Engineering Program Manager

Oklo•Santa Clara, CA

3d•$120,000 - $180,000•Remote

About The Position

Oklo is seeking an Engineering Program Manager (EPM) to join its fuel recycling engineering team within the Recycling Division. The EPM will be instrumental in delivering the fuel recycling facility by transforming complex engineering objectives into well-coordinated, evidence-based programs characterized by clarity, urgency, and discipline. This role involves close collaboration with functional engineering groups within the Recycling Division, partnering with the Team Lead who oversees technical direction and people leadership, while the EPM establishes the program structure and operational cadence. The ideal candidate is a technically adept program leader capable of bringing focus and transparency to intricate situations, influencing without direct authority, and adapting programs based on empirical data that challenges design or analysis. Success hinges on rigorous execution combined with creative, innovative thinking in a fast-paced, safety-critical environment.

Requirements

3+ years in Engineering Program Management or similar (engineering or technical project management, technical product management, systems engineering, or related technical leadership roles)
Experience leading complex, cross-functional engineering work in industrial, infrastructure, or other technically rigorous environments.
Experience delivering engineered hardware in areas such as design, analysis, safety, prototyping, operations, maintenance, and testing.
Bachelor's degree in engineering, physical science, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
Demonstrated success guiding an engineered product through successive iterations of maturity.
Proficiency with a variety of project management tools, with experience selecting and changing tools in tandem with changes in scope and scale.
Comfort operating in a matrixed environment with multiple stakeholders and competing priorities.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to present technical status, risks, tradeoffs, and decisions to different levels of leadership within the organization.

Nice To Haves

Exposure to nuclear, chemical, mechanical, process, systems, industrial, or facility engineering environments.
Exposure to highly regulated design environments, including managing licensing deliverables, safety analyses, configuration and change management, requirements traceability, and verification or validation planning.
Exposure to risk and reliability methods such as FMEA, hazard analysis, test planning, design reviews, and technical readiness or maturity assessments.
Exposure to creating and managing process and facility engineering artifacts, such as block/process flow diagrams, P&IDs, equipment specifications, technical drawings, and engineering analyses.
Exposure to managing multiple vendor engagements, from RFP to SOW stages, through regular touchpoints through completion of all stated deliverables.

Responsibilities

Define program scope, deliverables, success criteria, decision points, and technical milestones aligned with Recycling Division objectives and the integrated facility schedule.
Translate established functional requirements into executable engineering and analysis plans.
Drive the team to define and mature deliverables, acceptance criteria, and verification methods.
Build and maintain integrated work plans across program functions, which may include analysis, design, modeling, prototyping, and testing.
Maintain dependencies, critical paths, resource needs, long-lead activities, and required decision dates.
Lead the day-to-day cadence, including planning sessions, technical coordination meetings, design and milestone reviews, action tracking, and timely closure of decisions and blockers.
Coordinate interfaces with other Recycling teams and their EPMs, as well as regulatory, safety, deployment, and procurement partners.
Maintain a current view of technical risks, program risks, assumptions, interfaces, decisions, and open items.
Prepare and facilitate effective program reviews with clear entry and exit criteria, decision asks, evidence summaries, risks, tradeoffs, and follow-up actions.
Communicate program status at the right level for engineers, functional leaders, and executives.
Continuously improve how the team plans, learns, and executes.