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Job Description

Overview

Valar Atomics is redefining energy by making clean, high-temperature nuclear power scalable. The Mechanical Technician will build, test, and commission pressurized process gas skids for advanced nuclear reactors, ensuring high standards for quality and safety.

Responsibilities

  • Build and test process system skids in accordance with approved drawings and specifications.
  • Maintain high standards for safety, workmanship, cleanliness, and procedure adherence.
  • Work closely with engineering, quality, and operations to review drawings and procedures.
  • Build process system skids to P&IDs, isometric and general arrangement drawings.
  • Measure, bend, cut, debur, and install stainless steel and alloy tubing.
  • Install and fit up piping, flanges, valves, regulators, and pressure vessels.
  • Install, align, and connect compressors, pumps, chillers, and heat exchangers.
  • Maintain cleanliness and foreign material exclusion controls for high-purity gas service.
  • Perform hydrostatic and pneumatic pressure tests per ASME standards.
  • Participate in mechanical completion walkdowns and support commissioning and startup.
  • Diagnose mechanical problems and perform preventive and corrective maintenance.
  • Maintain tools, calibrated test equipment, and parts inventory.

Requirements

  • High school diploma or equivalent.
  • 4+ years of hands-on mechanical experience in a process plant or similar environment.
  • Hands-on experience bending and installing stainless steel tubing and making up compression fittings.
  • Experience assembling piping, flanges, valves, and vessels.
  • Experience performing hydrostatic and pneumatic pressure tests on high-pressure systems.
  • Experience installing and maintaining compressors, pumps, and chillers.
  • Ability to read and interpret P&IDs, isometric drawings, and mechanical drawings.
  • Proficiency with hand and power tools, torque tools, and precision measuring instruments.
  • Strong working knowledge of safe practices for stored energy and pressurized systems.
  • Strong troubleshooting skills, attention to detail, and clear communication.
  • Able to lift up to 50 lbs unassisted and work in confined spaces.
  • Willing to work extended hours, weekends, and shifts as needed.

Benefits

  • Health Insurance
  • PTO

Additional Information

  • Salary: $40 USD - $50 USD

Benefits

Health Insurance
PTO
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How this job compares in Torrance, CA

Pay in context

At roughly $45/hr, this posting lands within a few percent of the $47/hr median for welding jobs in Torrance, CA, whose middle half runs $41–$60/hr across 25 postings with published pay. Put another way, it pays more than about 44% of the comparable postings we have wage data for. In other words it is a market-rate offer, so benefits, overtime, and shift schedule are where the real difference between this and the next posting on the list shows up.

The local market in Torrance, CA

We're tracking 52 other active welding openings in Torrance, CA right now, from 17 different employers. 16 of them were added in the last week. Across California as a whole we're tracking 594 other active welding openings from 272 employers. A metro this active generally means you have real leverage — employers here are competing for the same welders. Browse every welding job in Torrance, or widen the search to California.

Valar Atomics currently has 15 other openings live in California, which is usually a sign of either steady growth or steady turnover — worth asking which in the interview.

The most active employers in California at the moment, by number of open welding reqs, are SpaceX (37), Welding Shop in Los Angeles, CA (17), and Honeywell Aerospace (16). Volume like that usually means either a genuine expansion or a staffing agency working several client sites — worth knowing which before you apply.

Within California, the best-paying metros we track by median hourly rate are Pasadena at $51/hr, Santa Ana at $48/hr, and El Segundo at $48/hr. If you can relocate or commute, that spread is worth factoring in.

Certifications this posting mentions

  • ASME Section IX — the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code qualification. It covers welding on pressure-retaining equipment — boilers, vessels, and process piping — where a failed weld is a safety incident rather than a rework ticket.

Read straight from this posting's text. Confirm the exact qualification the employer wants before you test — requirements vary by shop even under the same code.

Similar openings near Torrance, CA

Pay figures are medians computed from live postings in the Welding Pros index, not from survey data, and they move as employers post. Mechanical Technician, Process Gas Systems figures were last recalculated when this page was built.