Human Factors Engineer

Thanks for your interest in Oklo! We are searching for a Human Factors Engineer to join our team.

Position Description

Oklo is seeking a Human Factors Engineer to develop the human factors safety basis for a first‑of‑a‑kind used nuclear fuel (UNF) recycling facility. This individual will own the application of Human Factors Engineering to safety‑significant personnel activities, heavily impacting the development of personnel activities, evaluation of personnel activities, design of human‑system interfaces, and development of procedures. This individual will foster safety by facilitating correct decisions and inhibiting wrong ones by ensuring adequate means for detecting, correcting, and compensating for human error.

Responsibilities

• Develop the human factors engineering (HFE) strategy, implementation plans, technical bases, and safety basis documentation, including HFE inputs to the integrated safety analysis (ISA), items relied on for safety (IROFS), management measures, and safety program commitments.
• Tailor NRC HFE guidance and fuel‑cycle‑facility review expectations into a practical, graded HFE program appropriate for a first‑of‑a‑kind used nuclear fuel recycling facility.
• Evaluate the implementation of human factors engineering best practices in the development of safety‑significant personnel activities including actions credited in safety analyses, abnormal event response, maintenance, inspections, surveillance, material handling, and recovery activities.
• Lead operating experience reviews, functional requirements analyses, function allocation, task analyses, staffing and qualifications analyses, and human action evaluations across startup, normal operations, shutdown, maintenance, abnormal operations, emergency response, and degraded equipment or interface conditions.
• Translate task analysis and safety analysis results into requirements for alarms, indications, controls, procedures, training objectives, staffing, qualifications, work environment, PPE, dose and contamination controls, and human error prevention, detection, and recovery features.
• Define Human System Interface (HIS) requirements for control rooms, local control stations, remote handling stations, glovebox or hot‑cell interfaces, material handling interfaces, alarm systems, displays, controls, automation, communications, and computer‑based or paper‑based procedural systems.
• Plan and execute HFE verification and validation activities, including HSI task support verification, HFE design verification, integrated system validation, mockups, simulator exercises, walk‑downs, tabletop exercises, human‑in‑the‑loop evaluations, performance measures, and human engineering discrepancy resolution.
• Prepare license application content, safety evaluation materials, readiness reviews, audit packages, requests for additional information, and inspection support materials.
• Interface with engineering teams and vendors to ensure HFE requirements are integrated early in the design lifecycle and remain aligned with design changes, operating concepts, and safety basis assumptions.
• Help establish human performance monitoring and continuous improvement approaches so that validated HFE assumptions remain effective as the facility design, procedures, training, and operations mature.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in human factors engineering, engineering psychology, cognitive systems engineering, systems engineering, nuclear engineering, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, or a related technical field.
• 5+ years of experience applying human factors engineering to nuclear reactor or fuel cycle technology.
• Experience conducting or supporting HFE analyses such as operating experience review, function allocation, task analysis, human action evaluation, HSI design review, procedure and training input development, and staffing qualification analysis.
• Familiarity with NRC or DOE expectations for human factors, safety analysis, licensing documentation, management measures, credited human actions, or safety‑significant administrative controls.
• Direct experience with NUREG‑0711, NUREG‑0700, NUREG‑0800 Chapter 18, and NUREG‑1520.
• Strong technical writing skills, including the ability to produce auditable, licensing‑quality documentation that clearly links safety basis assumptions, human actions, design requirements, procedures, training, and verification evidence.

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced degree or professional certification in human factors, ergonomics, cognitive systems engineering, systems safety, nuclear engineering, or a related field.
• Experience with fuel cycle facilities, used nuclear fuel handling, reprocessing or recycling, hot cells, gloveboxes, remote handling, radiological work controls, and nuclear criticality safety.
• Experience developing HFE program plans, HSI style guides, human action feasibility or reliability analyses, integrated validation plans, or responses to regulatory questions.
• Experience with digital I&C, automation, alarm management, control room design, local control station design, simulator development, mockup testing, usability testing, or human reliability analysis.

Who you are

We are looking for a Human Factors Engineer who embodies the following qualities:

• Quick to engage with novel systems and regulatory frameworks; comfortable driving clarity in undefined or evolving areas.
• Thrives in a fast‑paced, iterative startup culture that values execution, ownership, and agility over formality.
• Focused on developing actionable HFE outputs that improve design decisions, reduce human error likelihood, support error recovery, and integrate with real‑world facility operations.
• Writes clear, concise, and thoughtful documentation, especially for safety basis development, design reviews, licensing submittals, regulatory interactions, and operational readiness.
• Able to explain human performance, HFE methods, credited human actions, and HSI design decisions to technical and non‑technical stakeholders alike.
• Collaborates well with operators, engineers, safety analysts, licensing leads, and program owners while maintaining technical rigor needed for a nuclear safety basis.

Oklo requires remote employees to travel to headquarters (Santa Clara, CA) twice a quarter, and a two‑week in‑person onboarding at headquarters.

Oklo offers flexible time off, equity, competitive pay, 401(k), health insurance, FSA, flexible work hours, and other benefits.