What are the responsibilities and job description for the Postdoctoral Appointee - AI/ML for Solid Mechanics, Onsite position at Sandia National Laboratories?
Bidder Eligibility
This postdoctoral position is a temporary position for up to one year, which may be renewed at Sandia's discretion up to five additional years. The PhD must have been conferred within five years prior to employment. Individuals in postdoctoral positions may bid on regular Sandia positions as internal candidates, and in some cases may be converted to regular career positions during their term if warranted by ongoing operational needs, continuing availability of funds, and satisfactory job performance.
Employees, excluding student interns, must remain in their current position for one year from their hire date before bidding on a new job. However, the hiring manager may obtain approval to consider a candidate before the one-year requirement is met via the review process. This approval must be secured prior to being interviewed for a posted position. The application of this requirement will not supersede collective bargaining agreements. Please refer to the collective bargaining labor agreements for eligibility requirements for represented bidders.
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:
The Materials and Failure Modeling Department is seeking a highly motivated Postdoctoral Appointee to join our team and contribute to ongoing computational solid mechanics research, development, and analysis in the areas of scientific machine learning.
On any given day, you will have the opportunity to:
Due to the nature of the work, the selected candidate must be able to work onsite.
Qualifications We Require
The Materials and Failure Modeling Department performs material mechanics R&D, develops advanced engineering models, and deploys state-of-the-art computational capabilities to enable physically credible prediction of material behavior and failure in support of Sandia's mission. Core capabilities developed and maintained by the department include adaptive material and failure models, robust computational material libraries covering events from aging to shock physics, effective model calibration methodologies, and quantification of margin and uncertainty of material models.
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, 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.
Job ID: 699357
Job Family: 92
Regular/Temporary Position: T
Full/Part-Time Status: F
This postdoctoral position is a temporary position for up to one year, which may be renewed at Sandia's discretion up to five additional years. The PhD must have been conferred within five years prior to employment. Individuals in postdoctoral positions may bid on regular Sandia positions as internal candidates, and in some cases may be converted to regular career positions during their term if warranted by ongoing operational needs, continuing availability of funds, and satisfactory job performance.
Employees, excluding student interns, must remain in their current position for one year from their hire date before bidding on a new job. However, the hiring manager may obtain approval to consider a candidate before the one-year requirement is met via the review process. This approval must be secured prior to being interviewed for a posted position. The application of this requirement will not supersede collective bargaining agreements. Please refer to the collective bargaining labor agreements for eligibility requirements for represented bidders.
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*
- These benefits vary by job classification.
The Materials and Failure Modeling Department is seeking a highly motivated Postdoctoral Appointee to join our team and contribute to ongoing computational solid mechanics research, development, and analysis in the areas of scientific machine learning.
On any given day, you will have the opportunity to:
- Apply the principles of solid mechanics and advanced mathematics to support the research and development of capabilities and tools leveraging computational solid mechanics and machine
- Utilize advanced optimization methods, such as genetic algorithms, for discovering new material laws.
- Use state-of-the-art finite element codes and world class computational resources to support the design, development, and qualification of complex engineering materials and systems.
- Build and test agentic material modeling pipelines via pretrained large language models (LLMs).
- Develop a robust research portfolio through peer-reviewed journal publications, conference presentations, and participation in professional societies.
Due to the nature of the work, the selected candidate must be able to work onsite.
Qualifications We Require
- PhD in Mechanical Engineering, Applied Mechanics, Aerospace Engineering, Civil Engineering, or related field
- Background in the foundations of solid mechanics, including strength of materials, continuum mechanics, and/or mechanics of materials
- Experience with a programming language such as C, C , Julia, MATLAB, Python, and/or Rust
- Experience conducting research in scientific machine learning and implementing architectures, such as physics informed neural networks, graph neural networks and/or operator learning methods
- Communication skills as evidenced by a history of publication of results in peer-reviewed journals and external presentations at appropriate scientific conferences
- Ability to obtain and maintain a DOE Q clearance
- Experience performing mechanical finite element calculations
- Experience in constitutive model development, including viscoplastic materials
- Experience implementing material models in commercial finite element analysis codes
- Experience with agentic AI workflows using open and/or closed-source LLMs
- Knowledge of and/or experience with experimental methods for material characterization
- Experience with genetic algorithms (GAs) and specialized GA libraries
The Materials and Failure Modeling Department performs material mechanics R&D, develops advanced engineering models, and deploys state-of-the-art computational capabilities to enable physically credible prediction of material behavior and failure in support of Sandia's mission. Core capabilities developed and maintained by the department include adaptive material and failure models, robust computational material libraries covering events from aging to shock physics, effective model calibration methodologies, and quantification of margin and uncertainty of material models.
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, 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.
Job ID: 699357
Job Family: 92
Regular/Temporary Position: T
Full/Part-Time Status: F