Senior​/Principal Aerospace Engineer, AFSIM - Onsite

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• 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*

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We are seeking a R&D S&E, Aerospace Engineering to perform concept development and analysis work within AFSIM and a Sandia custom‑developed tool called Ascent. This role would focus on assessing performance and requirements of missiles, sensors, kill chains, and other related systems for strike and defense applications in heavily contested / defended environments. Our largest focus area is assessments of hypersonic strike weapons and defense against hypersonic weapons.

Your analyses will inform needs, requirements, and concepts for a variety of sponsors across the DOE and DoD.

• Perform trade‑space analyses in AFSIM and/or Ascent to assess performance across variables of interest for:
  • Weapon system survivability (ability to evade detection and/or intercept)
  • Weapon system effectiveness (coupling of navigation, lethality, survivability, etc.)
  • Kill chain effectiveness (ability of defenses to detect, track, communicate, and engage targets)
• Set up mission‑representative scenarios in AFSIM and/or Ascent
  • Engage with armed services, intelligence communities, and domain experts to learn about scenarios of interest and existing techniques
  • Build models of platforms (missiles, directed energy systems, satellites, etc.)
  • Build out multi‑platform engagement scenarios with weapons and kill chains (radars / other sensors in all domains, comms layers, BMC2, launchers, missiles, etc.)
• Implement existing and novel algorithms into AFSIM and/or Ascent for missile engagement modeling, including algorithms for:
  • Generating 6 DOF flight algorithms (trajectory generation, navigation & guidance solutions)
  • Fire Control, weapon task assignment, and tracking algorithms (Kalman Filters, UKF, etc.)
• Develop plug‑ins for AFSIM or Ascent using C++ and/or Python
  • Including integration of other existing tools or plug‑ins
• Work with domain experts in aero, GNC, lethality, sensors, etc. to:
  • Implement and run representative models
  • Develop novel concepts, derive requirements, and write proposal

Due to the nature of the work, this candidate must be able to work onsite.

$117,500 - $235,700

* 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.

• A Bachelor's degree in a relevant discipline and five (5) years of directly relevant experience, or an equivalent combination of directly relevant education and engineering or scientific experience that demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and ability to perform independent research and development.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a DOE Q and SCI clearances

The ideal Aerospace Engineer candidate for Sandia National Laboratories will in addition possess the following:

• Graduate degree in Aerospace Engineering, Aeronautical Engineering, or a highly related field where an independent research project was a graduation requirement (e.g., independent project, thesis, or dissertation).
• Experience in applied aerodynamics, flight…