Early Career Software Engineer

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, Integrated Discovery 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 the National Security Directorate, 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 motivated Early Career Software Engineer to join our dynamic team at PNNL and contribute to cutting‑edge projects that shape the future of critical technology supporting national security and intelligence. In this role, you'll collaborate with experienced engineers to design, build, and optimize scalable systems for processing multi-modal intelligence data at a remarkable scale and speed. This hands‑on position offers a unique opportunity to grow your skills in AI/ML engineering, data orchestration, and system architecture while delivering impactful solutions in a fast‑paced environment where agility and reliability are key to success.

As a Software Engineer on PNNL's Software Engineering and Architectures (SEA) team, you'll have the chance to shape mission‑critical AI systems, help build enterprise‑scale data platforms, and gain hands‑on experience with some of the nation's most sophisticated intelligence and security applications. You'll receive mentorship from senior engineers, collaborate with research scientists, and see your code deployed in production systems that directly support national security missions.

• AI-Powered Software – Help develop applications that use AI agents and large language models (LLMs). Gain hands‑on experience with LLM integrations, evaluation, testing, and foundational MLOps practices.
• Intelligence Platform Development – Contribute to software that combines multiple sources of intelligence, supports geospatial analysis, and helps users understand complex information.
• Data Engineering – Build and maintain data pipelines, develop analytics workflows, and learn how cloud‑native systems process and manage data at scale.
• Collaborative Software Development – Work alongside experienced engineers, participate in code reviews and design discussions, and build your skills in testing, debugging, documentation, and enterprise software development.
• Professional Growth – Receive mentorship, take on increasing responsibility, and learn how to design, build, deploy, and support production‑quality software.

• Programming Foundation – Solid Python skills and experience with at least one additional language, such as Go, Rust, C#/.NET, C++, or a similar language.
• Platform Experience – Exposure to at least one cloud platform, such as AWS, Azure, or GCP and familiarity with Linux environments.
• Development Practices – Understanding of Git and version control, exposure to CI/CD…