Postdoctoral Appointee - Nuclear Engineering - Onsite

Company: Sandia National Laboratories
Location: Albuquerque
Posted on: May 12, 2025

Job Description:

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. Some of the main reasons we love our jobs:

• 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*World-changing technologies. Life-changing careers. Learn more about Sandia at: http://www.sandia.gov*These benefits vary by job classification.What Your Job Will Be Like:The CREST (Combined Radiation Environments for Survivability Testing) Project's Reactor Facility Development department is seeking a postdoctoral appointee to support modeling, diagnostic development, and other special projects that will inform reactor design concepts for the project. CREST is a proposed project with a goal of designing a new building for the Annular Core Research Reactor (ACRR) that will also include a short pulse electron beam accelerator to fill a mission gap for research, development, and qualification activities. The CREST complex will be sited at Technical Area V (TA-V) at Sandia's Albuquerque, NM location.Primary responsibilities for a prospective postdoctoral appointee will include supporting the CREST reactor design team through performance of risk mitigating studies, both via modeling and analysis as well as in the laboratory and by providing expertise to support the design and development of hardware and components needed to reproduce the Annular Core Research Reactor (ACRR) and the Fuel Ringed External Cavity (FREC-II) within the future CREST nuclear facility. Some diagnostic development is expected, as well.Sandia has a long history of designing, building, and fielding experimental research reactors, including the Sandia Engineering Reactor (SER), the Annular Core Pulsed Reactor (ACPR), the Sandia Pulsed Reactor (SPR), and the ACRR. Over the next 8-9 years the CREST team will be busy designing the CREST reactor components with capabilities to expand our support for the U.S. Department of Energy's national security mission.On any given day, you may be called on to:
  • Independently, or in collaboration with other CREST reactor design team members and industrial business partners, design and develop new reactor components and systems for CREST.
  • Perform analyses or modeling studies (e.g., with codes such as MCNP, GEANT 4, or others) and then formally document the results.
  • Independently, or in collaboration with other CREST Project team members conduct experiments in the laboratory.
  • Provide engineering expertise on other relevant reactor or nuclear engineering activities as needed.
  • Interface with the current ACRR staff to incorporate lessons learned and other design recommendations into the CREST designs.
  • Collaborate with CREST accelerator design team members and system engineers to ensure proper interface requirements between the reactor and the accelerator are established and maintained and that joint operational aspects of the two are fully considered.
  • Potentially participate with broader collaborative efforts with other NNSA labs for some of this work.Due to the nature of the work, the selected applicant must be able to work onsite.Qualifications We Require:
    • A PhD in Nuclear Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Physics, or other closely related field.
    • Ability to obtain and maintain a DOE Q clearance.Qualifications We Desire:
      • Experience with radiation transport modeling using codes such as MCNP (Monte Carlo N-Particle Transport)
      • Experience with reactor operations.
      • Familiarity with radiation hazards and/or radiation effects.
      • Familiarity with the principles of neutron radiography.
      • Familiarity with nuclear criticality safety.
      • Knowledge of reactor fuel and radioactive waste lifecycles, and/or analysis of modular reactor concepts
      • Ability to work both independently and within a multi-disciplinary team environment, building consensus and resolving issues.
      • Advanced interpersonal skills, including excellent communication skills with the ability to prepare clearly written technical reports and briefings.
      • Experience defining and solving challenging, complex problems in a timely manner.About Our Team:The CREST Reactor Facility Development Group (1391) is responsible for designing and developing the research reactor, the pulsed power electron/gamma-ray accelerator, and the systems engineering needed to integrate these into the CREST facility. CREST is intended to provide a safe, purpose-built gamma and neutron radiation environment test facility for stockpile qualification and numerous other research and development activities. Overall, the CREST complex will include new research reactor infrastructure for the Annular Core Research Reactor, a gamma accelerator, new and improved nuclear material storage, handling, and processing space, as well as associated metrology, laboratory space, offices, and other required infrastructure. CREST will be a flexible, multi-program complex anticipated to take the forefront of combined radiation environment test and simulation capabilities development. Posting Duration:This posting will be open for application submissions for a minimum of seven (7) calendar days, including the 'posting date'. Sandia reserves the right to extend the posting date at any time.Security Clearance:Sandia is required by DOE to conduct a pre-employment drug test and background review that includes checks of personal references, credit, law enforcement records, and employment/education verifications. Applicants for employment need to be able to obtain and maintain a DOE Q-level security clearance, which requires U.S. citizenship. If you hold more than one citizenship (i.e., of the U.S. and another country), your ability to obtain a security clearance may be impacted.Applicants offered employment with Sandia are subject to a federal background investigation to meet the requirements for access to classified information or matter if the duties of the position require a DOE security clearance. Substance abuse or illegal drug use, falsification of information, criminal activity, serious misconduct or other indicators of untrustworthiness can cause a clearance to be denied or terminated by DOE, resulting in the inability to perform the duties assigned and subsequent termination of employment.EEO:All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, or veteran status and any other protected class under state or federal law.NNSA Requirements for MedPEDs:If you have a Medical Portable Electronic Device (MedPED), such as a pacemaker, defibrillator, drug-releasing pump, hearing aids, or diagnostic equipment and other equipment for measuring, monitoring, and recording body functions such as heartbeat and brain waves, if employed by Sandia National Laboratories you may be required to comply with NNSA security requirements for MedPEDs. If you have a MedPED and you are selected for an on-site interview at Sandia National Laboratories, there may be additional steps necessary to ensure compliance with NNSA security requirements prior to the interview date.Position Information:This postdoctoral position is a temporary position for up to one year, which may be renewed at Sandia's discretion up to five additional years. The PhD must have been conferred within five years prior to employment.Individuals in postdoctoral positions may bid on regular Sandia positions as internal candidates, and in some cases may be converted to regular career positions during their term if warranted by ongoing operational needs, continuing availability of funds, and satisfactory job performance.Job ID: 695496Job Family: 92Regular/Temporary Position: TFull/Part-Time Status: FRequired
        Preferred

        Job Industries

        • Other

Keywords: Sandia National Laboratories, Rio Rancho , Postdoctoral Appointee - Nuclear Engineering - Onsite, Engineering , Albuquerque, New Mexico