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Valar Atomics is seeking a Staff Instrumentation & Controls (I&C) Hardware Engineer to lead the design, specification, installation, commissioning, and maintenance of instrumentation and control systems for advanced nuclear fuel manufacturing facilities. This is a technical leadership role within the Fuel Manufacturing group's I&C Engineering team, working alongside I&C software, process, electrical, mechanical, and nuclear safety engineers.
Key responsibilities include:
• Field Instrumentation & Final Elements: Select, size, and specify flow, pressure, temperature, level, and analytical measurement devices. Size and specify control valves, actuators, positioners, and regulators; perform valve sizing, noise, cavitation, and thrust calculations.
• Control Panel & I/O Architecture: Design control panel enclosures, I/O module allocation, terminal marshalling, power distribution, UPS sizing, isolators, and intrinsic safety barriers.
• Hazardous Area Classification: Perform area classification per NEC Article 500/505 or IEC 60079; develop intrinsic safety loop calculations and verify entity parameters for classified environments.
• Instrumentation Documentation: Own engineering deliverables including instrument indexes, loop diagrams, hook-up drawings, I/O lists, cable schedules, and P&ID markups. Establish standards and review work from junior engineers and contractors.
• Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS): Determine SIL levels, select safety sensors and final elements, design redundancy and voting architectures, develop proof test procedures, and perform SIL verification per IEC 61511 and IEC 61508.
• Control Loop Commissioning & Tuning: Commission field instrumentation, tune PID and advanced regulatory control loops, diagnose and resolve loop deviations, valve response issues, and measurement quality problems.
• Calibration Program: Establish and execute instrument calibration procedures, ranges, tolerances, NIST traceability, and recall scheduling.
• Field Wiring & OT Infrastructure: Specify and oversee installation of field wiring, cable routing, media selection, signal/power segregation, grounding, shielding, and network infrastructure.
• Factory & Site Acceptance Testing: Prepare and execute FAT, SAT, and commissioning plans; perform continuity checks, loop checks, calibration verification, and interlock testing; produce turnover documentation.
• Field Diagnostics & Reliability: Diagnose and resolve field faults including I/O failures, transmitter drift, positioner faults, and signal problems. Support reliability engineering, spares analysis, and maintenance strategy.
• Cross-functional Coordination: Work with process, mechanical, and piping engineers on instrument installation details, process connections, impulse lines, heat tracing, and material compatibility.
This role offers significant technical scope and mentorship opportunities in a hands-on environment where measurement quality and installation integrity directly support production reliability and nuclear safety.
