Recycling Operations Engineer Lead

Thanks for your interest in Oklo!  We are searching for an Operations Engineering Lead to join our engineering team.

Position Description

The Operations Engineering Lead is responsible for establishing the operating model and operations engineering basis for Oklo’s nuclear fuel recycling facility. This person will represent facility operations throughout design, construction, commissioning, startup, and ramp-up to ensure the facility is safe, secure, operable, maintainable, testable, and capable of meeting its performance objectives.

The Operations Engineering Lead will translate operational, safety, security, safeguards, material control and accountability, and regulatory needs into traceable design requirements, operating philosophies, system boundaries, operating sequences, preliminary operating limits, procedures, training programs, and readiness criteria. This role will work closely with Process Engineering, Instrumentation and Controls, Systems Engineering, Safety, Licensing, Regulatory, Security, Safeguards, Material Control and Accountability, Quality, Maintenance, Construction, and Project Management to integrate these needs into the facility design.

The ideal candidate has significant experience designing, commissioning, starting up, or operating nuclear fuel-cycle facilities. Candidates with substantial experience in complex chemical, petrochemical, refining, or similar process facilities will also be considered, particularly those who have supported both greenfield projects and brownfield modifications.

Specific responsibilities may include:

• Lead development and configuration control of the facility concept of operations, including normal operation, startup, shutdown, standby, maintenance, upset, degraded, and emergency operating modes.

• Translate operational, safety, security, safeguards, material control and accountability, and regulatory needs into traceable design requirements, operating philosophies, system boundaries, operating sequences, preliminary operating limits, and acceptance criteria, in coordination with the responsible functional owners.

• Represent operations throughout facility and system design to ensure equipment and systems are safe, secure, operable, maintainable, accessible, testable, and suitable for remote and radiological environments.

• Complete documented operability, maintainability, accessibility, remote-handling, operator-task, human-factors, and failure-recovery reviews, with identified actions assigned and tracked through disposition.

• Review PFDs, P&IDs, equipment specifications, layouts, control narratives, alarm strategies, human-machine interfaces, system descriptions, and safety-related design inputs from an operations perspective.

• Lead development of preliminary staffing, procedure, training, maintenance, commissioning, startup, facility-turnover, and production-ramp-up plans with defined interfaces, milestones, responsibilities, and acceptance criteria.

• Establish requirements for system turnover, walkdowns, pre-operational testing, cold commissioning, integrated testing, initial material introduction, and operational-readiness reviews.

• Participate in design reviews, hazard analyses, safety reviews, human-factors evaluations, maintainability reviews, readiness reviews, configuration management, and management-of-change activities.

• Coordinate with maintenance and reliability teams to define equipment criticality, preventive maintenance, spare parts, vendor support, work controls, and asset-management needs.

• Build and lead the operations engineering organization as the project matures, while communicating readiness status, risks, decisions, and unresolved design actions to project and technical leadership.

Minimum Qualifications:

• A bachelor’s degree in chemical, nuclear, mechanical, electrical, industrial, or another relevant engineering discipline, or equivalent directly applicable experience.

• 10 or more years of experience in nuclear fuel-cycle, nuclear, chemical, petrochemical, refining, specialty chemical, or another complex industrial process environment.

• Significant experience in facility operations, commissioning, startup, maintenance, or operational support, combined with experience supporting facility design or capital projects.

• Experience with greenfield facility development, brownfield modifications, or both.

• Demonstrated experience developing or implementing commissioning, operational-readiness, procedure, training, maintenance, or startup programs.

• Ability to translate engineering designs into practical operating requirements, test plans, procedures, staffing needs, and acceptance criteria.

• Experience reviewing engineering documents such as PFDs, P&IDs, equipment specifications, control narratives, and system descriptions.

• Demonstrated ability to lead multidisciplinary teams, manage interfaces, and deliver work in an evolving project environment.

• Strong technical writing, communication, organization, and decision-making skills.

Bonus Qualifications:

• Experience designing, commissioning, starting up, or operating a nuclear fuel-cycle or radioactive-material processing facility.

• Experience with nuclear fuel recycling, pyroprocessing, molten salts, remote handling, hot cells, radiological ventilation, or radioactive waste treatment.

• Experience delivering a first-of-a-kind nuclear, chemical, or industrial process facility.

• Knowledge of NRC, DOE, or comparable nuclear regulatory requirements and operational practices.

• Experience with operational-readiness reviews, pre-startup safety reviews, HAZOPs, human-factors evaluations, or process hazard analyses.

• Experience with control systems, alarm management, computerized maintenance systems, equipment reliability, or operator training programs.

• Experience building or leading an operations engineering, commissioning, startup, or plant technical-support team.

Competencies

We are looking for an Operations Engineering Lead that is:

• Technically grounded in the design, commissioning, startup, and operation of complex nuclear or industrial process facilities.

• Able to integrate operational, safety, security, safeguards, material control and accountability, and regulatory needs into traceable and practical design requirements.

