What Your Job Will Be Like

As an Explosive Component Production Agency (PA) PRT Lead in Department 7452, you will partner with the Design Agency (DA) in Department 7453 to drive the W87-1 Detonator into Full Scale Production. You'll have the opportunity to work alongside the current DA PRT as the product completes its PPI and QE builds, then fully assume responsibilities and achieve the First Production Unit (FPU) milestone and enter Full Scale Mark Quality (MQ) production. You will lead a cross-functional Production PRT integrating Product, design, Manufacturing, Surety, and Materials engineers, along with Business support and EMSAT's Process Engineering and Technologist experts¿ to deliver Mark Quality hardware to the Nuclear Weapons Stockpile and directly impact the mission. This role provides an excellent opportunity to gain experience as a PRT lead alongside an existing strong DA PRT, successfully transition a new product into Production, and pave the way for future Detonator Production, including the W93.

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

• Integrate with and learn from the DA PRT capturing design intent, process flows, and lessons learned then transition into PRT leadership as the W87-1 moves into production.
• Support PPI and QE builds as well as Qualification to achieve QER (Qualification Evaluation Release) and FPU
• Own the PA PRT's end-to-end scope and deliverables negotiate requirements and commitments, establish cost and schedule baselines, and lead risk and opportunity management.
• Lead PRT meetings: create agendas, facilitate meetings, drive consensus on roles and ground rules, record decisions and action items, and maintain the project records
• Manage cost, schedule, and resources to deliver subsequent War Reserve (WR) Builds: maintain and status a resource-loaded schedule, track expenditures, partner with production team and PPVS, and negotiate with internal and external stakeholders.
• Prove in production processes in tight coordination with Department 7457's Process Engineering and Technologist teams.
• Apply data-driven problem solving: design experiments, analyze production metrics, perform root-cause and failure analyses, and implement corrective and preventive actions to optimize yield, throughput, and cost.
• Drive lean manufacturing and statistical process control initiatives, leveraging synergies across detonator product lines to elevate quality and efficiency.
• Interface with customers and stakeholders, using Sandia systems (Oracle, SharePoint, Teams, P6, etc.)'to align on technical performance, schedule, and deliverables.
• Lead and participate in Program Reviews, Design Reviews, and TRL/MRL evaluations; capture lessons learned and conduct post-mortems to continually refine Sandia's explosive Product Realization Process.
• Participate actively in efficient Manufacturing Feasibility and Design (MFD) and Design for Manufacturability (DFM) processes to identify potential production challenges early, support design optimization, and facilitate seamless transition from prototype to scalable manufacturing.
• Manage product definition artifacts graphic drawings, specifications (PS, SS), and Engineering Authorizations (CER, QER, FCO)¿and maintain configuration in PRIME/eDPM
• Mentor and develop PRT members and foster high-performance teamwork

Occasional travel may be required.

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 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 Desire

The 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:

• PRT Experience: proven track record being a part of or supporting PRTs to deliver ND product
• Leadership & Program Execution: ability to coordinate multidisciplinary teams, facilitate meetings, negotiate scope and deliverables, and drive schedules, budgets/SOWs, and risk/change management from planning through delivery.
• Communication & Collaboration: clear, concise technical writing and presentations; active listening; consensus¿building; and skill in partnering with diverse stakeholders
• Analytical & Problem'Solving Skills: use of data analysis, root¿cause/failure¿mode techniques, lean methods, and statistical process control to optimize manufacturing performance and quality.
• Technical Product Realization Experience: hands-on involvement with physical components through their lifecycle¿prototyping and pilot builds, qualification testing and inspection, and delivery of production-quality hardware to specification.
• Documentation & Configuration Control: proficiency interpreting engineering drawings (including GD&T), authoring specifications, and managing configuration records in a system of record (e.g., IMS, eDPM).
• Tool Proficiency: experience with Sandia project systems such as SharePoint, Teams, Oracle, CFRC, P6, SPTS.
• Growth Mindset: eagerness to learn from experienced PRT Leads, adapt to new challenges, and help shape best¿in¿class product realization processes.
• Bonus: prior work with explosive or energetic components¿or other high'reliability product lines'to accelerate ramp¿up and technical understanding.

About Our Team

The Energetic Component Engineering-I department is responsible for design, development and external supplier production of energetic components and materials. The department activities primarily focus on low-power energetic devices such as igniters and actuators that use explosive or pyrotechnics materials as well as propellant-driven rocket motors. Design cycles and options are minimized through informed use of computational and simulation techniques making use of in-house analysts and corporate computational resources. In addition, the department maintains state-of-the-art laboratories and diagnostics for both destructive and non-destructive characterization testing of energetic components.

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.