Cleared Senior/Principal R&D Systems Engineer - System Security Engineering & Assurance,...

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

Sandia's Nuclear Enterprise Assurance (NEA) Team seeks a multidisciplinary R&D Systems Security Engineer to lead the secure product realization lifecycle for high‑consequence national security systems.

In this role, you will help safeguard nuclear weapon assets against subversion by ensuring systems are designed, developed, produced, deployed, and sustained with rigorous security, trustworthiness, and assurance practices. You will apply NIST SP 800-160 v1r1 Systems Security Engineering principles, Nuclear Enterprise Assurance practices, and risk‑informed engineering approaches to integrate security and subversion‑resilience across the full product realization lifecycle.

You will partner with Systems Engineers, Hardware and Software Engineers, Cybersecurity subject matter experts, Counterintelligence professionals, Supply Chain partners, Design Agencies, Production Agencies, Nuclear Security Enterprise stakeholders, and Intelligence Community partners to identify, assess, and mitigate subversion risks. You will develop objective technical evidence, assurance documentation, and risk‑management strategies that support high‑confidence, technically sound, and compliant nuclear weapon systems.

This position requires a systems thinker who can teach, partner, integrate, and lead across multidisciplinary teams; apply creative and unconventional critical thinking; communicate clearly with technical and senior stakeholders; and help cultivate a subversion‑risk‑conscious engineering culture.

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

• Develop, tailor, and implement Systems Security Engineering and Nuclear Enterprise Assurance processes informed by NIST SP 800-160 v1r1, ensuring security, trustworthiness, and assurance objectives are defined, flowed, traced, verified, and validated throughout the lifecycle.
• Lead, facilitate, perform, or coordinate comprehensive subversion risk assessments including threat modeling, vulnerability assessments, material and supply‑chain assessments, attack‑surface analyses, and system‑level risk evaluations to inform architecture, design, production, sustainment, and risk‑management decisions.
• Identify, assess, and document subversion risks using applicable tools, processes, and resources, integrating technical, counterintelligence, intelligence, open‑source, supply‑chain, manufacturing, quality, statistical, and programmatic information into system security and assurance risk management.
• Define, decompose, and flow system and subsystem security assurance requirements into hardware, firmware, software, test, production, and sustainment architectures; develop associated verification methods, validation approaches, and acceptance criteria.
• Develop, review, and maintain security assurance documentation and objective evidence, including traceability matrices, Protection Plans, Verification & Validation V&V plans, assurance artifacts, and evidence packages demonstrating requirement satisfaction, risk mitigation, and assurance effectiveness.
• Contribute to secure system conceptual designs by identifying security‑relevant functions, interfaces, dependencies, subsystem interactions, lifecycle assurance needs, design vulnerabilities, and mitigation strategies.
• Integrate security assurance principles into design, development, production, test, deployment, operations, and sustainment activities to reduce subversion risk, improve system resilience, assess control and process‑protection effectiveness, and support defect prevention.
• Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams: including Systems Engineering, hardware/software engineering, test engineering, manufacturing, quality, cybersecurity, counterintelligence, supply chain, Product Realization Teams, production agencies, Nuclear Security Enterprise partners, and program stakeholders to integrate cybersecurity, anti‑subversion, and assurance controls into product designs and processes.
• Apply scientific and engineering methods: including hypothesis development, analysis, experimentation, test, evaluation, root‑cause analysis, incident investigation, security anomaly review, and process‑capability assessment to evaluate subversion risks, validate assurance approaches, and identify opportunities to improve feasibility, producibility, quality, and assurance effectiveness.
• Develop, support, or deliver training; contribute to communities of practice, working groups, cross‑enterprise assurance forums, and continuous improvement initiatives; and establish feedback mechanisms and lessons‑learned processes to improve security assurance practices over time.
• Provide technical leadership in model‑based systems engineering, digital engineering, security modeling, data integration, and knowledge‑management efforts, including use of SysML, UML, or related tools and frameworks; support centralization, structuring, and digitization of assurance data to improve traceability, risk visibility, knowledge preservation, decision support, enterprise assurance capabilities, and AI‑enabled analytic methods.
• Present concise, actionable, and technically defensible security, trust, and assurance assessments to customers, management, senior leaders, and external stakeholders.

Due to the nature of the work, the selected applicant will be required to work onsite.

Salary Range

$102,400 - $199,700

*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.
• Active DOE Q‑Level security clearance required to start or equivalent

Qualifications We Desire

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

• Graduate degree in Engineering or a highly related field where an independent research project was a graduation requirement (e.g., independent project, thesis, or dissertation).
• Experience working with Nuclear Security Enterprise (NSE) laboratories and plants including Pantex, Kansas City National Security Campus (KCNSC), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), and Kansas City National Security Campus/New Mexico Operations (KCNSC/NMO).
• Experience working on engineering design, qualification, production, or related modeling/simulation projects.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills, ability to work effectively in multidisciplinary teams.

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

• Active SCI clearance
• Demonstrated ability to define, decompose, flow, trace, and verify system, security, trust, and assurance requirements across the product lifecycle.
• Demonstrated experience developing technical documentation, engineering evidence, analysis reports, requirements traceability artifacts, Protection Plans, Trust Assurance Cases, Verification & Validation V&V documentation, and evidence packages.
• Experience with threat modeling, risk assessment, systems security engineering, and application of NIST SP 800‑160, Risk Management Framework, or NIST SP 800‑53 controls.
• Hands‑on experience in product development, production, manufacturing, or sustainment environments, including supply‑chain risk management, production assurance, anti‑sub‑version controls, information protection, data‑loss prevention, counterintelligence processes, and/or CI analytic tools.
• Familiarity with intelligence sources or analytic disciplines such as SIGINT, IMINT, HUMINT, open‑source intelligence, or related intelligence‑informed risk assessment approaches.
• Familiarity with model‑based systems engineering, digital engineering, and security‑modeling tools and methods, including SysML, UML, Cameo, MagicDraw, or related modeling tools.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively across multidisciplinary teams, including experience developing or delivering technical training, mentoring staff, building communities of practice, and applying strong leadership, interpersonal, negotiation, and conflict‑resolution skills.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, including experience communicating technical information to diverse stakeholders and briefing senior management, customers, or external agencies.
• Knowledge of nuclear weapons systems, WMD nonproliferation, or related national security domains.

About Our Team

The Nuclear Enterprise Assurance program is a growing multidisciplinary team focused on enabling confident engineering decisions for a secure nuclear deterrent. We aim to integrate Systems Security Engineering, assurance disciplines, threat‑informed analysis, and lifecycle engineering practices to identify and mitigate subversion risks early and throughout the weapon system lifecycle.

Our team provides the technical basis, assurance evidence, methods, and cross‑domain capabilities needed to support high‑consequence decisions across the nuclear deterrence mission space. We work closely with systems engineers, design and production partners, cybersecurity experts, counterintelligence professionals, supply‑chain organizations, and Nuclear Security Enterprise stakeholders to deliver actionable assurance through repeatable, tailorable approaches that can be applied across lifecycle phases.

As the program grows, we are also investing in scalable knowledge management, communities of practice, and enduring technical expertise to strengthen enterprise assurance capabilities. Our goal is to help ensure that nuclear weapon systems are designed, developed, produced, deployed, and sustained with confidence, resilience, and assured trustworthiness.

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

Position requires a Department of Energy (DOE) Q security clearance to start, or equivalent active security clearance with another U.S. government agency (e.g., DOD). Sandia is required by DOE directive 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 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.