Job description
Thanks for your interest in Oklo! We are searching for a Director of Project Financial Management and Controls to join our team.
Position Description
We are seeking an experienced and motivated Director of Project Financial Management and Controls to lead project-level financial budgeting, forecasting, reporting and controls across our first-of-a-kind (FOAK) nuclear powerhouses, fuel plants, radioisotope production facilities, and supporting infrastructure. This role will be instrumental to ensure spend is properly planned, managed, and controlled for Oklo’s capital projects, ensuring disciplined cost management and project delivery is aligned with approved spending plans.
The successful candidate will establish and scale Oklo’s Project Financial Management & Controls team, creating consistent processes and tools for budgeting, forecasting, reporting, and financial oversight across the full capital project lifecycle. This role will partner closely with Oklo’s Sr. Director of Project Management Office (PMO) and collaborate across engineering, product, construction, supply chain, regulatory, finance, and business development teams for successful project delivery.
The ideal candidate will bring a strong track record of financial project control experience within large-scale energy, infrastructure, or industrial projects (ideally including nuclear or power generation) and prior experience working with EPC firms, contractors, and regulators. This is a unique opportunity to have a highly visible, high-impact role in advanced nuclear energy with regular engagement across Oklo’s project delivery organization, CFO and other members of the company’s Executive Team.
This role reports into the office of the CFO with a strong dotted-line relationship to the Senior Director of PMO.
Specific responsibilities may include:
- Project Budgeting: Lead development of detailed project budgets using work breakdown structures (WBS) or cost codes, ensuring alignment with cost estimates, scope, resources, and timelines
- Project Forecasting: Provide updated cost-to-complete and estimate-at-completion forecasts as projects evolve, identifying and analyzing variances between budgeted and forecasted costs
- Project Financial Reporting & Analysis: Deliver clear and timely project financial reports, dashboards, and presentations for leadership and project teams to include actual cost variance analysis versus budget
- Cost Tracking & Allocations: Implement processes for allocating direct and indirect costs (labor, materials, subcontractors, overhead) to the correct project phases and activities
- Compliance & Audit Support: Ensure adherence to company policies, financial guidelines, and contractual terms; manage processes for approvals, controls, and audit trails for capital expenditures
- Controls & Standards: Establish and implement standardized methodologies, processes, and tools for project financial management and controls that improve efficiency and project execution across all projects and phases (planning, construction, commissioning, operations handover)
- Risk & Issue Management: Proactively identify potential risks and issues, and work with the project team to develop mitigation strategies.
- Collaboration & Alignment: Partner with Project Management Office, Engineering, Product, Procurement & Supply Chain, Regulatory, Finance, and Business Development to align financial controls with business objectives
- Systems Integration: Integrate project financial planning and reporting systems with project management and ERP systems
- Team Leadership: Recruit, develop, and lead a high-performing project financial management and controls team capable of supporting multiple parallel deployments
Minimum Qualifications:
- 10+ years of Project Financial Management and Control experience in large-scale power, energy, industrial, or nuclear sectors
- Demonstrated experience supporting large-scale EPC or construction projects, including budgets of $100M+
- Strong knowledge of project controls (cost, schedule, earned value, risk), project management systems (Primavera, MS Project, PMIS platforms), and ERP platforms (Netsuite)
- Demonstrated financial acumen with strong understanding of accounting, finance, budgeting and financial analysis
- Experience analyzing large datasets, identifying trends and providing actionable insights
- Track record of strong organizational and time management skills to manage multiple tasks and deadlines
- Proven ability to manage cross-functional teams and external contractors
- Excellent communication and leadership skills, including executive and Board-level reporting
- Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance or related field
Bonus Qualifications:
- Experience with nuclear or other FOAK energy infrastructure projects
- Familiarity with DOE, NRC, and other regulatory agencies
- Startup or high-growth company experience
Competencies
We are looking for a Director of Project Financial Management that is:
- Passionate about making advanced nuclear a reality
- Willing and able to learn quickly
- Willing to think differently and do things in new ways
- Comfortable in a fast-paced, highly iterative startup environment
- Excited to think creatively, critically, and reflectively about the problems they are solving while not leaning only on what has been done before
- Willing to propose novel and creative solutions to technical problems
- Able to communicate technical content and results verbally
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 compensation:
Salary: $175,000-$235,000
Salary may fall outside of the range provided and will be dependent on applicant experience.
Oklo offers robust compensation packages including competitive pay, equity, performance bonuses, 401k, health insurance, FSA, flexible work hours, flexible time off 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.
