SlipstreamJobs tracks this role from the company's public career site. Apply directly on the employer's site.
Salary: USD 137,000 - 168,000 / annual
Valar Atomics is building advanced nuclear power systems to unlock clean, scalable energy for industry and next-generation manufacturing. The company is constructing its first pilot plant in Orangeville, Utah, which serves dual purposes: demonstrating first-of-a-kind reactor technology and functioning as a productive asset on the balance sheet for decades.
You will own the capital accounting backbone for this program, establishing and defending the split between capital and research & development spend across engineering, equipment, and field labor. This role begins as a solo function and will grow into a team as the capital program scales across multiple plants.
Key responsibilities include:
- Define and document the capital versus R&D allocation methodology for the pilot plant, re-testing it as design matures and scope changes, and defending it through external audit.
- Establish capitalization policy outright: set thresholds, cost eligibility rules, and asset classes; carry positions through auditor challenge rather than leaving them undocumented.
- Own the fixed asset and CIP subledger end-to-end: project setup, cost capture, transfers, placed-in-service determinations, depreciation, disposals, and impairment indicators. Unitize completed construction into discrete assets with supportable lives.
- Build and maintain the project cost structure (WBS, cost-breakdown coding, project hierarchies, CapEx categories) so every dollar traces to a commitment, invoice, and scope of work.
- Drive monthly CIP and fixed asset close: cost roll-forward, capital accrual, interest and indirect cost capitalization, GL reconciliation, and variance commentary.
- Review contractor pay applications, change orders, and progress billings for proper capital treatment, partnering with AP and Procurement.
- Establish CapEx governance: capital request workflow, budget-to-actual tracking, and escalation protocols.
- Settle boundary questions with Cost Accounting and Engineering (inventory vs. asset, prototype vs. asset, test article treatment) and publish answers to prevent recurring disputes.
- Lead asset verification and tagging across Utah and California sites; configure fixed asset and project accounting in the ERP with integrations to procurement, AP, and project cost data.
- Train project managers and field leadership on capital treatment; own capitalization and CIP sections of external audit; document and automate work so successors inherit a system.
Requirements:
- Bachelor's degree in Accounting or Finance, or equivalent experience.
- 7+ years of accounting experience with direct ownership of construction in progress and fixed asset accounting on capital projects in construction, energy, utilities, infrastructure, or heavy manufacturing.
- Demonstrated experience building and defending a cost allocation methodology that split one project's spend between capital and R&D on an asset serving both purposes simultaneously, surviving audit.
- Experience setting or rewriting a capitalization policy yourself (thresholds, cost eligibility, asset classes) and defending it to an external auditor, not inheriting one.
- Hands-on experience operating a fixed asset and project module in a major ERP (NetSuite, SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics, or equivalent), including project setup and asset conversion.
- Experience building cost-coding and project hierarchy structures and reconciling project cost data to the general ledger.
- Willingness to spend significant time on site at the plant.
Preferred qualifications include CPA licensure, power generation/nuclear/regulated utility plant accounting experience, first-of-a-kind capital project experience with scope and design changes, familiarity with R&D tax credit substantiation, fixed asset/project accounting system implementation experience, owner-as-general-contractor construction program support, asset retirement obligations/decommissioning accruals/ASC 842 leases experience, junior staff hiring and development, and exposure to VC-backed companies and board-level capital reporting.
