What Your Job Will Be LikeR&D Systems Engineering Lead ¿ Multiple Positions Available We are seeking highly independent, self-motivated R&D Systems Engineers to join Sandia National Laboratories Center 2200 in pivotal leadership roles supporting critical national deterrence missions. These positions offer the opportunity to support an accelerated development program within the Nuclear Security Enterprise and contribute directly to the safety, security, and reliability of the United States¿ nuclear deterrent.
Multiple leadership roles are available in the following areas: - Program Integration Lead: Serves to integrate programmatic and technical scope across the Systems team, specifically focused on creating a holistic effort between risk management requirements engineering, cost and schedule, and ensuring accurate and timely reporting to all program stakeholders.
- Risk Management Lead: Scope includes collaborating across technical teams to identify risks, issues, burndown plans, and opportunities and ensuring all data is captured in the Federal Integrated Risk Register. Also responsible for all reporting to the Federal Program Office (FPO).
- Environments Lead: Exercises expertise in weapon environments and DOE and military concept of operations (CONOPS) to develop system and component-level specifications that map to customer requirements (i.e., Stockpile-to-Target Sequence (STS)).
- Systems-Owned Parts Lead: Provides staff leadership in requirements development, qualification, and production strategy development and execution for Systems-owned piece parts.
- Qualification Test Lead: Leads a multi-disciplinary team in the execution of the system-level test verification strategyin close partnership with the Systems Qualification Lead and System Surety Engineer and supporting experimental test organizations.
- Testers Lead: Partner across organizations to develop the strategy for system tester realization and utilization.
Each role will focus on distinct technical challenges and leadership responsibilities while requiring depth in understanding of other aspects of the Program.
In these leadership roles, you may be called on to: - Lead Complex Systems Engineering Efforts Drive the design, development, integration, and qualification of War Reserve (WR) systems or components, proactively identifying and mitigating technical risks while balancing Sandia's need to innovate, act with urgency.
- Collaborate Across the Enterprise: Partner closely with diverse teams spanning Sandia, NNSA, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Kansas City National Security Campus, Pantex, USAF, and other key stakeholders to address complex technical and programmatic challenges.
- Drive Strategic Technical Communication: Clearly articulate technical issues, options, and recommendations through concise and compelling presentations, enabling informed decision-making at all levels.
- Ensure Systems Engineering Excellence: Rigorously analyze system performance and environmental factors to ensure all designs meet or exceed stringent requirements, maintaining the highest standards of quality, safety, and reliability.
- Define and Refine Requirements: Support the development, validation, and traceability of functional and interface requirements to ensure seamless system integration and compliance with regulatory standards.
This position will require some travel. Due to the nature of the work, the selected applicant must be able to work onsite.
Salary Range$117,500 - $235,700
*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 five (5) years of directly relevant experience, 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 or equivalent to start.
Qualifications We DesireThe ideal R&D Systems Engineer candidate for Sandia National Laboratories will in addition possess the following: - Graduate degree in Engineering or a highly related field where an independent research project was a graduation requirement (e.g., independent project, thesis, or dissertation).
- Experience working with Nuclear Security Enterprise (NSE) laboratories and plants including Pantex, Kansas City National Security Campus (KCNSC), Lawrence Livermore Laboratory (LLNL) and Kansas City National Security Campus/New Mexico Operations (KCNSC/NMO).
- Experience working on engineering design, qualification, production, or related modeling/simulation projects.
- Strong verbal and written communication skills, ability to work effectively in multidisciplinary teams.
Also, for this posting we are seeking individuals with the following experience: - Proven experience in systems engineering lifecycle processes, including requirements development, system integration, qualification, and production
- Expertise in requirements management and traceability using model-based system engineering (MBSE) tools such as Cameo or equivalent.
- Demonstrated skills in risk identification, assessment, and mitigation using established frameworks and tools (e.g., FMEA, Fault Tree Analysis).
- Experience developing technical execution strategies
- Leading and coordinating cross-functional teams in complex, multidisciplinary environments.
- Proficiency in technical writing and presentations.
- Familiarity with project management tools (e.g., MS Project, JIRA) and experience managing scope, schedule, and resources.
- Knowledge of configuration management, change control, and quality assurance processes.
About Our TeamOur team recently led the accelerated B61-13 program and continues this vital work through the newly authorized Hard and Deeply Buried Target (HDBT) Program of Record. We provide systems engineering and management support for the stewardship of nuclear weapon systems developed in New Mexico. Committed to ensuring the safety, security, and reliability of these weapons throughout their lifecycle, we prioritize advancing new technologies and maintaining technical excellence as central to our mission and Center activities
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.
