Job description
Thanks for your interest in Oklo! We are searching for a Senior Counsel to join our Legal team.
Position Description:
The Senior Counsel will play a critical role as an agile generalist supporting the Company’s continued growth across the business. More specifically, we are looking for a mid-level corporate attorney with 4-6 years experience to help us across a range of needs, including supporting corporate legal work (e.g., work related to our SEC filings, but also including corporate structuring and governance work), commercial work, supporting strategic transactions and M&A, and helping out with other legal needs across the company as they arise. We are not looking for a niche specialist: we are looking for a lawyer who is comfortable being uncomfortable. Oklo is growing fast and every day presents new opportunities and challenging legal questions, and this role needs to be excited to roll up their sleeves and lean in wherever needed. If you are someone who thrives in exciting and fast-moving environments, and is eager to learn and push yourself, this role may be for you.
Specific responsibilities may include:
- Assist with preparing and reviewing Oklo’s SEC filings, including coordinating with and supervising outside counsel as needed;
- Assist with routine corporate legal work, including managing Oklo’s subsidiaries (working closely with external paralegals and service providers), and helping keep on top of corporate governance needs
- Support the Corporate Secretary with Board-related matters and legal work
- Assist with various strategic transactions, including helping to negotiate partnership agreements, investment agreements, and close M&A transactions, and supervising outside counsel as needed
- Negotiate a variety of commercial, vendor, and license agreements (including MOUs, PPAs, NDAs, etc.)
- Help us mature our legal practices and approach (including with respect to routine compliance- and employment-related matters)
Competencies:
We are looking for a Senior Counsel that is:
- Comfortable supporting a range of legal needs, including securities filings, corporate governance, commercial negotiations, M&A and strategic investments, etc.
- A systems thinker that is comfortable both building for the long-term (and project managing cross-functional tasks to completion) and rolling their sleeves up to get things done in the short term
- Substantive agility: someone who enjoys leaning into new areas, and is comfortable learning new things (and learning quickly!)
- Fluent in or able to leverage legal technology or AI tools to work more efficiently
- Willing to think creatively: knowledgeable about how other teams approach legal department needs, but excited to think creatively and critically about the problems they are solving and to try new approaches
- An excellent communicator (including to non-lawyers)
- Detail-oriented while moving lightning fast
- Passionate about clean energy and making advanced fission a reality
- An optimist at heart
- Resourceful, inquisitive, and willing and able to learn quickly
- Comfortable in a fast-paced, highly iterative startup environment
Minimum Qualifications:
- A J.D. from an ABA-accredited law school, and admission to practice law in at least one U.S. state
- At least 4-6 years of experience, ideally with a mix of biglaw and in-house experience (though we will consider applicants with just one or the other)
- Experience supporting a public company with SEC and other corporate legal work
- Commercial legal experience negotiating a variety of agreements
- Experience supporting strategic transactions (whether investments or M&A)
- Experience supporting Board-related corporate governance needs
Bonus Qualifications:
- Experience working in-house, particularly in a high growth or startup environment
- Experience leveraging legal technology (especially legal AI tools)
- IP experience (in particular, patent experience, especially if involving “hard science” related technologies)
- Energy or Project Finance experience, including familiarity with Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs)
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. Even excellent grammar and spelling matter for both good communication as well as the image of the company that we put forward.
About Oklo compensation: $180,000-220,000
Oklo offers flexible time off, equity, competitive pay, 401k, health insurance, FSA, flexible work hours, and other benefits.
We are looking to fill this position immediately!
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.
