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 vacations, 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
Sandia’s Autonomous Sensing & Perception organization is currently seeking an R&D Software Engineer to join the team.
The selected candidate will perform research and development work focused on making orbital, aerial, and terrestrial sensors and their associated platforms and support equipment more autonomous through the application of cutting-edge photogrammetry, remote sensing, and perception methods.
The successful candidate should have experience developing and optimizing fully-automated high-performance applications and deploying them into operational environments, porting prototype applications from higher-level languages to lower-level ones, and developing bindings in higher-level languages for lower-level applications. Additionally, they should also be familiar with algorithm and application development as it relates to remote sensing, machine intelligence (artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning), pattern recognition, supervised and unsupervised classification, target detection, signature matching, image and signal processing, computer vision, and photogrammetry and object geolocation.
On any given day, one may be called upon to:
- Develop applications that would allow for information to be automatically extracted from sensor and platform data and properly contextualized for higher-confidence autonomous decision-making
- Develop applications that will enable the autonomous processing of multiple live sensor streams in real time, in both data center and edge environments
- Develop applications that use modeling and simulation software to train autonomous systems
- Oversee operational deployment of developed applications
- Partner with researchers as they explore and identify high potential approaches and implement proofs of concept and prototypes in software
- Collaborate with multiple, diverse teams of scientists and engineers from across Sandia and external partner organizations (government, academia, industry) that are designing and building multiple sensor systems, platforms, and ground stations
Some travel is required for this position. Due to the nature of the role, this candidate must be able to work onsite.
Salary Range
$109,300 - $217,400
- 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
- Masters in Computer Science, Mathematics, Engineering, or other relevant technical degree field plus one (1) year of relevant professional experience; or equivalent combination of relevant education and experience (Bachelors + 5 years experience)
- Experience in building and leading medium-to-large-sized teams to turn proofs of concept and prototype applications into mature capabilities, and deploying those capabilities into high-consequence operational environments
- Demonstrated skill and experience with:
- C++ and Python
- Git or other modern version control
- Docker
- Experience using Linux operating systems and ability to perform technical work in a Linux environment
- Ability to obtain and maintain a DOE Q-level clearance and SCI-level clearance, which may require a polygraph test
Qualifications We Desire
- Knowledge of and ability to develop production-grade software using standard methodologies in a fast-paced and operationally-focused environment
- Experience with the following:
- Continuous integration, testing, and delivery workflows
- Working on software development teams that use Agile methods
- Developing and deploying applications and services written in C/C++ and Python
- CPU and GPU parallel computing software frameworks (e.g. CUDA, OpenMP, OpenCL, OpenACC, MPI, VHDL)
- Higher-level programming languages besides Python (e.g. MATLAB, IDL, R, Scala, Julia, Rust)
- Building and deploying web services
- SQL, NoSQL, streaming, and in-memory databases
- Web-based user interface and data visualization libraries
- Active (e.g. SAR, LIDAR) and passive (e.g. EO/IR, FMV) imaging modalities
- Image and signal processing, computer vision, photogrammetry, remote sensing, and machine intelligence (artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning)
- Real-time processing algorithm development
- Scientific computing and numerical solver libraries (e.g. Numpy, SciPy, Eigen, Ceres)
- Machine learning software frameworks (e.g. PyTorch, TensorFlow, Keras, scikit-learn)
- Image processing and computer vision software frameworks (e.g. OpenCV, ImageJ, ITK, scikitimage)
- Synthetic remote sensing data generation software (e.g. Xpatch, DIRSIG) and remote sensing data analysis software (e.g. ENVI, ERDAS Imagine, IDRISI, SOCET GXP)
- Geospatial software libraries (e.g. GDAL, PDAL, PCL, PROJ, OSSIM, Cesium, NITRO)
- Edge computing hardware (e.g. NVIDIA Jetson, FPGAs)
- An interest in pursuing professional development opportunities focused on increased remote sensing, computer vision, photogrammetry, and machine intelligence domain expertise, increased software engineering proficiency, and increased technical leadership
- The ability to work effectively as a member of diverse, multidisciplinary project teams
- An active DOE Q-level security clearance and an active SCI-level Clearance; or other equivalent active security clearance such as DOD Top Secret and SCI-level Clearance
About Our Team
Autonomous Sensing & Perception develops, implements, and deploys quantitative methods for the detection, identification, classification, localization, mapping, and contextualization of objects and events of interest in orbital, aerial, and terrestrial sensor data to support autonomous decision making by associated platforms and their support equipment. It is focused on the entire technology maturation spectrum from new and rapidly-maturing technologies, through development, to preparing them for use in operational environments, deploying them, and maintaining them once deployed.
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.
