Thanks for your interest in Oklo! We are searching for a Core Design Engineer to join our engineering team.

Position Description

Core Design Engineers at Oklo are responsible for designing performant and manufacturable reactor cores which balance neutronic, thermal hydraulic, material, mechanical, and economic considerations. Work performed by Core Design Engineers includes executing multiphysics simulations to assess core performance, writing clear and thorough design documentation, performing analyses to validate and verify core requirements, and working closely with fabrication engineers to mature their designs.

Core design is an interdisciplinary field, we are looking for applicants who have a holistic understanding of reactor physics that lets them quickly ascertain how proposed design changes will impact core performance. Level will be determined based on applicant experience.

Specific responsibilities may include

Traveling to headquarters (Santa Clara, CA) 2x per calendar quarter for team meetings, company offsite, or other business gatherings

Translating top-level stakeholder requirements into well-written system functional requirements

Modeling core performance over time through multiphysics simulations and first principles approaches

Documenting work using modern tools and techniques, and producing well-written technical reports

Collaborating cross-functionally to define performance requirements, and providing technical feedback to methods development teams

Minimum Qualifications

Bachelors, Masters, or PhD in nuclear engineering or a related field

Experience with core design from a multidisciplinary perspective

Experience with object-oriented programming language (e.g., Python, C++)

Experience with neutronic analyses

Experience with thermal hydraulic analysis

Experience with material analysis

Bonus Qualifications

Familiarity with principles of fast reactor core design

Experience with fuel cycle optimization

Familiarity/experience with ternary fuel and ternary fuel cycles

Experience with CI/CD computing environments

Experience with Monte Carlo neutronics tools (e.g., SERPENT, MCNP, SCALE, etc.)

Experience with deterministic neutronics tools (e.g., DIF3D, PERSENT, etc.)

Experience with reactor systems codes (e.g., SAS4A/SASSYS-1, SAM, RELAP, TRACE, GOTHIC, etc.)

Experience with fuel analysis and fuel performance software (e.g., BISON, LIFE-METAL, etc.)

Fluency in Python

Competencies

We are looking for a Core Design Engineer that is:

Passionate about clean energy

An optimist at heart

Passionate about making advanced fission a reality

Willing and able to learn quickly

Willing to think differently and do things in new ways

Comfortable in a fast-paced, highly iterative startup environment

Excited to think creatively, critically, and reflectively about the problems they are solving while not leaning only on what has been done before

Willing to propose novel and creative solutions to technical problems

An excellent writer who can write in a modern active voice, so make your cover letter compelling and write it well!

Able to communicate technical content and results verbally

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.