Sandia National Laboratories

Strategic Program Planning Lead - Trade Security, Onsite

Sandia National Laboratories$102K — $199K *
Aerospace & Defense
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree in business, communication, science, engineering or related field plus 5 years of relevant experience or equivalent.
  • Experience in strategic and program planning with executive-level personnel, including directors and above.
  • Experience interfacing with high-level external sponsors and stakeholders.
  • Experience developing technology roadmaps and long-term mission and capability investments.
  • Ability to obtain and maintain a DOE Q security clearance and SCI.

Responsibilities

  • Plan and direct multiyear strategic and technical projects for programmatic growth, coordinating with SMEs and stakeholders.
  • Define program objectives, scope, and investment profiles for the program's expansion.
  • Develop strategic management approaches and long-range roadmaps for disciplined execution.
  • Serve as a trusted advisor to executive leadership, preparing strategic briefs and high-level narratives.
  • Negotiate deliverables with sponsors, organizing multidisciplinary teams to align resources with mission objectives.
  • Document and track system and subsystem performance and assurance requirements.
  • Conduct project postmortems to apply lessons learned for continuous improvement.

Benefits

  • Work in a stimulating and impactful environment focused on national security.
  • Collaborate with senior leadership and stakeholders in high-level decision-making processes.
  • Engage in multidisciplinary teamwork, enhancing professional development and skills.
  • Opportunity to influence the expansion of a critical trade security program.
Full Job Description
What Your Job Will Be Like

Sandia National Laboratories seeks a Strategic Program Planning Professional to support the growth and execution of a developing trade security program. This role blends strategic planning, systems engineering rigor, project execution, and executive advisory functions to guide the program's expansion from an emerging program to an enduring large-scale national capability.

The successful candidate will partner directly with senior leadership to define mission and program requirements; develop and operationalize long-range strategies; establish integrated strategic management approaches; design and track multiyear project plans; and ensure that all technical activities, infrastructure investments, and lines of effort progress cohesively.

This position also incorporates structured system engineering practices, including operational tracking, risk management, logistics planning, and lifecycle oversight. The role combines strategic vision with disciplined execution, ensuring that the program's capabilities, infrastructure, and partnerships develop in a deliberate, integrated, and mission aligned manner.

Candidate will successful execute the following:
  • Plans and directs multiyear strategic and technical projects supporting programmatic growth, coordinating across microelectronics SMEs, policy analysts, and US Government stakeholders.
  • Defines program objectives, scope, investment profiles, and deliverables needed for the program's transition into an expanded, enduring program.
  • Develops strategic management operating approaches, long-range roadmaps, and disciplined execution frameworks.
  • Serves as a trusted advisor to executive leadership, preparing strategic briefs, congressional facing materials, and high-level program narratives.
  • Negotiates deliverables with sponsors and partners; organizes multidisciplinary teams and aligns resources to support mission objectives.
  • Develops progress reports, strategic proposals, requirement documents, and senior level presentations.
  • Documents and tracks system level and subsystem level performance and assurance requirements.
  • Performs risk identification, prioritization, and mitigation; develops contingency plans and ensures risks are managed across program components.
  • Evaluates competing characteristics of system elements and determines the most effective integrated system solution.
  • Interfaces with sponsors, technical teams, and implementation partners to ensure performance expectations are understood and met.
  • Develops logistics and deployment plans supporting program capability rollout, facility buildout, equipment procurement, and workforce training.
  • Conducts project postmortems and incorporates lessons learned into continuous improvement of strategic and systems engineering processes.
  • Conducts technical and program reviews to communicate cost, schedule, risk, and performance status.
  • Recommends addition, expansion, or discontinuance of projects based on mission alignment and organizational value.

Due to the nature of this work the selected applicant must 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

  • Bachelor's degree in business, communication, science, engineering or related field plus 5 years of relevant experience; or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
  • Experience in strategic and program planning with executive-level personnel, including directors and above.
  • Experience interfacing with high-level external sponsors and stakeholders.
  • Experience developing technology roadmaps and long-term mission and capability investments.
  • Ability to obtain and maintain a DOE Q security clearance and SCI.


Qualifications We Desire

  • Experience in microelectronics, trade security, or global security mission spaces.
  • Experience supporting expansion of large technical programs or laboratories.


About Our Team

The International Trade Security Department aims to maintain and advance U.S. strategic advantage in critical technology areas by providing trade security and counterproliferation expertise in strategic trade controls, sanctions enforcement, and international cooperation.

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
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Founded
1948

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