Chief Science and Technology Officer

Overview

At PNNL, our core capabilities are divided among major departments that we refer to as Directorates within the Lab, focused on a specific area of scientific research or other function, with its own leadership team and dedicated budget.

Our Science & Technology directorates include National Security, Earth and Biological Sciences, Physical and Computational Sciences, and Energy and Environment. In addition, we have an Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a Department of Energy, Office of Science user facility housed on the PNNL campus.

The National Security Directorate (NSD) drives science-based, mission-focused solutions to take on complex,real-world threats to our nation and the world.

The Chief Scientist and Technology Officer (CSTO) is a key member of the National Security Directorate (NSD) Leadership Team and a critical contributor to the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's (PNNL) science and technology enterprise. Reporting to the NSD Associate Laboratory Director (ALD), the CSTO is responsible for developing and executing a science and technology (S&T) strategy that positions NSD—and PNNL—at the forefront of the capabilities required to meet the current and future mission needs of our diverse federal sponsors.

Success in this role requires the ability to operate with agility in a fast-paced and continually evolving national security landscape, self-navigate complex scientific and mission environments, and drive progress even in conditions of high ambiguity or incomplete information.

Working in close partnership with directorate leadership, the CSTO builds and nurtures the distinctive S&T capabilities that differentiate NSD, fosters an environment of innovation and rigorous scientific inquiry, and engages directly with technical staff to cultivate a culture of excellence, scholarship, and impact. The CSTO must be passionate about creating an environment within NSD that develops our staff to rise to the top of their fields and deliver on the nation's most important national security challenges, while modeling a nimble, adaptive leadership style that responds quickly to emerging priorities.

At the laboratory level, the CSTO partners with CSTO peers from other directorates and collaborates with CSTO peers and Program Development Office (PDO) Directors across the directorates as part of the Science and Technology Council, under the leadership of PNNL's Deputy Director for Science and Technology to drive a lab-wide science agenda. Together, they shape and execute the strategy to develop cutting-edge S&T capabilities that span the basic-to-applied research continuum and address the breadth of federal sponsor mission needs across the Laboratory.

NSD's distinctive strengths in artificial intelligence and data sciences, applied mathematics, radiochemistry and nuclear science, and chemical and biological detection and forensics are central to serving our sponsors' missions. While deep expertise is not required in all research areas, the CSTO must be able to learn and converse across diverse technical domains, work effectively with teams of S&T leaders to deliver compelling mission-based outcomes, and anticipate where sponsors' greatest challenges will emerge in the future—using discretionary investments to build a strategy aligned with the mission of tomorrow and anticipating area of significant technical and scientific disruption.

The role requires an agile mindset capable of rapidly assimilating new scientific information and adapting strategies in response to shifting mission drivers and priorities.

The overarching responsibilities and accountabilities of the CSTO include, but are not limited to:

• Develop, communicate, and execute the NSD S&T strategy in partnership with the ALD, PDO, line management, and technical staff, ensuring alignment with current and future federal sponsor mission needs.
• Build organizational consensus for the NSD S&T strategy and steward its execution across the directorate.
• Steward and manage directorate overhead and discretionary investments to deliver on strategic objectives and measurable outcomes.
• In…