Senior Technical Advisor

Thanks for your interest in Oklo!  We are searching for a Senior Technical Advisor to join our engineering team.

Position Description

The Senior Technical Advisor serves as the technical deputy to the Group Director, operating as a senior individual contributor with broad technical authority and organizational reach across the group. This role is responsible for enabling the effectiveness, consistency, and scalability of the group’s technical work by developing cross-cutting programs, infrastructure, and guidance that impact the entire organization.

The ideal candidate is a technically broad nuclear generalist with strong interpersonal skills who is comfortable diving deeply into unfamiliar topics, synthesizing across disciplines, and coordinating with diverse stakeholders to turn high-level intent into durable, functioning programs.

This position reports directly to the Group Director and does not have direct people-management responsibility, but exerts influence through technical leadership, trust, and execution. 

Specific responsibilities may include:

• Traveling to headquarters (Santa Clara, CA) 2x per calendar quarter for team meetings, company offsite, or other business gatherings.
• Technical Leadership and Decision Enablement
  • Act as a trusted technical advisor and deputy to the Group Director on matters spanning nuclear engineering, analysis quality, and technical program execution.
  • Provide independent technical judgment on cross-group issues, trade studies, and programmatic decisions.
  • Represent the Group Director in technical forums, reviews, or coordination meetings as delegated.
• Group-Wide Technical Programs
  • Design, draft, and maintain group-level technical work instructions, procedures, and best-practice guidance.
  • Lead the development and rollout of shared technical infrastructure needed for new or evolving programs (e.g., documentation systems, analysis workflows, review processes).
  • Identify gaps or friction points in how work is executed across teams and proactively develop solutions.
• Technical Integration & Coordination
  • Coordinate across multiple teams and disciplines to establish new programs, ensuring alignment with regulatory expectations, internal standards, and practical execution realities.
  • Translate high-level organizational goals into concrete technical processes that teams can realistically adopt and sustain.
  • Facilitate alignment between analysts, designers, software developers, QA, and management.
• Deep Dives & Problem Solving
  • Perform targeted deep dives into specific technical topics as needed to unblock programs, resolve ambiguities, or inform decision-making.
  • Rapidly develop working knowledge in unfamiliar technical areas and synthesize expert input into actionable guidance.
  • Support root-cause analysis and corrective actions for cross-cutting technical or process issues.
• Quality, Consistency, and Scalability
  • Promote consistency in technical rigor, documentation quality, and analysis practices across the group.
  • Help ensure that technical outputs are defensible, reviewable, and scalable as the organization grows.
  • Balance technical fidelity, schedule, and resource constraints in proposed solutions.

Experience Level:

• Experienced (10+yr)

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Nuclear Engineering or a closely related technical field (e.g., Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science).
• Significant experience (i.e., 10+ years) across a breadth of nuclear engineering technical domains (e.g., reactor physics, thermal-hydraulics, fuel cycle, safety analysis, licensing support, systems engineering).
• Demonstrated ability to operate as a technical generalist while engaging deeply with specialists.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to draft clear, practical technical guidance.
• Proven experience coordinating work across multiple teams or disciplines.
• High degree of technical judgment and professionalism.

Bonus Qualifications:

• Advanced degree in Nuclear Engineering or a closely related technical field (e.g., Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science)
• Licensed Professional Engineer in a related field
• Experience with analysis methods verification and validation

Competencies

We are looking for a Senior Technical Advisor that is:

• Personable, approachable, and trusted by both senior leadership and individual contributors.
• Comfortable operating in ambiguity and building structure where none exists.
• Self-directed, with a strong bias toward execution and follow-through.
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