Cleared Senior/Principal R&D Mechanical Engineer - W87-0/Sentinel Integration, Onsite

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

We are seeking an experienced R&D Mechanical Engineer to join our multidisciplinary teams performing critical work to maintain a safe and reliable national defense while advancing warhead deployment of the land-based leg of the nuclear deterrent triad!

Our people are designing and building a suite of flight test vehicles to enable W87-0 integration on the Air Force's Sentinel missile. This is a highly collaborative work environment where successful candidates will be involved in design maturation, hardware assembly, and qualification testing. If you're looking to be part of a dynamic, hardworking team, this may be the position for you!

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

• Develop detailed understanding of customer requirements and ensure maturation of requirements for specific systems aspects or components
• Collaborate with system engineers and component engineers, and provide technical guidance on critical design elements
• Define, design, analyze, and review mechanical system and subsystem assemblies, drawings, models, etc.
• Team with experts to plan, execute and analyze data from advanced experiments and modeling and simulation
• Maintain and update production documentation
• Perform technical analyses and trade studies to inform risk-based decisions
• Plan and execute testing for environmental, function, and safety qualification
• Integrate and test subassemblies
• Develop systems level understanding of collected data and support anomaly resolution
• Present to diverse audiences at technical design reviews and programmatic meetings
• Represent Sandia on internal and external multi-organizational project teams

The position requires an ability to travel up to 25% to support the mission.

Due to the nature of the work, the selected applicant must be able to work onsite 100% of the time at the Livermore, CA facility.

Applicants on this requisition may be interviewed by multiple organizations at Sandia National Laboratories.

Salary Range

$139,900 - $280,600

*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.

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.
• Active DOE Q or DoD TS security 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).
• Strong verbal and written communication skills; ability to work effectively in multidisciplinary teams.
• Experience with mechanical engineering and product realization in the NNSA complex.

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

• Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering or in a related field plus 8 years of relevant experience or Master's Degree in Mechanical Engineering or in a related field plus 4 or more years of relevant experience.
• Experience with flight test vehicle design, test and production.
• Demonstrated team experience: effective leadership, delegation, teamwork, negotiation, conflict resolution.
• Knowledge and expertise in one or more of the following areas: computer aided design, structural dynamics, vibration characterization, structural analysis, heat transfer analysis, laboratory measurement techniques and diagnostics, computational simulation and modeling, integration of subsystems, fabrication of prototypes, and/or performing qualification tests.

About Our Team

The W87-0 Sentinel System Integration team's mission is to certify the W87-0 warhead for first flight on the Air Force's Sentinel missile and develop the new Joint Test Assembly for surveillance. Activities include designing and assembling developmental flight test vehicles to gather critical environmental and warhead qualification data from Sentinel test flights, as well as developing a Joint Test Assembly (JTA) to deliver W87-0 Sentinel surveillance data.

Our diverse team of engineers and technical professionals brings expertise across systems, electrical, mechanical, software, and qualification engineering, ensuring comprehensive solutions to complex challenges. Collaborating with mission partners across a range of security boundaries, we are committed to advancing the nation's nuclear deterrent with precision, innovation, and excellence.

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.

Security Clearance

Position requires a Department of Energy (DOE) Q security clearance to start, or equivalent active security clearance with another U.S. government agency (e.g., DOD). Sandia is required by DOE directive 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 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.