Oklo
Senior Maintenance Program Engineer
Santa Clara, CA or Remote · Posted 2h ago
Job Description
Thanks for your interest in Oklo! We are searching for a senior maintenance program engineer to join our engineering team.
Position Description
At Oklo, we are building advanced nuclear systems that require disciplined, scalable maintenance programs to support safe, reliable plant performance.
We are seeking an experienced senior maintenance program engineer to own and drive the development, implementation, and continuous improvement of fleet maintenance standards across Oklo facilities. The engineer will establish maintenance requirements, technical bases, work-management practices, and system data that can be applied consistently while accommodating justified site-specific needs.
This is a high-impact role at the intersection of Facility Operations, Engineering, Maintenance, Supply Chain, Training, Quality, and digital systems. You will provide maintenance program leadership, translate approved strategies into executable work, and use equipment performance and operating experience to improve the program over time.
Specific responsibilities may include:
- Own and implement Oklo's fleet maintenance program framework for preventive, predictive, and corrective maintenance.
- Develop equipment maintenance strategies and technical bases using equipment functions, criticality, failure modes, vendor recommendations, engineering information, and operating experience.
- Translate approved strategies into preventive-maintenance tasks, frequencies, acceptance criteria, job plans, procedures, and supporting documentation with clear technical traceability.
- Establish standardized equipment and asset hierarchies, naming conventions, classifications, and maintenance master-data requirements; support configuration and data governance for computerized maintenance management and enterprise asset management systems.
- Develop consistent work-management practices for work identification, screening, planning, scheduling, execution, post-maintenance testing, closeout, equipment history, and backlog management.
- Lead implementation of fleet maintenance standards at Oklo facilities, including asset-data development, maintenance-plan loading, job-plan validation, readiness reviews, and controlled site-specific adaptations.
- Monitor schedule compliance, backlog health, preventive-maintenance completion, repeat maintenance, rework, and equipment reliability; use results, failures, corrective actions, and operating experience to drive improvements.
- Coordinate with Engineering, site teams, vendors, and Supply Chain on equipment bills of material, critical spares, stocking strategies, component availability, and obsolescence concerns.
- Develop and maintain procedures, templates, job aids, training inputs, controlled program records, and equipment history while coordinating fleetwide implementation across Facility Operations and partner organizations.
Minimum Qualifications:
- 10+ years of experience in the nuclear industry.
- Demonstrated experience in maintenance scheduling and in a maintenance leadership role.
- Strong understanding of nuclear plant operations and the interfaces among Operations, Maintenance, Engineering, Quality, Training, and Supply Chain.
- Experience developing, implementing, governing, or improving preventive, predictive, and corrective maintenance programs.
- Ability to develop defensible maintenance strategies and technical bases and translate them into executable work requirements.
- Experience with computerized maintenance management or enterprise asset management systems, asset hierarchies, equipment history, and maintenance master data.
- Strong technical writing, analytical, organizational, and cross-functional communication skills.
Bonus Qualifications:
- Experience standardizing maintenance programs across multiple nuclear facilities or units.
- Experience with equipment reliability, criticality analysis, failure-mode evaluation, corrective action, and operating-experience programs.
- Experience developing or monitoring maintenance performance measures, including schedule compliance, backlog health, preventive-maintenance completion, rework, and repeat maintenance.
- Experience with critical-spares strategies, equipment bills of material, component availability, or obsolescence management.
- Experience developing maintenance procedures, work packages, job plans, checklists, training materials, or worker-feedback processes.
- Familiarity with maintenance rule, quality assurance, or regulatory requirements applicable to nuclear facilities.
- Former or current NRC SRO license or certification.
Competencies
We are looking for a senior maintenance program engineer who is:
- Comfortable serving as a maintenance program authority and providing clear direction on standards, priorities, and implementation decisions.
- Able to balance fleet standardization with justified site-specific needs while maintaining technical rigor and change control.
- Experienced in maintenance planning and scheduling and able to connect program requirements to practical work execution.
- Analytical and able to turn equipment performance, work history, failures, and operating experience into focused program improvements.
- A systems thinker who can build processes, data structures, and governance that scale across facilities.
- An effective cross-functional leader who can work with Operations, Maintenance, Engineering, Supply Chain, Quality, Training, and vendors.
- A strong communicator who can translate complex maintenance requirements into clear procedures, technical bases, and actionable guidance.
- Detail-oriented, organized, and focused on equipment reliability, traceability, and effective maintenance execution.
- Comfortable operating in a fast-paced, highly iterative environment where priorities may evolve quickly.
- Able to work independently remotely and travel up to 50% of the time.
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 annually, 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:
Salary: $150,000-$200,000
Oklo offers flexible time off, equity, bonuses, competitive pay, 401(k), health insurance (with employer contribution), HSA, FSA, flexible work hours, wellness credits, and other benefits.
This position 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.
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.
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.
Recruitment Fraud Disclaimer
Oklo is aware of recent recruitment fraud attempts targeting job seekers. Please be cautious of anyone claiming to represent Oklo who does not contact you from an official Oklo email address.
All legitimate communications from our recruiting team— including application updates, interview requests, and job offers — will come exclusively from an @oklo.com email. Oklo will never ask for sensitive personal information, payments, or account credentials during the hiring process.
If you receive suspicious outreach or have concerns about the authenticity of any communication claiming to be from Oklo, please contact us through the official channels listed on our website.