Target Fabrication Engineer; R&D Engineer

What You Will Do

You will work independently and as a member of the Target Fabrication and Engineering Team in the Engineered Materials Group, MST 7. As a member of a team of skilled professionals your primarily responsible will be for the engineering, design, fabrication, assembly, and metrology of targets for the Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) and High Energy Density Physics (HEDP) programs. The successful candidate for this role will be the project leader coordinating efforts with physicists, machinists, and engineers leading the fabrication design, experimental package design, component dimensional inspection, and performing final assembly of packages.

Development tasks are part of the expectations of the role and can be in machining, inspection, or robotic assembly development. Many of the targets and parts are millimeter or sub millimeter in size with typical dimensional tolerances range from nanometers to micrometers. These targets contain fragile and unconventional materials, such as: thin films, fibers, fragile coatings, low density foams and beryllium.

They are often quite complex and are generally used to validate computer codes; therefore, they must be as close to perfect as can be achieved by state-of-the-art manufacturing technology- any imperfections must be measured, characterized and documented. Since target designs are continually changing and tend to become more complex with time, fabrication methods must continually be developed.

You will work independently and as a member of the Target Fabrication and Engineering Team in the Engineered Materials Group, MST 7. As a member of a team of skilled professionals your primarily responsible will be for the engineering, design, fabrication, assembly, and metrology of targets for the Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) and High Energy Density Physics (HEDP) programs. The successful candidate for this role will be the project leader coordinating efforts with physicists, machinists, and engineers leading the fabrication design, experimental package design, component dimensional inspection, and performing final assembly of packages.

Development tasks are part of the expectations of the role and can be in machining, inspection, or robotic assembly development. Many of the targets and parts are millimeter or sub millimeter in size with typical dimensional tolerances range from nanometers to micrometers. These targets contain fragile and unconventional materials, such as: thin films, fibers, fragile coatings, low density foams and beryllium.

They are often quite complex and are generally used to validate computer codes; therefore, they must be as close to perfect as can be achieved by state-of-the-art manufacturing technology- any imperfections must be measured, characterized and documented. Since target designs are continually changing and tend to become more complex with time, fabrication methods must continually be developed.

R&D Engineer 1 ($94,500 - $154,600)

• Meet with researchers to determine a minimal risk design for producing the needed targets and translate the requirements into assembly and fabrication drawings; interfacing with individual principal investigators, theoreticians, machinists, chemists, materials scientists and technicians, and other assembly team members within LANL and other DOE facilities.
• Coordinate and monitor manufacturing, fabrication and assembly operations to build the targets in the three month design cycle.
• Perform any fabrication processes for which he/she is responsible (training is provided for this responsibility).
• Help field the targets at the experimental facilities (these facilities are primarily at LANL, the University of Rochester, Sandia National Laboratory, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory). A moderate amount of travel is required, on the order of a few days a month.

R&D Engineer 2 ($104,100 - $172,200)

• In addition to the duties outlined above, the higher level will be expected to:
• Manage and coordinate manufacturing operations for multiple projects throughout LANL and at external suppliers to build the targets in the three month design…