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 401k; 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 (Senior Scientist, Principal Scientist, and Senior Principal Scientist) to work with ESCE team to support installation, commissioning, and technical maturation the world's newest and most advanced linear induction accelerator, Scorpius at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS).
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 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.
Key Responsibilities
- Devises imaginative, thorough, and practical solutions requiring evaluation of standards and processes. Solutions may be unique.
- Design, execute and analyze accelerator/beam experiments.
- Develop, commission, and operate beam and x-ray diagnostics.
- 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 experiments 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 safety 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.
Senior Scientist (Role Expectations):
- Lead major ECSE workstreams; define technical roadmaps; serve od design and test readiness reviews; mentor team.
- Lead a small Machine Learning deployment tied to an experiment; establish validation/rollback.
- Maintain a rigorous safety culture; own hazard analysis and control implementation for a campaign; enforce configuration management and readiness checklist.
Principal Scientist (Role Expectations):
- Serve as technical lead for major ECSE capability areas; define requirements, interfaces, and acceptance criteria.
- Plan and lead the future multi-campaign test efforts from IOC to FOC.
- Integrate cross-discipline work (pulsed power, magnets/alignment, controls/EPICS, target/diagnostics) to achieve replicable beam/x-ray performance.
- Set minimal standards for Machine Learning use and oversee one or two high value deployments.
- Maintain a rigorous safety culture; author/approve procedures and hazard analysis; set the safety basis and acceptance criteria for operations, make go/no-go decisions.
- Mentor senior scientists and engineers; build hiring pipelines and guide career development.
- Author publications; produces intellectual property; contributes to strategies, reports and technical proposals.
Senior Principal Scientist (Role Expectations):
- Serve as technical leader/design authority for major ECSE capabilities; set technical vision, requirements flow down, interface control, and acceptance criteria.
- Lead multi-campaign test strategies from IOC to FOC, balancing risks, schedule, and performance.
- Establish and enforce diagnostics/analysis standards across the program.
- Own cross-discipline integration (pulsed power, magnets/alignment, controls/EPICS, target/diagnostics) to achieve replicable beam/x-ray performance.
- Define a focused Machine Learning roadmap (few high-impact use cases) and governance for safe adoption.
- Develop and mentor technical leaders; build recruiting pipelines.
- Define the program’s safety strategy – establish leading indicators, conduct audits, and drive continuous improvements across teams.
- Influence external partnership and vendor roadmaps; guide make/buy decisions, and technology maturation plans.
- Steward budget and EVMS at the capability level; anticipate long-lead risks; drive corrective actions.
Senior Scientist: ($101,524.80 to $152,297.60)
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s in calculus-based technical (STEM) field plus at least 5 years relevant experience. Skill building experience must demonstrate either deeper technical specialization or additional cross-disciplinary knowledge. Graduate research experience may be recognized.
- Track record leading end-to-end accelerator or plasma or pulsed power campaigns (requirements, designs, safety basis, execution, analysis, publication or report).
- Deep expertise in at least two of: injector physics/diodes & cathodes; transport and stability mitigation (BBU/corkscrew); target/x-ray source design & spot optimization; high-speed diagnostics; pulsed power drivers.
Highly Desired
Principal Scientist: ($121,867.20 to $185,848.00)
Qualifications
- Minimum Education and Experience: Bachelor’s degree in a calculus-based (STEM) field, plus at least 9 years’ relevant experience. Skill building experience must demonstrate either deeper technical specialization or additional cross-disciplinary knowledge. Graduate research experience may be recognized.
- Proven PI/Co-PI with delivered mission outcomes; sets technical strategy and risk posture.
- Authority in instability mitigation, injector & transport tuning, or target/diagnostics architecture for ns phenomena.
- Communicates complex tradeoffs to execs/stakeholders; builds collaborations (labs, universities, vendors).
Desired
Senior Principal Scientist: ($147,804.80 to $229,091.20)
Qualifications
- Minimum Education and Experience: Bachelor’s degree in calculus-based (STEM) field, plus at least 14 years’ relevant experience. Skill building experience must demonstrate either deeper technical specialization or additional cross-disciplinary knowledge. Graduate research experience may be recognized.
- Demonstrated technical authority across three or more domains: injector/cathodes, transport & instability mitigation (BBU/corkscrew), target/x-ray source/spot optimization, fast diagnostics and DAQ, pulsed-power drivers, radiation effect and shielding.
- Proven record of program-level leadership: architecture decisions, verification/validation strategies, hazard/safety bases, and delivery against mission Key Performance Parameters.
- Expertise of modeling-to-measurement integration.
- Strong communication with executives and external stakeholders (DOE/NNSA, partner labs, vendors, academia).
Desired
Technical Knowledge (for all levels):
- Accelerator physics: high-current electron sources/diodes. LIAs, magnetic focusing/solenoids, emittance, envelope physics, space-charge, BBU & corkscrew, tune/optics matching.
- Pulsed Power and HV: LTD concepts, solid state pulsed power, switching, transmission lines, grounding/isolation, EMI diagnostics and survivability.
- Beam-target/x-ray production: converters, bremsstrahlung yield, spot optimization, dose/fluence, target thermal response.
- Diagnostics and DAQ: fast detectors, timing/jitter, calibration/uncertainty, signal integrity, high-rate data pipelines.
- Vacuum and magnet systems: UHV practices, leak-check, magnet mapping/alignment, field quality and trim strategy.
- Modeling tools (examples): LSP, WARP, COMSOL, Geant4, MCNP, Python, CHICAGO, FLAG.
- Working knowledge of supervised machine learning, basics of model validation in test operations.
Controls and test infrastructure: EPICS, LabVIEW, timing/fan-out, triggers, oscilloscopes/digitizers, safety interlocks.
Additional Information:
- The primary work location will be the Losee Road facility in North Las Vegas, Nevada with frequent visits to the Nevada National Security Site (forward areas are approximately 90 miles from North Las Vegas).
- Work schedule for this position will be 4/10’s, Monday – Thursday (subject to change).
- Pre-placement physical examination, which includes a drug screen, is required. MSTS maintains a substance abuse policy that includes random drug testing.
- Must possess a valid driver’s license.
MSTS is required by DOE directive 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 offered employment with MSTS are also 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. In addition, Applicants for employment must be able to obtain and maintain a DOE Q-level security clearance, which requires U.S. citizenship, at least 18 years of age. Reference DOE Order 472.2, “Personnel Security”. 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.
Department of Energy Q Clearance (position will be cleared to this level). Reviews and tests for the absence of any illegal drug as defined in 10 CFR Part 707.4, “Workplace Substance Abuse Programs at DOE Sites,” will be conducted. Applicant selected will be subject to a Federal background investigation, required to participate in subsequent reinvestigations, and must meet the eligibility requirements for access to classified matter. Successful completion of a counterintelligence evaluation, which may include a counterintelligence-scope polygraph examination, may also be required. Reference 10 CFR Part 709, “Counterintelligence Evaluation Program.”
MSTS is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, veteran status or other characteristics protected by law. MSTS is a background screening, drug-free workplace.
Annual salary range for this position is:
Starting salary is determined based on the position market value, the individual candidate education and experience and internal equity.
