Intern, R&D Graduate Year Round - Concentrating Solar Technologies - PARTNERS, Hybrid

What Your Job Will Be Like:

We are seeking a Year Round - R&D Graduate Intern from one of the university partners in the Partnership and Training for NNSA Engineering and Relevant Sciences (PARTNERS) consortium (University of Central Florida, Florida A&M University, University of California Irvine) to join our Concentrating Solar Technologies department. This initiative is sponsored and funded by the NNSA Minority Serving Institutions Partnership Program (MSIPP) for Sustainable STEM Workforce.

In this role, you will work collaboratively with Sandia National Laboratories R&D staff to perform cutting-edge research, analyze experimental data, develop models, and run simulations.

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

• Design and implement hardware and components for experimental thermofluid test systems including supercritical CO2 and molten salt fluid flow loops.
• Employ CFD packages and high-fidelity research codes to simulate and analyze these processes system components, such as heat exchangers, piping, and manifolds, to predict outlet conditions and ensure safe loop operation.
• Assist in the fabrication, assembly, and installation of hardware into operational test loops.
• Compare and validate CFD simulation results against experimental data, and troubleshoot discrepancies between predicted and observed system behavior.
• Participate in the design, planning, and execution of thermofluid experiments and conduct experiments to characterize thermodynamic properties, heat transfer behavior, and particle physics phenomena in molten salt.
• Collaborate with the engineering team to refine models, improve hardware designs, and enhance system performance.

At Sandia, we value the important work done by our interns and its contribution to National Security. Because of this, our interns earn competitive pay rates. Our pay structure is based on earned credit hours, classification, and degree level. Your pay rate will be determined during the hire process and included in your offer package. You can view the Intern Pay Rate chart here (https://(Use the "Apply for this Job" box below).).

You bring the confidence and skills to be eligible for the job by meeting these minimum requirements:

• Earned bachelor's degree
• Currently attending and enrolled full time in an accredited science, engineering, or math graduate program
• Minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0/4.0
• Ability to work up to 30 hours per week during the academic year, and up to 40 hours per week during the summer
• Ability to secure and maintain a U.S. security clearance which requires U.S. citizenship

• Currently attending and enrolled full time (or scheduled to graduate in the spring) in an accredited science, engineering, or math graduate program at one of the following PARTNERS universities:
  University of Central Florida, Florida A&M University, University of California Irvine
• Pursuing a graduate degree in Mechanical Engineering, Nuclear Engineering, Chemical Engineering, or a closely related field.
• Strong background in thermofluids, heat transfer, and energy systems.
• Experience with computational fluid dynamics modeling.
• Proficiency with relevant software such as ANSYS Fluent, COMSOL, MATLAB, and Python.
• Demonstrated experience working with molten salt systems, including thermophysical properties, system behavior, and operational considerations.
• Familiarity with supercritical CO¿ (sCO¿) systems, including compressor/heat‑exchanger behavior and loop dynamics.
• Experience with experimental thermal‑fluid systems or test loops.
• Experience designing or analyzing heat exchangers, pumps, or thermal‑fluid test loops.
• Ability to set up, run, and validate numerical simulations against experimental data
• Excellent technical writing and documentation skills.
• Ability to work independently in a research environment and contribute to multi‑disciplinary engineering team.

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.

The Partnership and…