What Your Job Will Be LikeWe are currently seeking a skilled R&D Systems & Engineering professional to join our team. In this role, you will play a critical part in designing, operating, and sustaining the core infrastructure that supports MESA's advanced research computing environment.
We are currently seeking a skilled R&D Systems & Engineering professional to join our team. In this role, you will play a critical part in designing, operating, and sustaining the core infrastructure that supports MESA's advanced research computing environment.
On any given day, you may be called on to:
- Lead the design, reliability, and lifecycle management of Windows-primary infrastructure that enables MESA, with supporting Linux services where needed.
- Engineer and operate the Nutanix platform supporting research computing services, including capacity planning, upgrades, performance tuning, and advanced troubleshooting.
- Provide senior/principal-level troubleshooting and root-cause analysis across compute, virtualization, storage, networking, and application/service layers; drive corrective actions that measurably improve stability and performance.
- Engineer and sustain core research platform services (e.g., databases, license services, and other shared services) and coordinate with developers and vendors to resolve complex issues.
- Operate in alignment with Sandia security requirements, partnering with security stakeholders to implement hardening, auditing/logging, vulnerability remediation coordination, and controlled change practices.
- Own operational health through monitoring and observability, including use of Nagios (or equivalent), and continuously improve alert quality, runbooks, and response practices.
- Administer firewall policy supporting segmented/enclave environments, including rule lifecycle management and troubleshooting, while coordinating changes through required network/cyber processes.
- Produce and maintain excellent technical documentation (architecture/network diagrams, SOPs/runbooks, and change/decision records) to support reliable operations and audits.
* The selected applicant can work a combination of onsite and offsite work. The selected applicant must live within a reasonable distance for commuting to the assigned work location when necessary.
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 a DOE Q Clearance.
Qualifications We DesireThe 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:
- Significant experience engineering and operating Windows Server-based infrastructure in production environments (design, administration, troubleshooting, lifecycle operations).
- Working proficiency supporting Linux systems in production, including scripting/automation and troubleshooting in mixed OS environments.
- Experience with virtualization/HCI platforms, ideally Nutanix, including upgrades, capacity planning, and performance troubleshooting.
- Experience supporting infrastructure in secure or regulated environments requiring least privilege, controlled change, and auditability.
- Scripting/automation skills (e.g., PowerShell plus Python/Bash) and disciplined engineering practices (Git, documentation, peer review)
- Ability to create and maintain high-quality documentation (architecture and network diagrams, enclave operating procedures, firewall rule justifications, monitoring standards, and incident/runbook content) to support reliable operations and audits.
- Windows enterprise services: Active Directory, Group Policy, DNS/DHCP, PKI/certificate services, PowerShell DSC, WSUS/SCCM/MECM (or comparable patching/config tooling).
- Monitoring/observability: experience implementing or operating Nagios (plugin development/tuning, alert routing, reducing noise/false positives), and integrating monitoring with incident response/runbooks.
- Partner with networking/cyber stakeholders (or directly administer, as authorized) to implement and maintain firewall policies supporting enclave operations, including rule lifecycle management, change control, documentation, and troubleshooting connectivity/performance issues across segmented networks.
- Security/compliance engineering: STIG/CIS hardening, vulnerability remediation workflows, centralized logging (Splunk/ELK), PAM/MFA, enclave boundary/data transfer patterns.
About Our TeamSandia National Laboratories Microsystems and Engineering Sciences Applications (MESA) complex provides outstanding processing capability in semiconductor microfabrication. Department 05234, Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) supports the infrastructure, programming, security and computing needs of MESA.
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.
