What Your Job Will Be LikeThe Environmental Test Laboratory (ETL) team at Sandia's Livermore, CA site is seeking an experienced Laboratory Support Technologist to support high-consequence mechanical and environmental testing. ETL enables engineers to qualify and certify that critical national security components and systems can withstand life-cycle environments including shock, vibration, resonance, time-varying acceleration, temperature extremes, pressure, humidity, and other complex or combined exposures.
Many tests involve energetic materials, radiation sources, or other significant hazards, requiring strict adherence to safety, security, configuration control, documentation, and operational protocols. This role requires disciplined execution of test procedures, careful test article handling, strong hazard awareness, and effective communication with engineering partners. Personnel performing Activity Level Work in ETL facilities must complete required training, such as chemical safety, hazardous waste and environmental management, radiological worker training, and vault-type room security. Test acceptance includes participation in formal Pre-Work Reviews and Test Readiness Reviews to confirm hazards, security requirements, mitigations, and procedural controls are appropriately addressed.
ETL works closely with design and systems engineers supporting the development, qualification, and sustainment of the nation's nuclear deterrent. The team values professional integrity, continuous learning, a questioning attitude, and continuous improvement in safety, security, and test quality.
ETL facilities include large-capacity electrodynamic shakers, temperature and altitude chambers, shock testers, a drop shock tower, centrifuges, modal analysis equipment with multi-channel laser vibrometry, and a state-of-the-art inertial properties measurement laboratory.
Due to the nature of the work, the selected applicant must be able to work onsite 100% of the time.
Applicants on this requisition may be interviewed by multiple organizations at Sandia National Laboratories.
Salary Range$88,900 - $171,900
*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- High School Diploma plus twelve (12) years of verifiable and directly applicable experience in laboratory instrumentation, data acquisition/control, and test execution per the job profile.
- Active DOE Q-level security clearance or equivalent DoD Top Secret level security clearance.
Qualifications We DesireThe ideal candidate should have:
- An associate's degree in engineering technology; or a BS in engineering, e.g., mechanical, electrical, aerospace, materials, chemical, computer engineering, or physics.
- Proven ability to communicate and collaborate effectively in multi-disciplinary engineering teams.
- Experience with setting up instrumentation including fixturing, placement, attachment, and connections for accelerometers.
- Experience using signal processing online to improve data quality, and offline to extract important features.
- Proven ability to identify test anomalies in real time and troubleshot them.
- Experience programming and operating software and hardware for data acquisition (DAQ) such as recording vibration and shock accelerations with correct parameters.
- Identified problems with a building/facility such as electric circuits; HVAC; compressors; piping for water, nitrogen or other gas lines; building sensors, alarms, etc; and support solutions to those problems.
- A can-do attitude and motivation to take initiatives; A drive for continuous learning and improvement.
About Our Teama { text-decoration: none; color: #464feb;}tr th, tr td { border: 1px solid #e6e6e6;}tr th { background-color: #f5f5f5;} Sandia's California Environmental Test Engineering Department delivers the nation's most trusted environmental testing and diagnostics for mission critical components and systems. We provide accurate, reproducible, and defensible data that enable sponsors to make confident design, qualification, and certification decisions whether the need is to validate performance under normal operational conditions or to assess survivability in abnormal, extreme, or combined environments.
Our team operates advanced experimental platforms that replicate a comprehensive range of mechanical and environmental stresses, including vibration, shock, controlled acceleration profiles, structural dynamics/modal behavior, inertial properties, temperature extremes, pressure, humidity, and other mission relevant exposures. These capabilities support the full Research Development Application lifecycle for weapon systems and other national security technologies, ensuring sponsors receive high consequence, high assurance environmental data essential for program success.
We partner closely with internal and external customers across Sandia, DOE/NNSA, the Department of Defense, and other government agencies to accelerate development timelines, reduce technical risk, and improve system reliability. Our work spans environmental testing, simulation and diagnostics, data driven engineering support, model validation datasets for analysts and code teams, and early stage design exploration. Sponsors consistently leverage our laboratory for its ability to integrate precision experimentation, high fidelity instrumentation, and expert interpretation, all within the rigorous safety, security, and quality framework required for national security missions.
For research and capability advancement, our staff conceive, construct, and qualify new experimental apparatus tailored to emerging sponsor needs. We develop and refine methods to measure inertial and structural dynamic properties, build experimental models, and characterize component and system behavior across operational and extreme environments. Current R&D efforts include next generation multi resonant plate impact testing, captive carry vibration qualification, six degree of freedom vibration generation, and combined thermos mechanical testing capabilities aligned with sponsor demand for more realistic, integrated environments.
The department is part of Group 8220, Nuclear Deterrence Engineering Services and Capabilities, which manages Sandia California's suite of complex hardware assembly and testing capabilities (SPEAR, TAG), advanced manufacturing resources (additive manufacturing and machine shops), and engineering services (cable assembly, calibration, and more). We collaborate extensively with Sandia New Mexico's Experimental Mechanics and Dynamics Group 1520 to deliver unified, multi-site expertise and to provide sponsors seamless access to the Labs cross center environmental and mechanical test ecosystem.
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.
Security ClearancePosition 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.
