What Your Job Will Be Like

Organization 02920, Surety Engineering Group I, is seeking a Manager, R&D Science and Engineering to direct a team of Surety System Engineers in developing and implementing strategies to deliver successful product prototyping, qualification, and realization.

On any given day, you may be called on to:

• Lead, develop, empower, and mentor staff through hiring, professional development, and performance management, fostering critical thinking, sound judgment, and staff growth
• Guide staff as they work across multiple teams, integrate multidisciplinary technology areas and support mission execution to ensure safe, reliable, and robust product outcomes
• Foster a trust-based and defect prevention-oriented culture that emphasizes collaboration and risk mitigation
• Lead department strategy, set priorities and communicate progress, and needs with customers, partners, and leadership
• Apply organizational knowledge and experience to assess work quality, staff performance, and align mission needs and customer expectations
• Participate in and/or lead cross-cutting efforts and contribute to corporate strategic initiatives, including the ND&S Strategy and 2900 initiatives
• Partner with peer managers, technical leads, multidisciplinary teams, and a cohesive group of ten departments to coordinate work across components, subsystems, and systems in support of mission delivery across the Labs and the broader Nuclear Security Enterprise
• Demonstrate a leadership approach grounded in service, prevention, collaboration, and a strong commitment to staff development
• Travel to support coordination, partnerships, and mission delivery. Note, a significant part of the 2927 department is located at the Pantex Tri-lab in Amarillo, TX. Travel to Amarillo is anticipated approx. 25% (every 4-6 weeks).

Due to the nature of the work, the selected applicant will be required to work onsite.

Salary Range

$163,700 - $278,000

*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 and ten (8) years of directly related relevant experience, or an equivalent combination of directly relevant education and experience. Equivalent education and experience must be engineering or scientific experience that demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and ability to perform independent research and development.
• At least 3 years demonstrated leadership experience with at least 2 years within the ND enterprise
• An active DOE Q-level security clearance; or other equivalent active security clearance such as DOD Top Secret
• Ability to obtain and maintain a Sigma 14 and 15 access

Qualifications We Desire

The ideal R&D Manager candidate for Sandia National Laboratories will in addition possess the following:

• Two or more years of demonstrated leadership experience. ¿
• A graduate degree in science or engineering (MS or Ph.D.). ¿
• Outstanding interpersonal skills in developing trusting relationships with peers, staff, management, customers, and stakeholders. ¿
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in the development and delivery of presentations, proposals, reports and documentation. ¿

Also, for this posting we are seeking individuals with the following knowledge, skills, and experience:

• Outstanding interpersonal skills in developing trusting relationships with peers, staff, management, customers, and stakeholders
• Management experience in an R&D organization and/or Nuclear Deterrence technical leadership experience
• Leading and managing R&D engineering projects through complexity, exercising flexibility and technical discernment
• Experience and success in recruiting, hiring, mentoring and leading technical staff
• Demonstrated ability to deliver results and effectively lead/guide multidisciplinary teams engaged in visionary, groundbreaking work
• Influencing technical decisions and delivery without direct authority
• Set accountability, manage conflict, resolve issues
• The ability to build strong, trust-based teaming relationships with peers, customers, and partners with different needs and agendas
• Identifying and reducing technical risk in a high-consequence environment; experience applying risk-based approaches to evaluate rigor level of product qualification activities
• Social acuity and emotional intelligence; the ability to anticipate and resolve ambiguous and contentious issues with differing technical points of view through crucial conversations
• Experience in systems engineering principles and practices, with a strong understanding of the product realization lifecycle, including requirements definition, design, development, testing, and deployment of complex systems
• Implementing R&D surety engineering principles, tools, methodologies, and best direction
• Understanding of the development and execution of qualification plans, requirements maps, test plans, and measurement assurance plans
• An ability to solve sophisticated technical problems in the absence of clear direction (experience in ambiguous environments)
• An ability to understand and evaluate diverse and incomplete data sets and draw appropriate engineering conclusions

About Our Team

The Surety Engineering Groups (2910 & 2920) are a center of excellence for research and development (R&D) Surety Systems Engineering at Sandia National Laboratories. At the heart of our leadership team is a dedicated, prevention and service ethos and a real passion for staff development. With multidisciplinary engineers at numerous sites, our organization provides R&D hardware and software surety and systems engineering expertise throughout the entire product realization lifecycle, and trains fellow scientists and engineers in defect prevention strategies and graded approaches to product qualification. We deliver strong technical solutions that increase customer confidence against loss, damage, and errors by minimizing a product's risk through the prevention, early detection, and mitigation of defects. Our engineers play a critical role in R&D project teams responsible for realizing high-consequence products, providing customized engineering support that ensures the appropriate qualification and testing evidence meets design requirements in a predictable, timely, and sustainable manner. Note, the 2927 position will be hired under the new 2920 Sr Manager (Consuelo Otero).

Posting Duration

This 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.

Security Clearance

Position requires a Department of Energy (DOE) Q security clearance to start, or equivalent active security clearance with another U.S. government agency (e.g., DOD). Sandia is required by DOE directive to conduct a pre-employment drug test and background review that includes checks of personal references, credit, law enforcement records, and employment/education verifications. Applicants for employment need to be able to maintain a DOE Q-level security clearance, which requires U.S. citizenship. If you hold more than one citizenship (i.e., of the U.S. and another country), your ability to obtain a security clearance may be impacted.

Applicants offered employment with Sandia are subject to a federal background investigation to meet the requirements for access to classified information or matter if the duties of the position require a DOE security clearance. Substance abuse or illegal drug use, falsification of information, criminal activity, serious misconduct or other indicators of untrustworthiness can cause a clearance to be denied or terminated by DOE, resulting in the inability to perform the duties assigned and subsequent termination of employment.