Operations Specialist 2/3

Los Alamos National Laboratory; Los Alamos (NM); On-site; USD 80,000 - 143,000; Full time

Job summary

Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, NM, is seeking an Operations Specialist to join the UI-EST group, coordinating electric, steam, and turbine operations with disciplined safety and reliability. The role requires strong planning, readiness reviews, and cross-functional collaboration with maintenance, engineering, and customers.

Two levels are available: OPS 2 and OPS 3, with level determined by experience.

Qualifications

• Working knowledge of utility, power-generation, industrial plant, or similar high-hazard operations.
• Experience coordinating work across operations, maintenance, engineering, projects, work control, and customers.
• Ability to manage concurrent priorities, maintain status information, and support planning through execution.
• Ability to interpret procedures, drawings, and diagrams like one-line diagrams and P&IDs.
• Understanding of hazardous energy control and safety practices.

Responsibilities

• Coordinate planning, scheduling, communication, and status tracking of utilities operations and maintenance.
• Maintain integrated view of outages, constraints, and priorities; escalate conflicts.
• Facilitate outage planning meetings, readiness reviews, and post-work reviews with stakeholders.
• Support development of work packages, outage plans, and operating procedures.
• Track commitments, corrective actions, and performance measures through to closure.
• Support field readiness checks and incident response during abnormal events and outages.

Skills

Utility operations knowledge

Coordination & planning

Cross-functional collaboration

Operational problem-solving

Education

Associate's degree

Bachelor's degree

Job description

What You Will Do

This position will be filled at either the Operations Specialist 2/3 level, depending on the skills of the selected candidate. Additional job responsibilities outlined below will be assigned if the candidate is hired at the higher level.

The Utilities & Infrastructure (UI) Division is responsible for maintaining and operating all the Laboratory's utility systems, including electric, gas, sewer, steam, and water. In addition, UI maintains and manages the open space on site, including roads and grounds, and the Laboratory's Sustainability Program. Utilities & Infrastructure is seeking a dedicated and skilled Operations Specialist to join the Electric, Steam, and Turbine Operations (UI-EST) group. Reporting to the UI-EST Group Leader and working closely with Operations Managers, this role coordinates operational activities across UI-EST and connects operations with maintenance, engineering, work control, projects, facility representatives, and customers. The position supports safe, reliable, and timely execution of electric, steam, and turbine work while maintaining clear accountability for operating decisions.

Operations Specialist 2 ($80,400 - $127,900)

Key Responsibilities:

• Coordinate the planning, scheduling, communication, and status tracking of electric, steam, and turbine operations and maintenance activities.
• Maintain an integrated view of planned outages, operating constraints, work windows, customer impacts, and competing priorities; identify conflicts and elevate them for resolution.
• Facilitate outage planning meetings, readiness reviews, risk discussions, and post-work reviews with operations, maintenance, engineering, work control, project teams, facility representatives, and affected customers.
• Support preparation and review of work packages, outage plans, operating procedures, switching package inputs, integrated work documents, and hazardous energy control documentation.
• Track commitments, corrective actions, assessment findings, equipment issues, outage information, and operational performance measures through closure.
• Support field readiness checks and response coordination during emergent equipment conditions, utility interruptions, abnormal events, and recovery activities.

Operations Specialist 3 ($87,800 - $143,000)

In addition to what was outlined at the lower level, at this level the selected candidate will independently coordinate multiple complex or high-consequence activities across electric, steam, and turbine systems with limited direction. The candidate will identify operational, schedule, interface, and resource risks; develop mitigation options and corrective actions; lead cross-functional readiness reviews for major outages and system upgrades; and analyze operational performance to recommend process improvements. This level will also support resource forecasting and development of technical scope, schedules, and budget inputs for the UI-EST work portfolio, provide guidance to less-experienced staff, and participate in the UI Duty Officer or other on-call program when assigned.

What You Need

Minimum Job Requirements:

Knowledge & Expertise:

Working knowledge of utility, power-generation, industrial plant, or comparable high-hazard operations. Demonstrated ability to interpret technical procedures, drawings, one-line diagrams, piping and instrumentation diagrams, schematics, and work-control documents. Working knowledge of industrial hazards, safe work practices, operating configuration, and hazardous energy control.

Planning & Coordination:

Experience coordinating work across operations, maintenance, engineering, projects, work control, and customers. Demonstrated ability to manage concurrent priorities, maintain accurate status information, and support work from early planning through execution and closeout.

Problem Solving:

Demonstrated ability to evaluate operational and work-execution issues, identify risks and dependencies, develop sound recommendations, and elevate decisions at the appropriate time.

Relationship Management:

Demonstrated ability to communicate clearly, facilitate discussions among organizations with different responsibilities, and work independently while maintaining effective relationships with managers, operators, craft personnel, technical staff, and customers.

Additional Job Requirements for Level 3:

In addition to the requirements outlined above, qualification at the higher level requires:

Knowledge & Expertise:

Advanced knowledge of utility or industrial operations and the interfaces among operations, maintenance, engineering, work control, and project execution. Broad working knowledge of electric, steam, turbine, or power-generation systems, with the ability to integrate work across systems and disciplines.

Operational Coordination:

Demonstrated experience leading planning and readiness activities for complex outages, maintenance evolutions, system modifications, or emergent equipment conditions. Working experience with operating procedures, switching or clearance processes, lockout/tagout, and configuration-controlled work.

