Core Design Engineer

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:

• A 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.
• Willing to propose novel and creative solutions to technical problems.
• An excellent writer who can write in a modern active voice.
• 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.

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.

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.

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.

Detail-oriented: This focus is a big part of excellence, consistency, and quality.