Sandia National Laboratories

Member/Senior Test Operations Engineer, Experimental Operations - Onsite

Sandia National Laboratories$102K — $199K *
Aerospace & Defense
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's or Master's degree in relevant field, or equivalent education/experience
  • Knowledge of project management practices for technical work
  • Requires a Department of Energy (DOE) Q security clearance or equivalent
  • Experience in gathering and analyzing data
  • Understanding of technical tasks for identifying time requirements and dependencies
  • Experience in developing risk mitigation strategies
  • Ability to operate in dynamic environments with evolving requirements

Responsibilities

  • Develop project plans and carry out project management
  • Prepare procedures for test, maintenance, and operations
  • Review and help prepare safety basis documentation
  • Coordinate operational phases of tests
  • Plan labor and testing schedules including cost estimation
  • Create documentation for test operations
  • Support the implementation of new efforts around DataSEA

Benefits

  • Relocation assistance for qualified candidates
  • Opportunity to work on innovative experiments related to national security
  • Work in a collaborative team environment with diverse skills
  • Access to unique facilities for experimental research
  • Potential for professional growth and cross-training within departments
Full Job Description
What Your Job Will Be Like

VQSEC (Validation and Qualification Sciences Experimental Complex) is seeking an experienced Test Operations Engineer.

The successful candidate will provide operational support to Group 01530. You will work with a dynamic team of researchers, engineers, technologists, and trades people to help support execution of unique experiments. These experiments will play a key role in solving challenging national security problems relating to a wide range of applications by providing insight into physical phenomena, data for validating computer models, and qualifying performance of complex systems. This position will play a key role in operations at the VQSEC facilities in Sandia's Tech Area III.

On any given day, you may be called on to:
  • Develops project plans and carries out project management.
  • Prepares test, maintenance, operations, and administrative procedures to support all operations at hazardous facilities.
  • Reviews and helps prepare the safety basis documentation that enables hazardous facilities to operate.
  • Coordinates operational, functional, and performance phases of tests.
  • Plans the labor and scheduling for testing to include cost estimation.
  • Prepares or supports the creation of documentation for test operations to include WP&C and other project execution documents.
  • Plans and schedules engineering projects for internal and external customers, coordinating as required with work performed in other internal and external organizations.
  • Supports new efforts around DataSEA and capability documentation and tracking.
  • Develops and delivers technical progress reports, proposals, requirements documentation, and presentations.
  • Manage and execute operational budgets.

ONSITE WORK:
Due to the nature of the work, the selected applicant will be required to work onsite. Relocation will be provided for those that qualify.

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

  • Bachelor's or Master's degree in relevant field, or equivalent combination of relevant education and/or experience.
  • Knowledge of project management practices for technical work, such as developing project plans, work breakdown structures, and work packages; managing to scope, schedule, budget, and technical baselines; or documenting baseline reports and change control actions.
  • 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).


Qualifications We Desire

  • Experience in gathering and analyzing data; facilitating decision making and problem solving.
  • Understand technical tasks sufficiently to identify time requirements, task dependencies, and risks and opportunities.
  • Experience in developing risk mitigation strategies and implementing them in accordance with corporate engineered safety policies/practices.
  • Experience operating in ambiguous, interrupt-driven, and dynamic environment with evolving requirements, expectations, and organizational needs.
  • Experience with SNL Project Management tools and projects to include budgets.
  • Ability to cross train and support other areas in Group 01530 such as Asset Management, Facility Work Plans, Work Planning and Controls, Programmatic equipment management, SDR coverage for support contractors, Moderate Hazard operations and other special duties as assigned.


About Our Team

The Experimental Operations Department 1533 provides an array of capabilities and services for Sandia's Validation and Qualification Sciences Experimental Complex (VQSEC) which enables it to accomplish its mission as the center of excellence for environmental testing within the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration Nuclear Weapons Complex.

These full life cycle capabilities include:
  • Engineering design and fabrication of test hardware and fixtures
  • Structural and thermal analysis supporting experimental design
  • Hazard and system safety analysis
  • Execution of tests and experiments in controlled mechanical, energetic, and thermal environments, including set up and dismantlement
  • Operation and maintenance of one-of-a-kind facilities including the Aerial Cable Facility, Burn Site, Rocket Sled Track Complex, and Thermal Test Complex

Department personnel collaborate with test directors, test and safety engineers, and instrumentation, photometric, and data acquisition personnel to ensure the infrastructure and facilities necessary to conduct subsystem and system level tests and experiments in normal and abnormal environments are available.
  • Additionally, the department provides mission assurance in the form of:
  • Risk assessments and failure mode analysis;
  • Design engineering processes support
  • Leadership in the integration of standard business practices across the VQSEC
  • Administration of the ES&H program for the Engineering Sciences Center (1500)
  • Management of the VQSEC test support contractors and training program; and configuration management of VQSEC moderate hazard facilities.


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.

About Sandia National Laboratories

The Sandia National Laboratories is one of three National Nuclear Security Administration research and development laboratories in the United States, managed and operated privately by the National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia. Their primary mission is to develop, engineer, and test the non-nuclear components of nuclear weapons and high technology. Headquartered on Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico, it also has a campus in Livermore, California, next to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and a test facility in Waimea, Kauai, Hawaii. It is Sandia's mission to maintain the reliability and surety of nuclear weapon systems, conduct research and development in arms control and nonproliferation technologies, and investigate methods for the disposal of the United States' nuclear weapons program's hazardous waste. Other missions include research and development in energy and environmental programs, as well as the surety of critical national infrastructures. In addition, Sandia is home to a wide variety of research including computational biology, mathematics, materials science, alternative energy, psychology, MEMS, and cognitive science initiatives. Sandia formerly hosted ASCI Red, one of the world's fastest supercomputers until its decommission in 2006, and now hosts ASCI Red Storm, originally known as Thor's Hammer. Sandia is also home to the Z Machine. The Z Machine is the largest X-ray generator in the world and is designed to test materials in conditions of extreme temperature and pressure. It is operated by Sandia National Laboratories to gather data to aid in computer modeling of nuclear weapons. In December 2016, it was announced that National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia, under the direction of Honeywell International, would take over the management of Sandia National Laboratories starting on May 1, 2017. Educational opportunities are conducted in collaboration with university students through several programs, including the Securing Top Academic Research & Talent at Historically Black Colleges and Universities Program and the Sandia University Partnerships Network.
Learn more about Sandia National Laboratories
Industry
Founded
1948

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