Senior​/Principal R&D S&E Cybersecurity - AI Systems, Onsite

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.

• 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, including compressed workweeks, part‑time work, and telecommuting
• Generous vacation, strong medical and other benefits, competitive 401(k), learning opportunities, relocation assistance, and amenities aimed at creating a solid work/life balance

• Develop and conduct performance benchmarking of AI software or hardware components.
• Evaluate the security or reliability of an AI system.
• Develop a local test environment for an AI system and get that system up and running in the test harness.
• Conduct open‑ and closed‑source analysis/research on an AI system and draft a report.
• Develop research proposals for AI security.
• Conduct AI security research.
• Develop AI security applications, e.g., tools to analyze and monitor the security and reliability of deployed AI.
• Understand and address existing and emerging threats among a diverse customer set leveraging advanced data science tools and techniques.
• Apply state‑of‑the‑art AI/ML techniques to diverse and complex data sets and implement them on national security systems.

Work must be performed onsite.

$117,500 - $235,700

• A Bachelor’s degree in a relevant discipline and five (5) years of directly relevant experience, or an equivalent combination of directly relevant education and engineering or scientific experience that demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and ability to perform independent research and development.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a DOE Q‑level security clearance. The position may require a higher‑level clearance, which may require a polygraph test.

• Graduate degree in Computer Science/Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Information Systems, Computer Forensics, Mathematics or a directly related field where an independent research project was a graduation requirement (e.g., independent project, thesis, or dissertation).
• Experience in one or more of the following: reverse engineering, software vulnerability assessment, web application assessment, computer networking, computer architecture, compilers, or similar computer security topics.
• Proficiency in scripting or high‑level programming.
• Familiarity with secure system design principles and information assurance principles.
• Excellent communication skills and a demonstrated ability to develop technical ideas and results and present them in oral and written form in a concise manner.

• Familiarity with AI system hardware architectures and low‑level coding (C, C++, CUDA)
• Using LLMs and agentic models.
• Implementing and engineering AI systems.
• Computer network engineering experience.
• Knowledge of the AI state of the art and proven desire to keep that knowledge up to date.
• Strong technical and people leadership skills.
• Experience leading interdisciplinary teams and engaging internal and external stakeholders of varying responsibility.

In the Mission Analytics Group, we identify and collect mission needs, share them with researchers inside and outside the labs, collaborate and invest in research, integrate coherent capabilities, and partner with Sandia programs to transition successful research into mission applications. Our primary mission is to seek, pursue, and assess adversaries in different kinds of data and spaces. We also provide analytics capability to support Sandia’s National Security Programs and partner broadly across Sandia to collaborate on critical programmatic opportunities where analytics are needed.

We are successful when detailed capabilities provide a groundbreaking advantage to the nation through improved decisions, behaviors, and outcomes. The current strengths of this group are in computer…