Early Career Navigation Warfare Electrical Engineer, Onsite

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.

About the role

Organization 05443, Navigation Warfare, is actively seeking a Navigation Warfare Engineer who has significant interest in estimation, software engineering, GNSS, and applied R&D for national security missions. The successful candidate will have R&D experience in software engineering and/or stochastic estimation for dynamic systems, and interest in developing, testing, and analyzing prototype hardware systems for future alternative PNT systems, navigation algorithms, and navigation warfare threats.

Navigation Warfare supports a large range of Technical Readiness Levels (TRLs) to apply innovative conceptual ideas to both near-term and future warfighter needs.

• Develop, integrate, test, and analyze results from hardware prototype navigation systems, including GNSS, Inertial sensor, and alternative PNT solutions (such as RF signal of opportunity systems)
• Develop novel alternative positioning sensors, navigation solutions, and anomaly detection algorithms for contested navigation application for complex national security mission spaces
• Collaborate with a team of researchers, engineers, and technologists to develop innovative, integrated navigation technologies and to mature them from concept to simulation to flight tests
• Transition alternative PNT technologies, sensors, and software from Modeling and Simulation to hardware prototype for flight test experimentation
• Perform testing in complex contested navigation warfare environments in the field, and analyze results to draw meaningful conclusions in support of national security missions

This position will include simulation, laboratory, and field-testing operations. Due to the nature of the work, the selected applicant must be able to work onsite at Sandia laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, including the Flight Dynamics Laboratory. Some travel is required for this position.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in a relevant discipline, or an equivalent combination of directly relevant education and engineering or scientific experience that demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and ability to perform independent research and development
• Ability to obtain and maintain a DOE Q-level security clearance

Qualifications

The ideal candidate will possess the following:

• Graduate degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a highly related field where an independent research project was a graduation requirement (e.g., independent project, thesis, or dissertation)
• Ability to work independently and collaborate well in a multidisciplinary team of designers and test engineers
• Outstanding verbal and written skills, including the ability to develop and present briefings that are clear and compelling
• Coursework and/or 1+ years of experience with modern navigation sensors & hardware (such as GNSS receivers, IMUs, terrain-aiding SAR, and RF components) to include familiarity with their principles of operation, sensing modalities, internal processes, and interfaces
• Coursework and/or 1+ years of experience with navigation-related algorithms and techniques, such as Kalman Filtering, sensor fusion, signals of opportunity, sensor/system integrity monitoring, and threat mitigation
• Experience programming in object-oriented and scripting tools/languages (e.g., Python, C++, Matlab)
• Experience with industry GNSS simulation hardware (e.g., Spirent or Broadsim), RF recording equipment, or hardware testing of navigation systems
• Demonstrated ability to design and parameterize an experiment or test to answer specific questions about a system or phenomenon
• Demonstrated ability to analyze data captured during an experiment and draw well-reasoned conclusions based on engineering/scientific principles and knowledge
• Demonstrated ability to conduct guided research and development in a self-directed fashion
• Experience conducting operations in remote field environments with limited resources, infrastructure, and supervision
• An active DOE Q-level security clearance; or other equivalent active security clearance such as DOD Top Secret
• An active SCI-level Clearance, or a willingness to apply for an SCI-level clearance

About the team

The Navigation Warfare (Navwar) Department (5443) seeks to develop technology for robust and resilient navigation in increasingly challenging operational environments. Through Navigation Warfare Assessments to characterize and respond to US navigation contestation, engagement with the national Navwar community, and R&D towards the development of GPS-denied and contested technologies such as Alt-PNT (Position, Navigation, and Timing), the Navwar department creates enduring capabilities to support warfighter needs in increasingly contested navigation engagements.

Pay

Salary range is estimated at $102,400 - $199,700. Actual salary will be determined after consideration of the selected candidate's experience and qualifications, and application of any approved geographic salary differential.

Schedule

• 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)

Benefits

• Generous vacation
• Strong medical and other benefits
• Competitive 401k
• Learning opportunities
• Relocation assistance
• Amenities aimed at creating a solid work/life balance

*Benefits vary by job classification.