Production Liaison Engineer; R&D Engineer

What You Will Do

This position is open for external candidates only and will be filled at a R&D Engineer 3 level within the Weapon Systems Engineering (W) Production Liaison Group (W‑8). The group serves as the Design Agency representative to the Nuclear Security Enterprise (NSE) production plants, ensuring that weapon production activities meet design requirements and intent. Members liaise daily with production agencies at LANL, Kansas City National Security Campus, Pantex Plant, and Y‑12 National Security Complex to oversee design, manufacture, qualification, and certification of products.

The role also manages ALDW records stewardship, document configuration management (DCM), and engineering authorizations (EA) for site‑to‑site communications.

The successful candidate will support production activities for the B61, W76, W78, W88, and W93 weapons programs at the production agency. Responsibilities include assisting with hardware provisioning for local, joint, flight, and hydro tests; providing system engineering support for product definition; resolving nuclear weapon production and integrity issues; participating in site reviews; approving procedures and process changes; and acting as the technical interface between the production agency and LANL systems engineering and physics communities.

The role also provides detailed knowledge on weapon component manufacturing methods, represents LANL at programmatic meetings, and participates in special projects as required by LANL management.

The position is located onsite in Los Alamos, NM.

Weapons Engineering:
Thorough knowledge of engineering principles in material science, mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, or related disciplines; ability to interpret mechanical drawings and specifications; functional knowledge of the B61, W76, W78, W88, and W93 weapons systems regarding production and operation; experience with nuclear weapons production, certification of special nuclear materials, and component manufacturing applicable to Los Alamos‑designed weapons; ability to meet schedules and deliverables for multiple concurrent projects across priorities.

Demonstrated ability to lead projects, assemble cross‑organization teams, establish project plans, assign tasks, and report progress; identify, address, and resolve technical problems; work independently with minimal supervision while functioning effectively as part of multidisciplinary teams; generate innovative solutions; meet schedules and deliverables within budget constraints.

Experience interacting with all levels of NSE personnel, including internal and external customers, to provide solutions to complex problems; familiarity with Product Realization Teams (PRTs) during concurrent engineering, process development, prove‑in, engineering evaluation, qualification, and production phases; mentoring less experienced personnel and presenting results to management at all levels.

Development and implementation of innovative process improvements that correct systemic production issues; proven record of building successful cross‑organizational teams to solve complex problems.

Strong interpersonal, oral, and written communication skills; effective independent worker and team member; experience mentoring early‑career engineers and technicians.

Master’s degree in engineering from an accredited institution and six years of related experience; or an equivalent combination of education and experience directly related to the occupation.

• Experience with the engineering authorization system, document configuration management systems (e.g., Thing Worx, Footprints, PDM Link), and stockpile maintenance applications.
• Experience interacting with one or more NSE production agencies.
• Experience with non‑destructive evaluation techniques and dimensional inspection methods.
• Fundamental understanding of the Defense Programs Business Process System (DPBPS).
• Derivative Classifier (DC) experience.
• Activ…