What are the responsibilities and job description for the R&D Manager, Science & Engineering position at Sandia National Laboratories?
Posting Duration
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.
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.
What Your Job Will Be Like
It is expected that the manager of department 5445 work closely with the manager and staff located in department 5448 to develop ATR and Precision Geolocation technologies. Whereas 5448 is focused on delivering higher TRL solutions to customers, department 5445 is focused on the lower TRL research and development required to enable those solutions. The two departments work closely together to support the same sponsors, missions, platforms, sensors, and data sources. All new work requires approval from both managers for resource management and planning purposes.
The manager also has responsibilities for hiring, supporting, and motivating a team to perform this algorithmic technology research and development into both ATR and Precision Geolocation. Because the team coordinates on technologies across two departments, the manager will have responsibility, jointly with the 5448 manager, for software Development Operations (Dev Ops) using formal software development processes. Both departments are connected in an enterprise plan that links them to each other to enable coordinated research and development leading to technical insertion in customer applications and environments. The work in this department is intended to focus on exploratory research and development but is not intended to be separated from customer insertion of technologies. A partnership across the departments is expected.
The manager must be able to establish and maintain strong reciprocal relationships in a teaming environment both within and amongst the center management organization, while serving as a collaborative partner with staff and managers across multiple Sandia divisions and centers (currently 1400, 5300, 5500, 6300, and 6700) that perform work of a similar nature. The vision is for broad collaboration across multiple Sandia projects and common representation with customers to maintain a “one Sandia” connection for Automated Target Recognition and Precision Geolocation work.
On any given day, you may be asked to:
- Coordinate, guide, and supervise research of staff members on Automated Target Recognition and Precision Geolocation projects as directly applied to customer mission needs.
- Provide a connection for the work and expertise of the organization with potential beneficiaries, collaborators, and military customers.
- Manage and coordinate specific deliverables, overall program and project plans, budgets, structures, schedules, and staffing requirements.
- Creation of trust-based relationships with customers, performers, and stakeholders to foster a collaborative work environment and enable the development of work plans that meet multiple conflicting needs.
- Apply organization knowledge and experience to independently judge work quality, performance, and alignment of results with customer expectations.
- Oversee and manage both staff members and interns, including hiring, professional development, performance management, and self-learning activities, consistent with the mission of the organization.
The ability to travel up to 2 times a month. Due to the nature of work, this candidate must be able to work onsite.
Qualifications We Require
- Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Data Science, Remote Sensing, Geomatics, Imaging Science, Geography, Geology, Earth Science, Atmospheric Science, Planetary Science, Physics, Robotics or relevant STEM field plus four (4) years of experience, or equivalent (BS 8 years).
- Demonstrated ability to lead complex systems development problems while stewarding and managing funding and execution of research and development for delivery of hardware and/or software to meet customer needs.
- Familiarity with software development operations and best practices and delivering software products from concept to deployment.
- Active US DOE Q or equivalent DoD Top Secret security clearance with the ability to obtain and maintain US DOE SCI access, which may require a polygraph test.
Qualifications We Desire
Ideally, we would like to see your background include some of the following:
- Two or more years of demonstrated leadership experience and ability to motivate a team to deliver high – impact results.
- Advanced degree (Doctorate) in above stated fields.
- Familiarity with modern (Agile and other) software development methods and continuous integration approaches.
- Familiarity with active (e.g. SAR, LIDAR) and passive (e.g. EO/IR, FMV) imaging modalities.
- Experience with image and signal processing, computer vision, photogrammetry, remote sensing, and machine intelligence (artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning).
- Familiarity with Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) image formation and utilization for performing Automatic Target Recognition (ATR).
- Successful experience in business development with the Department of Defense or similar government entities including understanding of the SPP/SIPP process and business model at Sandia.
- Strong desire to support and work interactively in a teaming environment with management organizations, project groups, customers, and external university partners.
- Excellent interpersonal, communication, presentation, and time-management skills.
- Demonstrated ability to manage diverse security requirements, from unclassified to highly classified environments.
- Active SCI access.
About Our Team
The Autonomous Sensing & Perception Research and Development Department (5445) provides Automatic Target Recognition and Precision Geolocation software solutions to support programs within the Integrated Military Systems Center at Sandia. The department develops, implements, and deploys quantitative methods for the detection, identification, classification, and contextualization of objects of interest in orbital, aerial, and terrestrial sensor data to support autonomous decision making by associated platforms and their support equipment. It does so by drawing on expertise from a wide array of fields that include engineering, mathematics, statistics, computer science, data science, imaging science, remote sensing, computer vision, and photogrammetry—to name only a few. The department applies these methods to a variety of sensor modalities including Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR); High Range Resolution (HRR) Radar; Electro-Optical/Infrared (EO/IR, spanning VNIR/SWIR/MWIR/LWIR); Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR); Full Motion Video (FMV); Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT); and acoustics. The work is primarily focused on software, but developed capabilities must interface with hardware systems (edge platforms, ground stations, cloud services) to be successful. The department focuses on the research and development of new algorithms and approaches but is expected to partner with Department 5448 (Autonomous Sensing & Perception Delivery) on the maturation and deployment of these algorithms. The department strives to provide leadership to the Laboratory and the Nation in the creative development, use, and application of both Automatic Target Recognition and Precision Geolocation technologies. The department staff pride themselves in team accomplishments, professional development, and the mentorship of others.
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 vacations, strong medical and other benefits, competitive 401k, learning opportunities, relocation assistance and amenities aimed at creating a solid work/life balance*
- These benefits vary by job classification.
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.
Salary : $165,000 - $209,000
