What Your Job Will Be Like

We are seeking an R&D Engineer with nuclear weapons experience to assess both conceptual and realized design details in support of nuclear safety principles. In this position, you will analyze component responses under normal and abnormal environments, focusing on electrical components and systems, while collaborating across multiple engineering disciplines to ensure the highest standards of safety and reliability.

You will partner with Assessment Teams, Significant Finding Investigation committees, and Red Teams, to perform comprehensive nuclear safety analyses that support stockpile sustainment and development activities, such as the State of the Stockpile and Annual Assessments. Your ability to communicate assessment findings effectively will be vital, as you prepare technical reports and presentations for audiences ranging from staff engineers to executive leadership, contributing to risk-informed decision making.

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

• Independently review detailed technical documents and identify salient issues related to electrical design and testing in the context of nuclear safety.
• Engage with weapon system, component design, assurance, and other surety organizations, with a focus on electrical components and systems.
• Maintain awareness of issues related to design, development, production, maintenance, and dismantlement of weapon systems, particularly in the electrical domain.
• Assess tests, materials, and components for adequacy against requirements, emphasizing electrical testing and analysis.
• Evaluate procedures, product specifications, and standards for compliance with nuclear safety requirements.
• Lead independent safety assessments of nuclear weapon systems and components, analyzing responses under thermal, shock, vibration, and EMI/EMC environments, utilizing your expertise in electrical circuit design and analysis.
• Define problem scope and requirements, develop technical approaches, and apply quantitative and qualitative methods (e.g., fault-tree analysis, failure-modes-and-effects analysis, margin quantification).
• Design experiments or simulations to evaluate safety-critical subsystems, collaborating with system and test engineers to verify requirements, particularly in electrical testing.
• Develop analytical frameworks and digital models to support risk-informed decisions leveraging your experience in system-of-systems thinking for electrical integration.
• Mentor junior engineers in safety-analysis techniques and review their deliverables for technical accuracy.
• Communicate findings in technical reports and executive-level briefs that directly inform leadership decisions and stockpile assessment reviews.

Due to the nature of the work, the selected applicant will be required 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.
• Ability to obtain and maintain DOE Q-Level clearance

Qualifications We Desire

The ideal R&D S&E 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 National Laboratory (LLNL), Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), 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:

• Graduate degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering and other related STEM fields.
• Experience working on engineering design, qualification, production, or related modeling/simulation projects.
• Fundamental knowledge of the principals applied in electrical engineering.
• Proficiency in safety-analysis methods: Strong understanding of fault-tree analysis, failure-modes-and-effects analysis, and margin quantification, with a background in reliability engineering or advanced margin-quantification frameworks.
• Experience with systems engineering: Demonstrated experience in systems engineering for nuclear or high-consequence weapons systems, including familiarity with the SNL nuclear weapon product realization process and nuclear weapon safety standards and related DOE orders.
• System-of-systems thinking: Experience applying system-of-systems thinking to electrical integration, ensuring end-to-end functionality.
• Leadership and project management: Proven ability to lead complex technical projects on schedule, mentor team members, and deliver high-quality products. Demonstrated leadership experience as a project manager, technical lead, principal investigator, or similar role.
• Understanding of nuclear surety: Knowledge of nuclear surety and reliability requirements for electrical systems.
• Collaborative problem-solving: Proven ability to work on challenging engineering problems in a fast-paced collaborative team environment that requires extensive cross-organizational and multi-disciplinary teaming.

About Our Team

The Nuclear Safety Assessment Department is responsible for providing independent assessments for nuclear weapon safety activities at the Laboratories. This includes the assessment of current and future safety components, subsystems, systems, ancillary equipment, testers, training, and operations in terms of modern requirements and safety standards. Also included is the training and managing of the Sandia members of the NNSA Nuclear Explosive Safety Study team and the Sandia technical experts on the DoD Nuclear Weapon Safety Study Group. This department is the liaison to NNSA for existing nuclear explosive safety orders, standards, and implementation plans. The Department also provides nuclear safety experts to the Accident Response Group.

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.