Senior Mechanical Engineer

The posting, as Oklo wrote it

Thanks for your interest in Oklo! We are searching for a Sr. Mechanical Engineer to join our fuel recycling engineering team within Oklo's Recycling Division.

Position Description

You will serve as Oklo's technical expert for high-temperature process piping, pressure vessels, and pressure-retaining components supporting the Oak Ridge Fuel Recycling Facility (OFRF). You will own 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 work includes demanding hot-cell, molten-salt, inert-atmosphere, vacuum, and thermal-cycling service conditions.

This role is for a technically rigorous mechanical engineer who is 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.

There is a strong preference for candidates located in the Oak Ridge, Tennessee area.

Specific responsibilities may include

Serve as Oklo's technical expert for high-temperature piping, pressure vessels, pressure boundaries, and their supporting components within the OFRF.

Translate process temperatures, pressures, chemistry, flow conditions, vacuum and inert-gas requirements, operating cycles, and upset conditions into the piping and vessel design basis, applicable codes, load combinations, service life, and acceptance criteria.

Perform and review piping stress and flexibility analyses for sustained, thermal, pressure, seismic, displacement, and other applicable loads, including equipment nozzle loads and support reactions.

Perform and review 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.

Perform and review steady-state and transient thermal analyses addressing heat loss, insulation, heat tracing, temperature gradients, heat-up, cooldown, and abnormal thermal conditions.

Select and qualify materials for high-temperature and corrosive service, considering molten-salt compatibility, oxidation, thermal aging, creep, fatigue, radiation exposure where applicable, weldability, and fabrication constraints.

Design and review vessels, piping, nozzles, flanges, closures, transitions, supports, anchors, restraints, expansion joints, bellows, penetrations, and other pressure-boundary components.

Define piping layout, support, restraint, slope, drainability, isolation, inspection, and access requirements needed to manage thermal expansion and support safe operati
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o 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.
Candidates should be aware that employment may be contingent upon successful completion of a drug screening, and employees may be subject to drug testing at any time in accordance with company policy and applicable laws.

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