Scientist I​/II

JOB DESCRIPTION

Mission Support and Test Services, LLC (MSTS) manages and operates the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) for the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Our mission is to help ensure the security of the United States and its allies by providing high‑hazard experimentation and incident response capabilities through operations, engineering, education, field, and integration services and by acting as environmental stewards to the Site’s Cold War legacy.

Our vision is to be the user site of choice for large‑scale, high‑hazard, national security experimentation, with premier facilities and capabilities below ground, on the ground, and in the air. (See NNSS.gov for our unique capabilities.) Our 2,750+ professional, craft, and support employees are called upon to innovate, collaborate, and deliver on some of the more difficult nuclear security challenges facing the world today.

• MSTS offers our full‑time employees highly competitive salaries and benefits packages including medical, dental, and vision; both a pension and a 401(k); paid time off and 96 hours of paid holidays; relocation (if located more than 75 miles from work location); tuition assistance and reimbursement; and more.
• MSTS is a limited liability company consisting of Honeywell International Inc. (Honeywell), Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. (Jacobs), and HII Nuclear Inc.

The Enhanced Capabilities for Subcritical Experiments (ECSE) program is seeking outstanding scientists at various career stages (Scientist I and Scientist II) to work with the ECSE team to support installation, commissioning, and technical maturation, the world’s newest and most advanced linear induction accelerator, Scorpius. Scientists will contribute to ECSE program advancing high‑current pulsed accelerator, beam transport, and x‑ray source performance. Responsibilities span experimental activities (e.g. diagnostics developments), modeling and simulations, data analysis, and cross‑disciplinary collaboration with pulsed power, target, controls, and operation teams in a high‑consequence DOE environment.

Successful candidates will work within a collaboration between the Nevada National Security Site, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Livermore National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratory to prepare the accelerator for state‑of‑the‑art experiments and to solve challenging problems that will improve accelerator performance and understanding of the physics behind.

• Contributes to solutions of problems and issues with limited scope and basic complexity, using a well‑defined set of technologies, generally in support of more senior scientists. Solutions use established basic standards, practices and procedures as well as technical knowledge to address problems and complete tasks. Focus is on applying academic knowledge to the work environment and developing good work/team habits.
• Design, execute and analyze accelerator/beam experiments (injector, transport, target/x‑ray conversion, stability/BBU, corkscrew mitigation).
• Develop, commission, and operate beam and x‑ray diagnostics (e.g. BPMs, Faraday cups, scintilla tors/ICCD, streak cameras, x‑ray diodes, spectrometers, interferometry, and others).
• Build, validate, and apply physics models and multiphysics simulations; compare to experimental data and iterate designs.
• Apply targeted machine learning to speed up tuning, improve diagnostics insights, and support experiment planning; build data workflows and integrate with controls where appropriate, validate models against measurements.
• Author test plans, procedures, and technical reports; present results to program leadership and external partners.
• Work safely with high voltage, radiation, vacuum/pressure systems; follow Work Planning & Control and configuration management.
• Collaborate across controls (timing/EPICS), solid‑state pulse power, alignments, targets, and operations.

• Execute well‑scoped tasks under mentorship; own sub‑system/test; grow into project ownership within 6‑12 months.
• Contributes to solutions of problems and issues with limited scope and basic complexity.
• Define…