Postdoctoral Appointee - Environments Engineering & Integration, 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.

Our team is ready to welcome a highly motivated, experienced, and productive R&D Mechanical Engineer to join the Environments Engineering and Integration Department and contribute to ongoing environments research. Our work encompasses a wide range of applications in structural dynamics and signal processing and offers many opportunities for research and development. The position involves a challenging mix of engineering analysis, modeling, model validation, data analysis, signal processing, and product performance evaluation for a wide range of Sandia products. There are significant opportunities to team with in-house (high-fidelity, multi-physics) analysis teams, testing teams, as well as daily opportunities to work on very challenging problems utilizing world-class computational and testing resources.

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

• Team with project, test, and analysis engineers at Sandia and with Sandia's external stakeholders.
• Develop new capabilities that will be used by staff to support our programmatic needs.
• Apply the principles of structural dynamics, solid mechanics, data science to support the research and development of tools for mechanical environments definition and analysis.
• Investigate shock and vibration specification development for weapons systems, wind/water turbines, missile payloads, and space instruments.
• Support the development of field testing capabilities to collect environments data.
• Work with the modeling and simulation analysis community to derive and assess environmental specifications and test specifications.
• Develop new techniques to analyze data from field and laboratory tests to derive and assess environmental specifications and test specifications.
• Participate in applied research to improve shock and vibration data analysis and specification development.
• Contribute to a wide variety of emerging research and development efforts at Sandia.
• Develop a robust research portfolio through peer-reviewed journal publications, conference presentations, and participation in professional societies.

Join our team and achieve your goals while making a difference!

Due to the nature of the work, the selected applicant must be able work onsite full time within one year.

• PhD in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a relevant discipline
• A strong track record of scientific and/or technical achievements through publication, as evidenced by peer-reviewed journals and external presentations at appropriate scientific conferences
• Ability to obtain and maintain a DOE Q clearance

• Background in performing structural dynamic analysis and/or signal processing analysis
• Experience With MATLAB, or programming languages such as C, C++, Python, or other relevant languages
• Strong communication skills as evidenced by peer-reviewed publications and/or external presentations at appropriate scientific conferences.
• Graduate or Professional Research Experience
• Experience analyzing aerospace systems
• Experience with developing laboratory shock and vibration specifications and supporting testing
• Experience Performing Structural Dynamic Analysis and Testing
• Experience using MATLAB for structural dynamics analysis and processing of measured data
• Experience in mechanical shock analysis
• Experience using or developing AI/ML models
  

The Environments Engineering & Integration Department is in the Solid Mechanics and Structural Dynamics Group of the Engineering Sciences Center. The department is responsible for leading integration of complex environmental test operations with computational simulation activities in structural dynamics and solid mechanics supporting fundamental research, model validation, development, qualification and acceptance for nuclear weapons, satellites, national missile defense, and other applications. In addition to planning and integration activities, the department directly supports several experimental capabilities, including: multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) vibration and shock testing and analysis methodologies, centrifuge, thermal conditioning, humidity, altitude, and corrosive atmosphere capabilities. We partner with Sandia product designers to predict and define mechanical environments for the entire design life-cycle. We assist product engineers in optimizing testing of their designs early in a development program and to fully explore the product's performance space during final design qualification. Our department develops state-of-the-art tools for characterizing and analyzing mechanical environments.

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.

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.