What Your Job Will Be LikeJoin our team as an early career Mechanical Engineer to play a vital role supporting the full lifecycle of safety mechanisms including development, production, and assessment of ongoing lifetime performance. These mechanisms play a critical role in assuring the safety and security of the nation's nuclear deterrent in a wide range of environments including severe accident scenarios. In this role, you will develop in-depth knowledge of the design and functionality of safety-critical components and/or software. You will work on mechanisms comprised of custom designed and built piece parts with complex mechanical interactions.
On any given day, you would be expected to:
- Develop and down-select design concepts
- Analyze designs to determine suitability of concepts and changes
- Lead generation and revisions of product design definition drawings using GD&T
- Develop and refine new designs through iterative design-build-test cycles
- Lead the assembly of prototype and developmental hardware
- Negotiate product manufacturing requirements with the production agency
- Review inspection results to verify product compliance with requirements
- Disposition product non-conformances based on design analysis and subject matter expert review
- Develop and execute test plans to validate designs
- Create test specifications and procedures for product acceptance and surveillance
- Develop and execute qualification plans to ensure product quality and compliance with requirements throughout production
- Generate and modify models to inform product design and support production
- Investigate anomalies and resolve through analysis and test-based methods
- Evaluate data from component and systems level tests to assess the ability of devices to continue to meet requirements in fielded systems
- Present designs, tests results, and findings to peers, customers, and management in formal and informal settings
- Document work in formal reports and memos
- Work and collaborate with multidisciplinary teams
Applicants on this requisition may be interviewed by multiple organizations at Sandia National Laboratories.
Due to the nature of the work, the selected applicant must be able to work onsite.
Salary Range$102,400 - $199,700
*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, 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.
- Ability to obtain and maintain a DOE Q clearance
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, thesis, or dissertation).
- Experience with mechanical engineering and product realization in the NNSA complex.
- 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:
- Knowledge of manufacturing processes associated with precision metal parts (ex. CNC machining, gaging, CMM based inspection)
- Basic proficiency with CAD Systems (e.g., Pro/E, Creo, or SolidWorks), as well as tolerance analysis methods
- Experience with mechanical analysis including the use of commercial FEA software for piece part and sub-assembly level analysis
- Familiarity with:
- Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing
- Materials characterization techniques
- Technical curiosity and an interest and aptitude for learning
- Active DOE Q security clearance
About Our TeamWe are an engineering group responsible for safety and security mechanisms for Nuclear Deterrence applications. We have responsibility for conceptual design, full-scale engineering development, product characterization, product qualification, component production support, and ongoing surveillance. Mechanisms for which we have design responsibility include unique signal strong links, environmental sensing devices, and weapon release detection switches. We operate across multiple engineering disciplines (mechanical, electrical, computer, materials and systems engineering) with opportunities to develop cross-disciplinary knowledge. Our engineers use their extensive component and system knowledge, as well as experimental data and modeling, to ensure products reliably function as intended with assured safety.
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.
