Associate Laboratory Director, Biological and Environmental Systems Sciences

Overview

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) seeks a dynamic, visionary leader to serve as Associate Laboratory Director (ALD) for the Biological and Environmental Systems Science Directorate (BESSD). The ALD will serve as a key member of the Laboratory’s executive leadership team, working closely with the Laboratory Director to advance ORNL’s mission of delivering world-leading scientific discoveries and translating them into transformative energy and security solutions.

As the largest science and energy laboratory in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) system, ORNL is home to more than 7,500 staff, an outstanding ecosystem of world-class user facilities, and an unparalleled breadth of expertise spanning neutron science, high-performance computing, materials and nuclear sciences, isotopes, biological and environmental systems, national security, and energy technologies. Nestled in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains near Oak Ridge and Knoxville, Tennessee, ORNL combines scientific excellence with unique collaborative partnerships across industry, academia, and government to accelerate discovery and innovation critical for addressing urgent national and global challenges.

BESSD is internationally recognized as a leader in biological and environmental systems science. Its mission is to deliver a predictive understanding of complex biological and environmental systems and associated coupling to engineered systems to advance the Nation’s bioeconomy, energy abundance, and infrastructure resilience. With more than 300 staff and an annual research portfolio exceeding $140M, BESSD is addressing its mission through advancing and integrating discovery science;

automated, AI-assisted capabilities for quantifying and optimizing plant-microbe-soil systems from genes to ecosystems; large-scale field experiments; and ORNL transformative computing approaches—including the world’s first exascale system, Frontier.

Major

Duties and Responsibilities:

The Associate Laboratory Director will:

• Serve as a member of ORNL’s senior leadership team, sharing responsibility for simultaneous excellence in science and technology, operations, and community engagement.
• Provide executive oversight for the Environmental Sciences Division, the Biosciences Division, and the DOE Center for Bioenergy Innovation (CBI).
• Shape and execute a forward-looking vision for BESSD, aligned with ORNL’s mission and refined BESSD Strategic Plan, to drive scientific breakthroughs and their translations into solutions at scale.
• Provide executive oversight of (a) ORNL’s automated plant transformation facility, developed to speed up engineering of plant traits, as well as (b) the Nation’s most advanced phenotyping capability (APPL - Advanced Plant Phenotyping Laboratory), which uses automation, robotics, AI and advanced imagery to connect genotype to phenotype and to translate discoveries into solutions for plant-based energy, chemicals, and materials.
• Serve as a primary Directorate contact and spokesperson within ORNL and externally.
• Serve as the primary liaison to DOE’s Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER) and other federal sponsors, shaping and advancing ORNL’s research portfolios to align with DOE and national priorities.
• Engage with stakeholders across other DOE and federal sponsors, industry, academia, and international partners to advance innovations and their translation into solutions with national and global impact.
• Lead and contribute to the development of strategic initiatives such as regional resilience, AI-enabled automation and discovery to advance biotechnology, and quantum S&T. With other ORNL executive leaders, advance ORNL’s S&T strategy and the role of facilities in the strategy, including the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS), the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR), the Center for Nanophase Materials Science (CNMS), Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF), and the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility (MDF).
• Catalyze new large-scale, multi-institutional research programs and partnerships across universities, industry, and other national laboratories.
• Drive employee performance management and assessment processes…