Description

About Sandia

Sandia National Laboratories is the nation's premier science and engineering lab for national security and technology innovation, with teams of specialists focused on cutting-edge work in a broad array of areas. Some of the main reasons we love our jobs:

• Challenging work with amazing impact that contributes to security, peace, and freedom worldwide
• Extraordinary co-workers
• Some of the best tools, equipment, and research facilities in the world
• Career advancement and enrichment opportunities
• Flexible work arrangements for many positions include 9/80 (work 80 hours every two weeks, with every other Friday off) and 4/10 (work 4 ten-hour days each week) compressed workweeks, part-time work, and telecommuting (a mix of onsite work and working from home)
• Generous vacation, strong medical and other benefits, competitive 401k, learning opportunities, relocation assistance and amenities aimed at creating a solid work/life balance*

World-changing technologies. Life-changing careers. Learn more about Sandia at: http://www.sandia.gov

*These benefits vary by job classification.

What Your Job Will Be Like

Join our dynamic team as an R&D Mechanical Engineer, where your expertise will play a crucial role in shaping the future of nuclear safety and security. In this role, you will be at the forefront of innovative engineering solutions, collaborating with a talented group of professionals dedicated to ensuring the reliability and safety of critical systems.

You will have the opportunity to provide consultation to appropriately disposition hardware in production, ensuring compliance with nuclear safety standards, and develop requirements, influence the design of experiments, and guide modeling and analysis to ensure that designs perform as intended throughout the weapon's lifecycle.

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

• Use engineering analysis tools to evaluate safety margins and support the development and qualification of components or systems to assure nuclear safety.
• Analyze the capability of components and systems to meet nuclear safety requirements, particularly their ability to withstand stress from conditions such as temperature, load, motion, shock, vibration, pressure, and humidity.
• Engage with engineering drawings and CAD tools to support design and analysis efforts CREO/SolidWorks and PDMLink to design, model, and lead the product.
• Develop expertise in the design and functionality of safety-critical components and systems, including mechanisms such as strong links, LACs, and firing subsystems, to fully evaluate component performance across normal and abnormal environments.
• Utilize your expertise to identify safety-critical features and ensure that designs meet assured safety standards.
• Write nuclear safety specifications and prepare documentation for requirements outlined in various Realized Product Procedures (RPPs), which are essential for the weapon realization life cycle.
• Partner with subject matter experts to create the technical basis from analyses and test data that demonstrates safety-critical components are safe for their intended environments.
• Work closely with the nuclear safety system lead, design and production teams, and other key partners across the Nuclear Security Enterprise (e.g., Kansas City NSC, Pantex) to develop solutions for a wide range of technical challenges.
• Help develop nuclear safety fault trees for components and systems, applying research to the design, development, analysis, and testing of mechanical, electromechanical, and piezoelectric systems.

Due to the nature of the work, the selected applicant must be able to work onsite. This position will require travel on occasion.

Salary Range

$114,000 - $227,500

*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 Desire

The ideal R&D 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:

• Proven ability to navigate ambiguous problems and situations, demonstrating resourcefulness in solving deeply complex technical challenges.
• Experience in weapon design, testing, simulation, and/or production, particularly with respect to nuclear safety, along with familiarity with nuclear weapon design and development processes.
• Knowledge of hazard, safety, and failure analysis techniques, such as fault tree analysis and failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA).
• Strong communication skills, with experience in high-visibility roles and delivering technical presentations to diverse audiences.
• Excellent planning and prioritization skills, with a demonstrated desire to continuously learn and improve.
• Proficiency in Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T), along with the ability to understand and interpret technical drawings and wiring schematics.
• Ability to understand technical drawings and wiring schematics and how to interpret them.

About Our Team

The Nuclear Safety Assurance II Department is a customer-focused organization that provides engineering and system analysis expertise to ensure a safe deterrent throughout the entire weapon lifecycle. Engineers develop a deep knowledge in both component and system function to support thorough evaluation and mitigation of potential failure modes. We operate across multiple engineering fields (mechanical, electrical, computer, materials and systems engineering) with opportunities to develop cross-disciplinary capability.

We support a variety of stockpile systems and are part of the product teams during development, design and production, as well as advanced concept and exploratory efforts. Our engineers use their extensive component and system knowledge, as well as experimental data and modeling, to ensure products function as intended with assured safety. Members of our department learn the function of multiple components, how those components integrate within the system and apply surety principles and processes to ensure a safe, secure, reliable, and effective U.S. nuclear deterrent.

Posting Duration

This posting will be open for application submissions for a minimum of seven (7) calendar days, including the 'posting date'. Sandia reserves the right to extend the posting date at any time.

Security Clearance

Sandia is required by DOE to conduct a pre-employment drug test and background review that includes checks of personal references, credit, law enforcement records, and employment/education verifications. Applicants for employment need to be able to obtain and maintain a DOE Q-level security clearance, which requires U.S. citizenship. If you hold more than one citizenship (i.e., of the U.S. and another country), your ability to obtain a security clearance may be impacted.

Applicants offered employment with Sandia are subject to a federal background investigation to meet the requirements for access to classified information or matter if the duties of the position require a DOE security clearance. Substance abuse or illegal drug use, falsification of information, criminal activity, serious misconduct or other indicators of untrustworthiness can cause a clearance to be denied or terminated by DOE, resulting in the inability to perform the duties assigned and subsequent termination of employment.

EEO

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, or veteran status and any other protected class under state or federal law.

NNSA Requirements for MedPEDs

If you have a Medical Portable Electronic Device (MedPED), such as a pacemaker, defibrillator, drug-releasing pump, hearing aids, or diagnostic equipment and other equipment for measuring, monitoring, and recording body functions such as heartbeat and brain waves, if employed by Sandia National Laboratories you may be required to comply with NNSA security requirements for MedPEDs.

If you have a MedPED and you are selected for an on-site interview at Sandia National Laboratories, there may be additional steps necessary to ensure compliance with NNSA security requirements prior to the interview date.