Post Bachelors Research Associate - Marine Technology

Overview

At PNNL,our core capabilities are dividedamongmajor departments that werefer to as Directorates within the Lab,focused on a specific area of scientific research orother function, with its own leadership teamand dedicated budget.

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

The Energy and Environment Directoratedeliversscience and technology solutions for the nation’s biggest energy and environmental challenges. Our more than 1,700 staff support the Department of Energy (DOE), delivering on key DOE mission areas including: modernizing our nation’s power grid to maintain a reliable, affordable, secure, and resilient electricity delivery infrastructure; research, development, validation, and effective utilization of renewable energy and efficiency technologies that improve the affordability, reliability, resiliency, and security of the American energy system;

and resolving complex issues in nuclear science, energy, and environmental management.

The Coastal Sciences Division,part of the Energy and Environment Directorate,is headquartered atPNNL-Sequim,on Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula. Our unique facility is the Department of Energy’s only marine research laboratory, and the capabilities of its researchers deliver science and technology critical to the nation’s energy, environmental,and security future.

We focus on research related to marine and coastal resources, environmental chemistry, water resources modeling, marine engineering, environmental modeling and monitoring, and national security—the division is an emerging leader in three areas:

• Enabling sustainable development of ocean energy.
• Understanding and mitigating long‑term impacts of human activities, including climate change, on marine resources.
• Protecting coastal environments from security threats.

The Coastal Sciences Division at PNNL is seeking a marine research associate to join a multidisciplinary team of engineers and scientists that develop and test various marine technologies. Projects include integrating commercially available sensors and in-house developed sensors for monitoring the environment, working with autonomous vehicles, and supporting marine energy applications. Hands‑on engineering will be a large part of this role.

As a Research Associate, the candidate will be working with a mentor and peers with electrical and mechanical engineering expertise. This position is located at PNNL-Sequim.

The candidate can expect to:

• Perform common and novel electrical wiring and soldering tasks as directed by project principal investigators or task leads.
• Perform common and novel mechanical drafting, fabrication, and assembly tasks as directed by project principal investigators or task leads.
• Translate design requirements from a multidisciplinary team of scientists and engineers into engineering specifications.
• Support researchers and engineers collecting data in a dynamic marine environment.
• Contribute to design documentation and scientific reporting on testing and results.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Candidates must have received a Bachelor’s degree within the past 24 months or within the next 8 months from an accredited college or university.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in biological, chemical, electrical or ocean engineering, with field experience collecting and analyzing sensor data.
• Experience deploying, calibrating and troubleshooting marine sensors.
• Experience working in an ocean engineering context or general marine environment.
• Technical writing experience.
• Ability to read schematics and wiring diagrams.
• Electrical and mechanical CAD software experience.
• Software programming and data analysis experience in Python, R, C, C++, Matlab or equivalent.

Not applicable

This is not a Testing Designated Position (TDP).

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is a world-class research…