We report the growth of thin films of the mixed valence compound YbAl3 on MgO using molecular-beam epitaxy. Employing an aluminum buffer layer, epitaxial (001) films can be grown with sub-nm surface roughness. Using x-ray diffraction, in situ low-energy electron diffraction, and aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy, we establish that the films are ordered in the bulk as well as at the surface. Our films show a coherence temperature of 37 K, comparable to that reported for bulk single crystals. Photoelectron spectroscopy reveals contributions from both f13 and f12 final states establishing that YbAl3 is a mixed valence compound and shows the presence of a Kondo Resonance peak near the Fermi-level. © 2016 Author(s).