Senior Software Engineer

Join us in pioneering the next generation of nuclear reactors! You'll leverage your software skills alongside nuclear engineers to model, simulate, design, and deploy advanced fission power technology. You will work at the forefront of the nuclear industry, developing novel techniques to reach new levels of safety, efficiency, and resiliency. Come be a part of powering the future with advanced fission power plants to provide clean, reliable, affordable energy.

Position Description

Oklo is a fast-moving startup where you will be responsible for tackling a wide range of challenges in reactor design and analysis. A nuclear background is not required, but a healthy curiosity and eagerness to learn are essential in this role.

Specific responsibilities may include:

• Lead the design of systems for storing and retrieving reactor data and physics results at scale
• Architect and own CI/CD pipelines for multiphysics analyses, ensuring reliability, observability, and reproducibility of complex simulations
• Develop tools and platforms that enable reactor engineers to visualize, compare, and evaluate reactor designs
• Develop physics kernels to solve unanswered problems, or to improve performance of existing models
• Develop reactor optimization schemes and statistical experiments to inform design changes
• Mentor other engineers, set technical direction, and contribute to building a strong engineering culture

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, computer engineering, or equivalent work experience
• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience
• Fluency in Python
• Strong proficiency with Git
• Experience designing, implementing, and maintaining CI/CD pipelines
• Demonstrated ability to own projects end-to-end: requirements gathering, architecture, implementation, testing, deployment, and iteration
• Strong communication skills and experience collaborating with cross-functional partners (e.g., scientists, analysts, or domain experts)
• Curiosity and passion for nuclear power, closing the nuclear fuel cycle, and sustainable energy generation

Bonus Qualifications:

• Proficiency in Rust
• Proficiency in Typescript/Javascript (especially Svelte)
• Experience growing and mentoring small software teams or organizations
• Experience designing and operating large data collection or analysis pipelines
• Experience with optimization, statistics, and design of experiments
• Knowledge of GitLab CI/CD
• Prior work developing and implementing software quality assurance programs and testing strategies, especially in quality- or safety-focused industries
• Experience working in regulated environments (e.g., energy, aerospace, medical, automotive)

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, 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: $200,000-$250,000

Oklo offers flexible time off, equity, competitive pay, 401k, health insurance, FSA, flexible work hours, and other benefits.

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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.