Problem Solving:

Demonstrated experience identifying significant operational and project risks, developing mitigation strategies, resolving cross-organizational issues, and making sound decisions with limited direction.

Leadership:

Demonstrated ability to lead through coordination and influence, improve work processes, guide less-experienced staff, and present recommendations to management and affected organizations.

Education/Experience for Operations Specialist 2:

Position requires an Associate's Degree and 4 years of related experience; or, an equivalent combination of education and experience directly related to the occupation.

Education/Experience for Operations Specialist 3:

Position requires a Bachelor's Degree and 5 years of related experience; or, an equivalent combination of education and experience directly related to the occupation. At this level, post graduate course work may be desirable.

Desired Qualifications:

• Experience supporting electric transmission or distribution, steam generation or distribution, combustion turbine generation, or balance-of-plant operations.
• Experience with utility outage coordination, operating orders, switching procedures, clearances, hold orders, lockout/tagout, or other hazardous energy control processes.
• Knowledge of applicable electrical, industrial safety, environmental, and reliability requirements, including relevant DOE, OSHA, NFPA 70E, and NERC requirements.
• Experience with computerized maintenance management, outage management, operations log, scheduling, document-control, or performance-reporting systems.
• Experience supporting abnormal event response, causal analysis, corrective action management, or operational assessments.
• Basic understanding of local union craft agreements and provisions.
• Experience in a Department of Energy, nuclear, critical-infrastructure, or other highly regulated operating environment.
• Current or previous DOE Q clearance.

Work Location:

The work location for this position is onsite and located in Los Alamos, NM. All work locations are at the discretion of management

Position Commitment:

Regular appointment employees are required to serve a period of continuous service in their current position in order to be eligible to apply for posted jobs throughout the Laboratory. If an employee has not served the time required, they may only apply for Laboratory jobs with the documented approval of their Division Leader. The position commitment for this position is 1 year.

Note to Applicants:

• Applicants must attach a detailed cover letter addressing the requirements and desired skills of the position with their resume.
• The position at the higher level may be required to serve in an on-call capacity as assigned, including after-hours, holidays, or Laboratory shutdowns.
• Due to federal restrictions contained in the current National Defense Authorization Act, citizens of the People's Republic of China-including the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau-as well as citizens of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea), and the Russian Federation, who are not Lawful Permanent Residents ("green card" holders) are prohibited from accessing facilities that support the mission, functions, and operations of national security laboratories and nuclear weapons production facilities, which includes Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Where You Will Work

Located in beautiful northern New Mexico, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) is a multidisciplinary research institution engaged in strategic science on behalf of national security. Our generous benefits package includes:

• PPO or High Deductible medical insurance with the same large nationwide network
• Dental and vision insurance
• Free basic life and disability insurance
• Paid childbirth and parental leave
• Award-winning 401(k) (6% matching plus 3.5% annually)
• Learning opportunities and tuition assistance
• Flexible schedules and time off (PTO and holidays)
• Onsite gyms and wellness programs
• Extensive relocation packages (outside a 50 mile radius)

Additional Details

Directive 206.2 - Employment with Triad requires a favorable decision by NNSA indicating employee is suitable under NNSA Supplemental Directive 206.2. Please note that this requirement applies only to citizens of the United States. Foreign nationals are subject to a similar requirement under DOE Order 142.3A.

Clearance: Q (Position will be cleared to this level). Selected applicants will be subject to a background investigation conducted by or on behalf of the Federal Government, and must meet eligibility requirements* for access to classified matter. This position requires a Q clearance, and obtaining such clearance requires US Citizenship except in extremely rare circumstances. Dependent upon the position, additional authorization to access classified information may be required, which may or may not be available to dual citizens. Receipt of a Q clearance and additional access authorization ultimately is a decision of the Federal Government and not of Triad.

*Eligibility requirements: To obtain a clearance, an individual must be at least 18 years of age; U.S. citizenship is required except in very limited circumstances. See DOE Order 472.2 for additional information.

New-Employment Drug Test: The Laboratory requires successful applicants to complete a new-employment drug test and maintains a substance abuse policy that includes random drug testing. Although New Mexico and other states have legalized the use of marijuana, use and possession of marijuana remain illegal under federal law. A positive drug test for marijuana will result in termination of employment, even if the use was pre-offer.

Regular Position: Term status Laboratory employees applying for regular-status positions are converted to regular status.

Internal Applicants:

Regular appointment employees who have served the required period of continuous service in their current position are eligible to apply for posted jobs throughout the Laboratory. If an employee has not served the required period of continuous service, they may only apply for Laboratory jobs with the documented approval of their Division Leader. Please refer to Policy P701 for applicant eligibility requirements.

Equal Opportunity:

Los Alamos National Laboratory is an equal opportunity employer. All employment practices are based on qualification and merit, without regard to protected categories such as race, color, national origin, ancestry, religion, age, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status or spousal affiliation, physical or mental disability, medical conditions, pregnancy, status as a protected veteran, genetic information, or citizenship within the limits imposed by federal, state, and local laws and regulations. The Laboratory is also committed to making our workplace accessible to individuals with disabilities and will provide reasonable accommodations, upon request, for individuals to participate in the application and hiring process. To request such an accommodation, please send an email to [e-mail] or call (505)-664-6947.