Worked at Sandia National Laboratories from 1990-2013 in ABQ/NM, after 10 years in the Silicon Valley (CA Bay Area). I was recruited as a PM in Nuclear Energy to lead joint, cost-shared programs with the US Power Industry. Worked in tech. leadership roles in many areas including Homeland security, Intelligence, Nuclear Deterrence and Emergency Response Readiness, Global Security and Leading a remote test site within a USAF Base. All Missions of National Importance. Had opportunity to help shape national policy and strategy, team with allies and work with some of the smartest technical minds. Great R&D resources and funding. It's world's largest engineering R&D organization with current annual budget of >$4 billion and a workforce of ~15,000 professionals.
Having a MS or Ph. D. from top ten schools used to be requirement for entry. Salary is competitive, with excellent benefits including 10% 401K match since they no longer offer pension. No stock options, profit-sharing and other tech industry perks. However, excellent work-life balance, stability, working in different tech. areas with best minds w/o having to relocate and start over again, and wonderful quality of life, especially in NM if you love outdoors.
Employees are not government employees. It's a government owned contractor operated (GOCO) FFRDC, a non-profit. Like any big organization, there is a fair amount of beaurocracy and people issues to deal with. Having a team of former "A" students and ranking them is not conducive to teamwork although for all large projects or initiatives, it's a must. Multi-displinary teams range in size from a few to 100's and are spread out in many locations around the country. Opportunity to interact with Wasington lawmakers and agency e ecutives.
I found this whole thread really interesting. Maybe I have no idea but I’m wondering about interlab collaboration culture: is there like competition and maybe some lack of cooperation or grudging cooperation between labs? Sort of in the same sense that you get that stereotypical lack of information sharing between different government departments in other fields? Or it’s much more collaborative than the government bureau analogy (modulo classification/ project restrictions)?
National Security Labs, by law, do not compete with US Industry. However, they compete with each other so the nation benefit from best, innovation and solutions. They also co-operate in many areas including nuclear weapons. LANL & LLNL design the physics package whereas Sandia is responsible for systems engineers, safety, security and reliability. Rarely there is direct competition for funding since they have assigned missions.
Having a MS or Ph. D. from top ten schools used to be requirement for entry. Salary is competitive, with excellent benefits including 10% 401K match since they no longer offer pension. No stock options, profit-sharing and other tech industry perks. However, excellent work-life balance, stability, working in different tech. areas with best minds w/o having to relocate and start over again, and wonderful quality of life, especially in NM if you love outdoors.
Employees are not government employees. It's a government owned contractor operated (GOCO) FFRDC, a non-profit. Like any big organization, there is a fair amount of beaurocracy and people issues to deal with. Having a team of former "A" students and ranking them is not conducive to teamwork although for all large projects or initiatives, it's a must. Multi-displinary teams range in size from a few to 100's and are spread out in many locations around the country. Opportunity to interact with Wasington lawmakers and agency e ecutives.
Recommend exploring opportunities at Sandia.gov