Sandia Livermore continues growing

The welcome mat is out at Sandia National Laboratories’ Livermore campus, where the lab is continuing a hiring binge.

Traci Ryan, one of the hiring managers at Sandia, said during an interview that Sandia has been in an expansion mode in Livermore throughout the 6-1/2 years she’s worked there. The plans for 2019 call for adding 200 employees across all job categories, ranging from Ph.D. scientists and engineers to skilled technicians to site support services.

Traditionally, Sandia Livermore has employed about 1,000 people. It opened in 1956 to support the much-larger Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which is located across East Avenue. Sandia, an engineering lab, is headquartered in Albuquerque, N.M. and is the largest of the national labs with 13,000 employees.

“We’re hiring research and development post-docs in cybersecurity, computer science, electrical and mechanical engineering (for professionals),” Ryan said. “We’re also hiring for site operations and technicians. The mission is the same we’ve gotten orders to do a lot more work.”

The lab needs lots of talented post-docs in the biosciences, materials sciences, chemistry and chemical engineering, she said.

Given the red-hot Bay Area job market for technical talent, Ryan described how Sandia is working to recruit against the private sector and more prominent locations both Livermore labs are located at the foot of the Altamont Pass, well removed from the heart of the Bay Area.

“We have some of brightest minds in country here. There’s a mix of people working with purpose and attention to diversity and inclusion. Lots of people come to Sandia and spend their career here because there’s an amount of security,” she said. “It’s about doing great work. People deep down are quite dedicated to the mission,” she said.

Lawrence Livermore also reports being in a growth mode.

Lawrence has about 6,500 career employees with another 1,000 contract and post-docs working there. The growth centers on program needs in high-speed computing, additive manufacturing and national security, according to Lynda Seaver, public affairs director. The lab anticipates hiring between 570 and 690 employees annually through 2024 to cover attrition and the additional workload.