Senior Software Engineer III

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 AI and Data Analytics Division, part of NSD, combines profound domain expertise and creative integration of advanced hardware and software to deliver computational solutions that address complex data and analytic challenges. Working in multidisciplinary teams, we connect foundational research to engineering to operations, providing the tools to innovate quickly and field results faster. Our strengths are integrated across the data analytics lifecycle, from data acquisition and management to analysis and decision support.

We are seeking a Senior Software Engineer to join PNNL's advanced AI engineering team and help build next‑generation systems across agentic AI platforms, large‑scale data orchestration, and real‑time intelligence processing. You'll design scalable, mission‑critical solutions while mentoring others and shaping technical direction.

Who You Are

An accomplished engineer with strong foundations in scalable system design, AI/ML development, and production software. You’re ready to lead complex system components, mentor junior engineers, and turn technical requirements into working solutions.

What You’ll Build

• AI Systems:
  Agentic AI, LLM orchestration (Lang Chain, Llama Index), MLOps pipelines, and multi‑modal data integration
• Scalable Infrastructure:
  Microservices, real‑time streaming, large‑scale ETL pipelines, and Kubernetes deployments
• Production Systems:
  Monitoring/observability, secure & edge deployments, geospatial and time‑series processing
• Technical Leadership:
  Lead project components, mentor staff, drive design decisions, and support proposals

What You Bring

• Engineering:
  Strong Python plus one other language (.NET/C#, Go, C++, Rust); solid CS fundamentals (object‑oriented design, design patterns, data structures, algorithms, and clean code practices), Git, testing (TDD), CI/CD, and AI‑assisted development tools (Copilot, Claude, Cursor)
• AI/ML:
  Understanding of the ML lifecycle, model serving, and production integration via APIs
• Cloud Native:
  Hands‑on experience with AWS/Azure/GCP, Docker/Kubernetes, event‑driven & microservice architectures, API design (REST, GraphQL, gRPC), and SQL/No
  
  SQL databases
• Data Engineering: ETL/ELT pipelines, distributed processing (Spark, Kafka, Flink, Ray), cloud storage, and data modeling at scale
• Collaboration:
  
  Strong communication and engagement with cross‑functional teams, Agile experience, mentorship, and pragmatic delivery

National Interest Project Examples

• Detect and prevent smuggling of drugs and contraband at ports of entry
• Develop large data pipelines to thwart funding for terrorists, nuclear proliferators, drug cartels, and rogue leaders
• Applying big data solutions to national security problems
• Applying image classification for nuclear forensics analysis
• Develop capabilities for scalable geospatial analytics

This position is based in Richland, WA or Seattle, WA and requires onsite presence Monday through Thursday, with Friday as needed based on business needs.

Minimum Qualifications:

• PhD and 1 year of Software Engineering experience - OR-
• MS/MA and 3 years of Software Engineering experience - OR-
• BS/BA and 5 years of Software Engineering experience - OR-
• AA and 14 years of Software Engineering experience in designing, architecting, programming, deploying, and automating software solutions in support of scientific research or consumer digital product development - OR-
• HS/GED and 16 years of Software Engineering experience in…