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Principal Turbomachinery Engineer

Valar Atomics

Valar Atomics

Hawthorne, NJ, USA
USD 125k-175k / year
Posted on Jan 27, 2026

SENIOR TURBOMACHINERY ENGINEER:

Valar Atomics is seeking a highly motivated Turbomachinery Engineer to join our team in designing and developing the next generation of compressors and turbines for the Ward Series high temperature gas-cooled nuclear reactors.

RESPONSIBILITES:

  • Design, build, and test compressors and turbines for high temperature gas-cooled nuclear reactors
  • Own critical turbomachinery components and be responsible for every aspect of the turbomachinery design, demonstrate ownership and work in close collaboration with manufacturing and assembling
  • Perform the hydrodynamic sizing and flowpath design and analysis work for impellers and diffusers for the helium compressor and other turbomachinery for the nuclear system
  • Ensure that detailed mechanical analysis is performed on all components/systems. Review drawings and make sure that selected designs meet the required standards for life and reliability targets
  • Devise accurate and correct models, develop methodologies and first principles-based tools to determine turbomachinery performance and operability
  • Work with teams developing other systems to ensure that the designs is optimally integrated and that risks are well balanced across the system
  • Own secondary flow analysis and design, ensure that current and future hardware meets performance targets
  • Support both component and assembly testing. Be involved with defining the test configuration, the test process/execution and review the results to confirm
  • Lead the resolution of issues encountered with the turbopump during development/qualification testing
  • Support ongoing design improvements to turbopump assemblies and/or sub systems including manufacturing improvements to reduce cost and lead time of components

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

  • Bachelor’s degree in an engineering discipline
  • 5+ years of experience in the design of turbomachinery

PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

  • Master's degree or higher in mechanical engineering or similar
  • Strong understanding of pump hydrodynamic/aerodynamic design and fundamentals of turbomachinery (mechanical design, and hands on experience with turbomachinery hardware build)
  • Strong understanding of thermodynamics, compressible and incompressible flow, thermochemistry mechanics and/or materials
  • Experience with turbomachinery manufacturing and design of manufacturability
  • Experience with secondary flow and axial thrust balance modeling
  • Experience with meanline analysis, turbomachinery testing and engine testing
  • Professional experience using Siemens NX (Unigraphics) or other CAD packages
  • Experience with Ansys (CFX, mechanical, thermal)
  • Understanding of engineering fundamentals and the ability to develop first principles based models and quick estimates
  • Experience at a nimble engineering organization or in a highly technical position that required a scrappy, entrepreneurial manner to accomplish tasks with tight time or budget constraints

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

  • Willingness to travel to vendors/partners and Valar Atomics' nuclear site in Utah
  • Willingness to work extended hours and weekends as needed

Salary

$125,000 - $175,000 USD