Early-Career, R&D Lethality and Threat Analyst, 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.

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• 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 for many positions include 9/80 (work 80 hours every two weeks, with every other Friday off) and 4/10 (work 4 ten-hour days each week) compressed workweeks, part-time work, and telecommuting (a mix of onsite work and working from home)
• Generous vacation, strong medical and other benefits, competitive 401k, learning opportunities, relocation assistance and amenities aimed at creating a solid work/life balance*

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* These benefits vary by job classification.

Sandia's Lethality and Threat Department, Organization 5477, is seeking an early-career R&D Analyst to support DOE and DoD national security programs through physics-based analysis, modeling and simulation, test interpretation, and threat engineering activities. In this role, you will contribute to technical efforts involving shock physics, hydro‑structural interactions, high‑rate structural response, and lethality/vulnerability assessments.

Working under the guidance of experienced staff, the selected candidate will collaborate with multidisciplinary teams to perform technical analyses, support modeling and simulation efforts, help plan and interpret tests, evaluate computational results, and communicate findings to project teams and program stakeholders. This role is well suited for someone with a strong technical foundation, curiosity about complex national security problems, and interest in growing skills in physics‑based analysis, computational simulation, threat engineering, and lethality/vulnerability assessment.

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

• Perform technical analysis in areas such as shock physics, hydro‑structural interactions, high‑rate structural mechanics, and lethality/vulnerability evaluations.
• Learn and apply modeling, simulation, test, and analysis approaches to address national defense needs.
• Support computational analyses using physics‑based tools such as hydrocodes, finite element models, or engineering‑level assessment methods.
• Develop scripts, workflows, or post‑processing tools to evaluate and visualize computational or experimental results.
• Work with experimental, computational, and programmatic partners to assess system performance and technical risks.
• Support the development of briefings, reports, and recommendations for internal teams, external customers, and program leadership.
• Contribute to threat engineering activities, including the development and evaluation of technical information used to understand current and emerging threats

* Due to the nature of the work, the selected applicant must be able to work onsite.

$102,400 - $199,700

* Salary range is estimated, and actual salary will be determined after consideration of the selected candidate's experience and qualifications, and application of any approved geographic salary differential.

• A Bachelor's degree in a relevant discipline 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.
• The ability to acquire and maintain a DOE Q-level security clearance.

The ideal R&D S&E Mechanical Engineer candidate for Sandia National Laboratories will in addition possess the following:

• 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…