What Your Job Will Be LikeWe are seeking a motivated Composite Design Engineer (R&D S&E, Mechanical Engineer) to join our Weapons Subsystems 3 team. In this role, you will apply your knowledge of composite materials and aerospace design principles to develop, analyze, and optimize composite structures for a variety of national security and energy applications. This is an excellent opportunity for recent graduates or early-career engineers looking to expand their skills in a dynamic, multidisciplinary environment.
We are looking for an engineer to:
- Support development of composite layups, material selection, and manufacturing process integration.
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams including materials scientists, manufacturing engineers, and test engineers.
- Participate in prototype fabrication, testing, and data analysis to validate design concepts.
- Assist in the design and analysis of composite structures using CAD and FEA tools.
- Contribute to documentation, technical reports, and presentations for internal and external stakeholders.
- Stay current with industry trends and emerging technologies in composite materials and aerospace design.
- Maintain lab operations and capabilities including safety documentation and worker qualifications.
Work Location: Due to the nature of the work, the selected applicant must be able to work onsite full time in California.
Travel: This position requires occasional travel to Albuquerque, NM, and Kansas City, MO, but the travel will be less than 25% of the time.
Applicants on this requisition may be interviewed by multiple organizations at Sandia National Laboratories.
Salary Range$121,900 - $237,800
*Salary range is estimated, and actual salary will be determined after consideration of the selected candidate's experience and qualifications, and application of any approved geographic salary differential.
Qualifications We Require- A Bachelor's degree in a relevant discipline, or an equivalent combination of directly relevant education and engineering or scientific experience that demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and ability to perform independent research and development.
- Active DOE Q Clearance with the ability to obtain and maintain Sigma 14/15.
Qualifications We DesireThe ideal R&D S&E Mechanical Engineer candidate for Sandia National Laboratories will in addition possess the following:
- Graduate degree in Mechanical Engineering or a highly related field where an independent research project was a graduation requirement (e.g., independent project, MS thesis, or PhD dissertation).
- Experience with mechanical engineering and product realization in the NNSA complex.
- Strong verbal and written communication skills, ability to work effectively on multidisciplinary teams.
Also, for this posting we are seeking individuals with the following experience:
- Coursework or experience in composite materials, structural analysis, and design principles.
- Hands-on familiarity with various manufacturing processes for composites (e.g., prepreg layup, resin transfer molding, autoclave programming, etc)
- Experience with composite materials testing and characterization methods
- Experience assessing integrity and durability of advanced composite materials and structurally bonded interfaces
- Familiarity with CAD software (e.g., Creo, Fibersim, SolidWorks, CATIA) and finite element analysis tools (e.g., ANSYS, Abaqus)
- Understanding of aerospace industry standards and certification processes
- Experience with controls and robotics, including integration or programming related to automated manufacturing or testing systems
- Collect, process, and analyze experimental data
- Manage product qualification and fabrication workflows, from test scoping through prototyping, test execution and documentation
- Convey technical findings clearly and effectively to diverse stakeholders
About Our TeamThe Weapons Subsystems 3 team designs, prototypes and supports mechanical weapon subsystems for high consequence applications requiring exceptionally high confidence, quality and reliability. These projects support a broad mission space including assets that are critical to U.S. national security.
Posting DurationThis posting will be open for application submissions for a minimum of three (3) calendar days, including the 'posting date'. Sandia reserves the right to extend the posting date at any time.
