Senior/Principal R&D S&E Cybersecurity - AI Systems, Onsite

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:

*These benefits vary by job classification.

What Your Job Will Be Like

We are seeking a motivated R&D S&E Cybersecurity professional to work on teams addressing some of the nation's most difficult challenges in the areas of information science, statistical analysis, cyber analytics, geospatial analytics, text analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning and software and firmware engineering.

On any given day, you may be called on to:

• Develop and conduct performance benchmarking of AI software or hardware components.
• Evaluate the security or reliability of an AI system.
• Develop a local test environment for an AI system and get that system up and running in the test harness.
• Conduct open- and closed-source analysis/research on an AI system and draft a report.
• Develop research proposals for AI security.
• Conduct AI security research.
• Develop AI security applications, e.g., tools to analyze and monitor the security and reliability of deployed AI.
• Understand and address existing and emerging threats among a diverse customer set leveraging advanced data science tools and techniques.
• Apply state-of-the-art AI/ML techniques to diverse and complex data sets and implement them on national security systems.

Applicants on this requisition may be interviewed by multiple organizations at Sandia National Laboratories.

Due to the nature of the work, the selected applicant must be able to work onsite.

Salary Range

$117,500 - $235,700

*Salary range is estimated, and actual salary will be determined after consideration of the selected candidate's experience and qualifications, and application of any approved geographic salary differential.

Qualifications We Require

• A Bachelor's degree in a relevant discipline and five (5) years of directly relevant experience, 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. The position will likely require higher-level clearance, which may require a polygraph test.
  
  

Qualifications We Desire

The ideal R&D S&E Cybersecurity candidate for Sandia National Laboratories will in addition possess the following:

• Graduate degree in Computer Science/Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Information Systems, Computer Forensics, Mathematics or a directly related field where an independent research project was a graduation requirement (e.g., independent project, thesis, or dissertation).
• Experience in one or more of the following: reverse engineering, software vulnerability assessment, web application assessment, computer networking, computer architecture, compilers, or similar computer security topics.
• Proficiency in scripting or high-level programming.
• Familiarity with secure system design principles and information assurance principles.
• Excellent communication skills and a demonstrated ability to develop technical ideas and results and present them in oral and written form in a concise manner.

Also, for this posting we are seeking individuals with the following experience:

• Familiarity with AI system hardware architectures and low-level coding (C, C++, CUDA)
• Using LLM's and agentic models.
• Implementing and engineering AI systems.
• Computer network engineering experience.
• Knowledge of the AI state of the art and proven desire to keep that knowledge up to date.
• Strong technical and people leadership skills.
• Experience leading interdisciplinary teams and engaging internal and external stakeholders of varying responsibility.

About Our Team

In the Mission Analytics Group, we identify and collect mission needs, share them with researchers inside and outside the labs, collaborate and invest in research, integrate coherent capabilities, and partner with Sandia programs to transition successful research into mission applications. Our primary mission is to seek, pursue, and assess adversaries in different kinds of data and spaces. We also provide analytics capability to support Sandia's National Security Programs and partner broadly across Sandia to collaborate on critical programmatic opportunities where analytics are needed. We are successful when detailed capabilities provide a groundbreaking advantage to the nation through improved decisions, behaviors, and outcomes. The current strengths of this group are in computer science, software development, software engineering, applied statistics, applied mathematics, and artificial intelligence and machine learning. National security challenges require that we become specialists in cross-domain analytics addressing the phenomenal diversity of data types and decision spaces of our sponsors in a coordinated fashion. We continue to grow into this broader problem set.

Posting Duration

This posting will be open for application submissions for a minimum of three (3) 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 and SCI access, both of which require US citizenship. SCI access may also require a polygraph examination. If you hold more than one citizenship (i.e., of the U.S. and another country), your ability to obtain these levels of access 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 the 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.