• Skilled at converting a developing facility design into controlled operating concepts, system boundaries, operating sequences, preliminary operating limits, procedures, training, test plans, and readiness criteria.

• Capable of identifying operability, maintainability, accessibility, human-factors, remote-handling, and failure-recovery risks early enough to influence the design.

• Able to collaborate effectively with Safety, Licensing, Security, Safeguards, Material Control and Accountability, Engineering, Maintenance, Construction, and Commissioning organizations while maintaining clear ownership and interfaces.

• Practical and field-oriented, with the judgment to distinguish between a design that works analytically and one that can be safely operated, maintained, tested, and recovered in the field.

• Capable of balancing safety, security, reliability, facility performance, schedule, and cost when evaluating technical decisions.

• A strong multidisciplinary leader who establishes clear ownership, manages interfaces, mentors others, and drives actions through documented disposition.

• Comfortable navigating ambiguity, documenting assumptions, and making informed decisions with incomplete or evolving design information.

• A clear and effective communicator who can explain complex operational and technical issues verbally and through well-written, active-voice documents.

• Collaborative, detail-oriented, self-motivated, and accountable for delivering high-quality results.

• Passionate about clean energy and making advanced fission and nuclear fuel recycling a reality.

• Comfortable working and learning quickly in a fast-paced, highly iterative startup environment.

Who you are:

A startup person: You aren't driven by titles or hierarchy, and prefer efficiency to excess process. You don't need or expect to have a lot of guidance but you enjoy working in a fast-paced team. If you prefer the culture and feel of a large organization, that is great, but you likely won’t enjoy working with us! There is plenty of important work and plenty of good opportunities with organizations like that.

Motivated: You are self-motivated. You bring an enthusiasm to the team, and imbue a sense of passion that goes beyond clocking in and clocking out. This isn’t about a fake or arbitrary “pieces of flair” mentality or lack of work-life balance! It is about being a part of the vision and feeling a part of reaching team goals.

A team-player: Oklo genuinely is a team. We aren’t about taking credit for ourselves, and we aren’t about pushing blame to others. We do incredible things because we work as a team.

An excellent communicator: We need a person who is not only technically competent but also a clear and upbeat communicator.

Creative: Being creative means that when things fall outside clear scopes or processes or problems arise without clear solutions, you are able to identify it as well as invent ways to solve a problem or fill a need without micromanagement. The successful person in this job will not only be creative, but also enjoy being creative and solving open-ended problems which may change day-by-day.

Detail-oriented: This focus is a big part of excellence, consistency, and quality. Excellent grammar and spelling matter for both good communication as well as the image of the company that we put forward.

About Oklo travel requirements:

Oklo requires remote employees to travel to headquarters (Santa Clara, CA) twice a quarter annually, based on business or team needs, including attendance at team meetings, off-sites, and other company events or gatherings. For the first two weeks of onboarding, employees are required to be in person at headquarters in Santa Clara, CA.

About Oklo compensation:

Salary: $130,000-$175,000

Oklo offers flexible time off, equity, bonuses, competitive pay, 401(k), health insurance (with employer contribution), HSA, FSA, flexible work hours, wellness credits, and other benefits.

This position may involve access to information subject to U.S. export control laws. Only applicants who meet the definition of a U.S. person under applicable laws may be eligible.

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About Oklo Inc.: Oklo Inc. is developing fast fission power plants to deliver clean, reliable, and affordable energy at scale; establishing a domestic supply chain for critical radioisotopes; and advancing nuclear fuel recycling to convert nuclear waste into clean energy. Oklo was the first to receive a site use permit from the U.S. Department of Energy for a commercial advanced fission plant, was awarded fuel material from Idaho National Laboratory, and submitted the first custom combined license application for an advanced reactor to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Oklo is also developing advanced fuel recycling technologies in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy and U.S. National Laboratories.

#CHOP: Oklo’s Values
Collaboration: We go further, together. We bring diverse perspectives, listen actively, and build trust through transparency and respect. We work across disciplines, sharing ownership to turn complex challenges into shared successes.
Humility: We are team players who act for the good of the company and for the world. We are focused on our mission, not personal recognition.
Ownership: We take pride in what we do and how we do it. We are proactive in finding solutions and see tasks through  to completion. We are committed to delivering on our promises to provide clean, reliable, and affordable energy.
Pathfinding: We chart new ground where no path exists by approaching challenges with curiosity, courage, and creativity while navigating ambiguity.

Candidates should be aware that employment may be contingent upon successful completion of a drug screening, and employees may be subject to drug testing at any time in accordance with company policy and applicable laws.

Recruitment Fraud Disclaimer

Oklo is aware of recent recruitment fraud attempts targeting job seekers. Please be cautious of anyone claiming to represent Oklo who does not contact you from an official Oklo email address.

All legitimate communications from our recruiting team— including application updates, interview requests, and job offers — will come exclusively from an @oklo.com email. Oklo will never ask for sensitive personal information, payments, or account credentials during the hiring process.

If you receive suspicious outreach or have concerns about the authenticity of any communication claiming to be from Oklo, please contact us through the official channels listed on our website.