Cleared Senior​/Principal R&D Mechanical Engineer - Explosive Components Product Realization Tea

Job Overview

As an Explosive Component Production Agency (PA) PRT Lead in Department 7452, you will partner with the Design Agency (DA) in Department 7453 to drive the W87-1 Detonator into Full Scale Production. You’ll have the opportunity to work alongside the current DA PRT as the product completes its PPI and QE builds, then fully assume responsibilities and achieve the First Production Unit (FPU) milestone and enter Full Scale Mark Quality (MQ) production.

You will lead a cross‑functional Production PRT integrating Product, design, Manufacturing, Surety, and Materials engineers, along with Business support and EMSATs Process Engineering and Technologist experts to deliver Mark Quality hardware to the Nuclear Weapons Stockpile and directly impact the mission.

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

• Integrate with and learn from the DA PRT capturing design intent, process flows, and lessons learned then transition into PRT leadership as the W87‑1 moves into production.
• Support PPI and QE builds as well as Qualification to achieve QER (Qualification Evaluation Release) and FPU.
• Own the PA PRT’s end‑to‑end scope and deliverables, negotiate requirements and commitments, establish cost and schedule baselines, and lead risk and opportunity management.
• Lead PRT meetings: create agendas, facilitate meetings, drive consensus on roles and ground rules, record decisions and action items, and maintain the project records.
• Manage cost, schedule, and resources to deliver subsequent War Reserve (WR) builds: maintain and status a resource‑loaded schedule, track expenditures, partner with production team and PPVS, and negotiate with internal and external stakeholders.
• Prove in production processes in tight coordination with Department 7457’s Process Engineering and Technologist teams.
• Apply data‑driven problem solving: design experiments, analyze production metrics, perform root‑cause and failure analyses, and implement corrective and preventive actions to optimize yield, throughput, and cost.
• Drive lean manufacturing and statistical process control initiatives, leveraging synergies across detonator product lines to elevate quality and efficiency.
• Interface with customers and stakeholders, using Sandia systems (Oracle, SharePoint, Teams, P6, etc.) to align on technical performance, schedule, and deliverables.
• Lead and participate in Program Reviews, Design Reviews, and TRL/MRL evaluations; capture lessons learned and conduct post‑mortems to continually refine Sandia’s explosive Product Realization Process.
• Participate actively in efficient Manufacturing Feasibility and Design (MFD) and Design for Manufacturability (DFM) processes to identify potential production challenges early, support design optimization, and facilitate seamless transition from prototype to scalable manufacturing.
• Manage product definition artifacts graphic drawings, specifications (PS, SS), and Engineering Authorizations (CER, QER, FCO) and maintain configuration in PRIME/eDPM.
• Mentor and develop PRT members and foster high‑performance teamwork.

Occasional travel may be required. Due to the nature of the work, the selected applicant must be able to work onsite.

• A Bachelor’s degree in a relevant discipline and five (5) years of directly relevant education and engineering or scientific experience that demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and ability to perform independent research and development.
• An active DOE Q clearance, or equivalent is required to start.

• Graduate degree in Mechanical Engineering or a highly related field where an independent research project was a graduation requirement (e.g., independent project, thesis, or dissertation).
• Experience with mechanical engineering and product realization in the NNSA complex.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills, ability to work effectively in multidisciplinary teams.
• PRT experience: proven track record being a part of or supporting PRTs to deliver ND product.
• Leadership & program execution: ability to coordinate multidisciplinary teams, facilitate meetings, negotiate scope and deliverables, and drive schedules, budgets/SOWs, and risk/change…