chemical processing, or defense.
• Working knowledge of ASME pressure vessel and piping codes (Section VIII, B31.3) and industrial gas handling standards.
• Design for manufacture and scaling from prototype to series production.
• Nuclear industry experience, including HTGRs or other advanced reactors: commercial, defense, or national laboratory.

Benefits

• Competitive base salary
• Equity ownership
• Comprehensive medical benefits
• Unlimited PTO
• Free daily lunch and dinner provided onsite
• Generous PPE stipend

Before you apply

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

About the company

Valar Atomics aims to make clean, high-temperature nuclear power scalable. Their first pilot plant will be in Orangeville, Utah.