Early Career R&D S&E Electrical Engineer - Surety System Engineer, Onsite

Sandia National Laboratories; Albuquerque (NM); On-site; USD 98,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible work arrangements

Generous vacation and benefits

Relocation assistance

Job summary

Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque seeks an R&D Electrical/Electronics Engineer to join our Surety System Engineering team, focusing on Category 1 equipment assurance for DoD programs. The role involves circuit analysis, failure mode determination, testing prototypes, safety analyses, and interfacing with national labs and external partners.

Travel between facilities is required, with at least 80% on-site work at the Pantex facility.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a relevant discipline or equivalent combination of education and engineering or scientific experience demonstrating ability to perform independent R&D.
• Ability to obtain and maintain DOE Q-level clearance.

Responsibilities

• Analyze electrical schematics, environmental specs, and system docs using Sandia NW drawing system.
• Perform Fault Tree and Failure analysis to identify failure modes in analog/digital designs.
• Develop testing approaches and configurations to meet requirements under varied environmental conditions.
• Understand component functionality across FPGA/ASIC/SoC to PCB subassemblies and software for safety verification.
• Develop qualification and safety plans to authorize high-consequence hardware and software products.
• Collaborate with design teams, test organizations, safety/surety engineering, and independent assessment to test Category 1 designs.
• Present at program technical reviews and nuclear explosive safety studies, focusing on risks and issues.
• Interface with Sandia colleagues and external labs/DoD/NNSA facilities.
• Lead R&D teams to transform unknown challenges into known risks to improve product safety and reliability.

Skills

Collaboration skills

Verbal and written communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in a relevant discipline

Tools

MATLAB

Creo

Spice

PDMLink

PRIME

Job 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*

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 R&D Electrical/Electronics Engineer to join our dynamic team in a Surety System Engineering role with special emphasis on Category 1 Electrical Equipment Assurance. Our department provides system and software surety, with this position specifically focusing on Category 1 Acceptance Testers, Use Control Systems, and T-gear for the DoD.

This position requires performing multiple engineering functions, from deep dive circuit analysis and failure mode determination, to testing actual prototypes, performing software safety analyses, qualifying Category 1 equipment, interfacing with Independent Assessment, and presenting to the NESSG. This role also involves engaging and collaborating regularly with personnel across multiple Sandia organizations, as well as with Los Alamos National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Pantex production facility, and Department of Defense (DOD) organizations.

Additional duties may include software surety for weapons and weapons-related product. This Surety Engineer would provide R&D contributions throughout the entire product realization lifecycle including monitoring every phase of the development process to ensure software product design, development, and verification activities delivers an assured software product that meets its requirements safely and reliably. The Surety Engineer applies engineering principles across a wide range of projects including components, subsystems, and systems. Projects span across all phases of the product realization lifecycle from conceptual design and development to production and maintenance/retirement.

On any given day you may be called on to:

• Analyze and interpret electrical schematics, environmental specifications, and system level documentation using the Sandia NW drawing and authorization system.
• Perform Fault Tree and Failure analysis at the system, subsystem, component, and ancillary equipment level to identify failure modes in analog and digital circuit designs.
• Develop testing approaches and test configurations to ensure that designs effectively meet requirements in a safe manner across a wide range of environmental conditions.
• Understand component functionality in light of its parent product use, from FPGA/ASIC/SoC through PWB/PWAs, subassemblies, systems, and software to effectively verify functionality and safety of those products in normal and abnormal environments.
• Develop qualification and safety plans to ensure successful authorization of high-consequence hardware and software products.
• Partner with component/system design teams, test organizations, safety and surety engineering, and independent assessment to devise and execute analysis and testing of Category 1 designs.
• Present at program technical reviews and nuclear explosive safety studies ¿ specifically regarding failure modes, risks, and issues identified.
• Interface with colleagues within Sandia and externally at LANL, LLNL, Pantex, Kansas City, and the NNSA.
• Interface with the Nuclear Explosive Safety Study Group (NESSG).
• Work independently and within teams to coordinate and execute large scale Category 1 design projects.
• Apply technical judgement and software engineering principles to recognize problems, develop requirements, monitor and support design/development methods, and deliver qualified, accepted digital product.
• Lead R&D teams in identifying and transforming unknown technical challenges into known technical risks to ensure and improve the safety, security, and reliability of the product.

Occasional travel between Albuquerque and production facilities is required. Due to the nature of the work, at least 80% on-site work at the Pantex facility is required for this position.

Salary Range

$97,500 - $190,200

• 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, 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 Q-level clearance

Qualifications We Desire

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

• Graduate degree in Electrical Engineering or a highly related field where an independent research project was a graduation requirement (e.g., independent project, thesis, or dissertation).
• Ability to work independently and collaborate well in a multidisciplinary team of designers and test engineers.
• Outstanding verbal and written skills, including the ability to develop and present briefings that are clear and compelling.

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

• Experience with design, development, and delivery of high-consequence Category 1 NW products or equipment, such as acceptance testers, use control equipment or T-gear for military or aerospace applications.
• Software development and verification using Unified Modeling Language (UML)
• Software for high-consequence applications, including formal software safety analysis, software verification and qualification.
• Modeling and simulation of analog and digital hardware products.
• Strong collaboration and interpersonal skills, including proven abilities in effective negotiation, delegation, and conflict resolution in diverse team environments
• Ability to integrate ideas and work effectively across diverse technical organizations within and external to Sandia.
• Ability to balance multiple, sometimes conflicting, priorities.
• Familiarity with MATLAB, Creo, Spice, PDMLink, and PRIME.
• Familiarity with development of safety-related test plans for components, systems, or ancillary equipment.

About Our Team

The Surety Engineering group (2920) is a center of excellence for research and development (R&D) Technical Quality at Sandia National Laboratories. With multidisciplinary engineers at numerous sites, 2920 provides R&D hardware and software quality and systems engineering expertise throughout the entire product realization lifecycle, as well as trains fellow scientists and engineers in defect prevention strategies and graded approaches to product qualification. We deliver strong technical solutions that increase customer confidence against loss, damage, and errors by minimizing a product¿s risk through the prevention, early detection, and mitigation of defects. Our engineers play an important role in R&D project teams responsible for realizing high-consequence products, providing customized engineering support that ensures the appropriate qualification and testing evidence meets design requirements in a predictable, timely, and consistent manner.

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

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.