Software Lifecycle Specialist

Position Description

This role will be focused on strengthening our software development lifecycle, ensuring high-quality delivery, and maintaining compliance with internal and regulatory standards. We support a variety of internal “customers” and establish the processes, tooling structures, and governance frameworks that allow engineering teams to execute effectively and transparently. Oklo is a fast-moving startup, and we are actively formalizing lifecycle rigor while preserving engineering velocity. You will have the opportunity to shape how software is scoped, tracked, governed, and released across the company. A nuclear background is not required, but strong systems thinking, attention to detail, a proactive mindset, and a sense of curiosity about the domain are all essential in this role.

Specific responsibilities may include:

• Define and maintain software lifecycle standards, templates, and workflows across GitLab and Jira.
• Establish and enforce traceability between requirements, design artifacts, code, testing, and validation activities.
• Partner with engineers to ensure proper scoping, backlog hygiene, and milestone alignment.
• Define change control and configuration management expectations in collaboration with DevOps/Engineering Infrastructure.
• Support audit readiness by ensuring lifecycle documentation and records are complete and reproducible.
• Define lifecycle standards including Definition of Done expectations and release controls.
• Build reporting and dashboards that provide visibility into lifecycle health, risk, and delivery status.
• Identify gaps in the software lifecycle and improve engineering workflows.
• Translate compliance requirements into practical, implementable engineering workflows.
• Evaluate and recommend tooling improvements that strengthen lifecycle integrity without introducing unnecessary process overhead.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent industry experience.
• 5+ years of experience in software development, DevOps, technical program management, software quality, or systems engineering.
• Experience working in regulated or compliance-driven environments.
• Strong understanding of software development lifecycle concepts including requirements traceability, version control, CI/CD, configuration management, validation, and release control.
• Experience working with Jira or similar issue tracking systems in a structured, milestone-driven environment.
• Experience documenting processes clearly and unambiguously.
• Strong cross-functional communication skills.
• Comfort operating in ambiguous environments and building structure where none exists.

Bonus Qualifications:

• Experience supporting NQA-1, ISO 9001, NIST, or similar regulatory or compliance frameworks.
• Experience with GitLab, especially GitLab CI/CD and repository governance controls.
• Experience defining or auditing SDLC frameworks.
• Experience building dashboards or lifecycle reporting tools.
• Experience supporting engineering organizations with hardware, simulation, or embedded systems.
• Familiarity with CAD or PLM life