R&D Experimental Materials Scientist - Hydrogen and Other Extreme Environments (Mid-Career)

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.

Salary Range:

$116,600 - $195,400

*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.

What Your Job Will Be Like:

We are seeking a limited-term R&D Materials Scientist to join our team in Livermore, CA and help solve exciting problems with materials in extreme environments. One key project focuses on tritium generation and transport, particularly under irradiation. This is a great opportunity for a scientist interested in proposing collaborative research as both a principal investigator and team member.

Our department’s work on material/hydrogen isotope interactions supports energy carrier, transportation, fusion, and national defense programs. Materials often require high performance under demanding environments for a decade or more. This position offers an opportunity to grow a foundational and applied experimental materials science research program that emphasizes process-structure-properties relationships. Access to unique and differentiating equipment and opportunities to team with other leaders in the field will help the successful candidate make meaningful and impactful contributions.

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

• Design and conduct custom laboratory experiments to understand the effects of aging on conventional and additively manufactured metals

• Innovate new instrumental methods to simulate relevant extreme environments and analyze their effects on metals to obtain fundamental physical insight into structural transformation mechanisms and hydrogen isotope storage/transport

• Collaborate with a diverse team of fellow experimentalists, as well as engineers, theoreticians, machine learning experts, and others

• Share research findings with the wider scientific community in conferences and peer-reviewed publications

Due to the nature of the work, the selected applicant must be able to work onsite 75% of the time.

Qualifications We Require:

• PhD in materials science and engineering, physics, chemistry, or a closely related field

• A record of first-author and/or co-authored scientific publications in the above areas within peer-reviewed journals and presentations at scientific conferences

• Ability to obtain and maintain a Q-level security clearance.

Qualifications We Desire:

• Proven ability to design and implement novel experimental approaches to materials characterization (of microstructure, composition, and electronic structure) to elucidate properties and performance

• Demonstrated experience collaborating with interdisciplinary teams and program development

• Adaptability to multiple research fields in materials science by leading and contributing to research proposals

• Some experience in programming for data acquisition, processing, and analysis (in, e.g., Labview, Matlab, and/or Python) and/or experience using commercial and open-source finite-element methods for simulating transport processes (e.g., Comsol Multiphysics)

• Previous experience supporting the Nuclear Security Enterprise

About Our Team:

The Energy Nanomaterials Department is a research organization specializing in the synthesis and characterization of nanomaterials for energy and national security applications. Projects and capabilities in the department's research portfolio include nanoporous materials for sensing, catalysis, energy harvesting, and gas storage; materials for energy and hydrogen storage; and nanoscale materials characterization including extensive electron microscopy, energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, thermal desorption and secondary ion mass spectrometry, nanoindentation instrumentation, focused ion beam, x-ray diffraction, and environmental x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.

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*

World-changing technologies. Life-changing careers. Learn more about Sandia at: http://www.sandia.gov*These benefits vary by job classification.

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.

Position Information:

This Limited Term Employee (LTE) position is a temporary position for one year term, which may be renewed at Sandia's discretion up to a maximum of seven years.

Individuals in LTE positions may bid on regular Sandia positions as internal candidates, and in some cases may be converted to regular career positions during their term if warranted by ongoing operational needs, continuing availability of funds, and satisfactory job performance.

Job ID: 688655