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Salary: USD 175,000 - 210,000 / annual
Oklo is seeking a Senior Mechanical Engineer to serve as the technical expert for high-temperature process piping, pressure vessels, and pressure-retaining components supporting the Oak Ridge Fuel Recycling Facility (OFRF). This role owns the mechanical design basis, analysis, code compliance, and technical interfaces for these systems from early design through fabrication, testing, installation, commissioning, and operational support.
The engineer will work with demanding hot-cell, molten-salt, inert-atmosphere, vacuum, and thermal-cycling service conditions. Key responsibilities include:
• Translating process temperatures, pressures, chemistry, flow conditions, vacuum and inert-gas requirements, operating cycles, and upset conditions into piping and vessel design basis, applicable codes, load combinations, service life, and acceptance criteria
• Performing and reviewing piping stress and flexibility analyses for sustained, thermal, pressure, seismic, displacement, and other applicable loads, including equipment nozzle loads and support reactions
• Performing and reviewing pressure vessel analyses for internal and external pressure, local loads, nozzle loads, thermal gradients, buckling, fatigue, creep, and cyclic service, including design-by-analysis when appropriate
• Performing and reviewing steady-state and transient thermal analyses addressing heat loss, insulation, heat tracing, temperature gradients, heat-up, cooldown, and abnormal thermal conditions
• Selecting and qualifying materials for high-temperature and corrosive service, considering molten-salt compatibility, oxidation, thermal aging, creep, fatigue, radiation exposure, weldability, and fabrication constraints
• Designing and reviewing vessels, piping, nozzles, flanges, closures, transitions, supports, anchors, restraints, expansion joints, bellows, penetrations, and other pressure-boundary components
• Defining piping layout, support, restraint, slope, drainability, isolation, inspection, and access requirements
• Coordinating piping and vessel interfaces with process equipment, hot-cell penetrations, confinement boundaries, structures, utilities, and instrumentation; incorporating remote connection, inspection, isolation, removal, and replacement provisions
• Developing and reviewing calculations, specifications, piping material classes, line lists, vessel data sheets, drawings, fabrication details, and technical requirements
• Reviewing supplier and subcontractor calculations, models, drawings, material selections, weld details, fabrication procedures, and inspection plans; providing technical direction and resolving design issues
• Establishing fabrication and quality requirements, including material traceability, welding, heat treatment, dimensional control, nondestructive examination, pressure testing, leak testing, and final acceptance
• Developing procurement specifications, statements of work, technical bid evaluations, and supplier acceptance criteria
• Providing piping and vessel input to design reviews, failure-mode and constructability evaluations, engineering changes, supplier deviations, nonconformances, requests for information, and field changes
• Supporting commissioning, troubleshooting, and root-cause evaluations involving high-temperature piping, pressure vessels, and pressure boundaries
• Mentoring other engineers and providing technical leadership in high-temperature piping and vessel design, analysis, materials, fabrication, and engineering judgment
Oklo 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. The company was the first to receive a site use permit from the U.S. Department of Energy for a commercial advanced fission plant and submitted the first custom combined license application for an advanced reactor to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Travel Requirements: Remote employees must travel to Santa Clara headquarters twice per quarter annually for team meetings, off-sites, and company events. The first two weeks of onboarding are required to be in-person at headquarters in Santa Clara, CA.
Qualifications: The posting indicates this role requires a technically rigorous mechanical engineer comfortable working from first principles, developing and reviewing detailed analytical models, and owning mechanical equipment designs from early concepts through fabrication, testing, hot-cell installation, and operation. Success requires strong engineering judgment, hands-on design capability, clear communication, and the ability to balance technical performance, safety, remote maintainability, manufacturability, schedule, and cost in a fast-moving environment. The role 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.
