Weather Radar Engineer – Mid Career

Overview

At PNNL, our core capabilities are divided among major departments that we refer to as directorates within the Lab, focused on a specific area of scientific research or other function, with its own leadership team and dedicated budget. Our Science & Technology directorates include National Security, Earth and Biological Sciences, Physical and Computational Sciences, and Energy and Environment. In addition, we have an Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a Department of Energy, Office of Science user facility housed on the PNNL campus.

The Earth and Biological Sciences Directorate (EBSD) leads critical research in four areas:
Atmospheric, Climate & Earth Sciences, Biological Sciences, Environmental Molecular Sciences, and Global Change. Our vision is to develop a predictive understanding of biological and Earth systems in transition. We aim to understand energy and material flows within the integrated Earth system; to understand, predict, and control the response of biosystems to environmental and/or genomic changes; and to model the Earth system from the subsurface to the atmosphere.

The Atmospheric, Climate, and Earth Sciences (ACES) Division comprises multidisciplinary teams working to advance the predictive knowledge of Earth systems. The ACES team includes researchers at every career stage who collaborate across disciplines to address some of the most pressing challenges which are critical to ensure a robust U.S. energy system. Scientists in ACES provide their expertise to major sections of the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, Biological and Environmental Research program, including the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility, the Atmospheric System Research program, and the Earth & Environmental Systems Modeling program.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is expanding its support of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) radar program. The ARM Program operates and maintains a network of fixed and mobile sites providing data to the climate research community. ARM sites include a broad array of instrumentation including radars, lidars, radiometers, and meteorological sensors. The candidate will become a member of a team of engineers and technicians responsible for the operations and maintenance of microwave and millimeter wavelength radars deployed around the world, ensuring the data output is calibrated and of research quality for the scientific community.

The successful candidate has the ability to troubleshoot complex systems that include RF and electronic components and electromechanical systems and has general engineering experience. Day‑to‑day duties involve the installation, repair, upgrade, calibration, maintenance, and operational assessment of the radars in the global ARM radar network. The candidate will work with team members that span a broad area of expertise, including engineers, scientists, and technicians.

The candidate must be self‑motivated, able to work with little supervision, take initiative to complete projects, and be flexible to adapt to changing project needs. The position involves periodic travel (25‑30%) to ARM sites in the US and around the world.

The responsibilities of the Weather Radar Engineer – Mid‑Career scientist will include practical application of the following skills:

• Design, develop, assemble, and test radar systems
• Perform system analysis, simulation, and modeling
• Design responsibilities may include RF system, power system management, antenna servo system, cooling, and signal processing architectures.
• Radar (Polarometric and Doppler) or RF systems at millimeter wave frequencies (microwave electronics and techniques)
• Electromagnetic fundamentals: waveform propagation, antenna theory, scatter theory
• Signal and data processing techniques
• Data analysis to evaluate system performance
• Troubleshooting and testing electronic/microwave systems

Minimum Qualifications:

• BS/BA and 7+ years of relevant experience
  -OR-
• MS/MA and 5+ years of relevant experience
  -OR-
• PhD with 3+ years of relevant experience

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master’s or PhD degree in a technically relevant field.
• The ideal…