Early Career - R&D Electrical Engineer - Nuclear Safety Assurance, Onsite

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.

We are seeking a Nuclear Safety Assurance Engineer to play a vital role in assuring the safety of components, subassemblies, or systems throughout all phases of a product's lifecycle. In this role, the selected candidate will develop domain expertise in nuclear safety architecture for weapon systems and gain in-depth knowledge of the design and functionality of safety-critical components and/or software. You will provide guidance on nuclear safety principles and implementation into early development, test and integration, and manufacturing activities.

Additionally, you will guide the collection of evidence to support the claims related to nuclear safety assertions and produce the necessary documentation. As a Nuclear Safety Assurance Engineer, you will support R&D teams responsible for design, development, qualification and manufacturing of high-consequence products that contribute to our Nuclear Deterrent mission.

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

• Provide consultation to appropriately disposition hardware in production.
• Support the development and qualification of components or systems to assure nuclear safety, which may include supporting component-level design while also engaging in board-level design and Systems integration as needed.
• Develop requirements, influence the design of experiments, and guide modeling and analysis to ensure that designs perform as intended throughout the weapon's lifecycle.
• 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.
• Develop expertise in the design and functionality of safety-critical components and systems to fully evaluate the component performance across normal and abnormal electrical environments.
• Utilize your expertise to identify safety-critical features and ensure that designs meet assured safety standards.
• Partner with subject matter experts to create the technical basis from analyses and test data that demonstrates safety-critical components are safe to environments.

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

$99,400 - $193,600

*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.

• A bachelor's degree in a relevant discipline, or an equivalent combination of directly relevant education and engineering or scientific experience that demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and ability to perform independent research development.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a DOE Q clearance

The ideal R&D Electrical Engineer candidate for Sandia National Laboratories will in addition possess the following:

• Graduate degree in Computer Science/Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Information Systems, Computer Forensics, Mathematics or a directly related field where an independent research project was a graduation requirement (e.g., independent project, thesis, or dissertation).
• Experience in one or more of the following: reverse engineering, software vulnerability assessment, web application assessment, computer networking, computer architecture, compilers, or similar computer security topics.
• Proficiency in scripting or high-level programming.
• Familiarity with secure-system design principles and information assurance principles.
• Excellent communication skills and a demonstrated ability to develop technical ideas and results and present them in oral and written form in a concise manner.

Also, for this posting we are seeking individuals with the following experience:

• Electrical design, test, simulation, and/or production experience, particularly with respect to nuclear safety.
• Knowledge of nuclear weapon design and development processes.
• Experience with software and firmware relevant to electrical engineering tasks, including design, testing, and analysis.
• Understanding of hazard, safety, failure analysis (e.g., fault tree analysis, failure modes and effects analysis).
• Experience in the design, analysis, and production of electro-mechanical component or semiconductor design, analysis, and production.
• Commitment to continuous learning and improvement.
• Resourceful in addressing deeply complex technical problems.
• Experience with high visibility roles and technical presentations.

The Nuclear Safety Assurance I 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. The team supports a variety of stockpile systems and is 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.