Principal Associate Director for Engineering

Principal Associate Director for Engineering

Executive | Full-time

Engineering | Livermore, CA | 10/05/2026

Reference #: REF8960A

Job Code: 174.0 Principal Associate Dir

Organization: Office of the Director

Position Type: Career Indefinite

Security Clearance: Anticipated DOE Q clearance with Sensitive Compartmented Information access (requires U.S. citizenship and a federal background investigation)

Drug Test: Required for external applicant(s) selected for this position (includes testing for use of marijuana)

Medical Exam: Not applicable

Company Description

Join us and make YOUR mark on the World!

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has turned bold ideas into world-changing impact advancing science and technology to strengthen U.S. security and promote global stability.

Our mission spans four critical national security areas nuclear deterrence, threat preparedness, energy security, and multi-domain defense empowering teams to take on the toughest challenges of today and tomorrow. With a culture built on innovation and operational excellence, LLNL is a place where your expertise can make a real impact.

Job Description

We have an opening for the Principal Associate Director (PAD) for Engineering. In this key leadership position, you report to the Laboratory Director and are a member of the Laboratory’s Senior Leadership Team (SLT). You are responsible for managing the lab’s engineering workforce of approximately 3000 personnel and for sustaining and enhancing the broad range of engineering (both hardware and computational) capabilities and infrastructure to support the current and future missions of the Laboratory. Together with other lab leaders and stakeholders, you will help shape the Laboratory’s strategic vision and develop and articulate a strategy for the Directorate in support of the institution. You will manage discretionary R&D resources and sustain/grow relationships with government agencies that fund engineering capability development.

LLNL houses one of the premier engineering competencies to support national security missions. Work conducted by Engineering personnel supports a broad spectrum of programs across missions, scientific research, and operations and includes weapon engineering, laser and optical engineering, space hardware engineering, pulsed power systems, advanced manufacturing, micromechanical systems, energy technologies, bioengineering, and computational engineering. With a workforce of 3,000 and more than one million square feet of engineering infrastructure, the directorate supports the full spectrum of research and development—from advancing the frontiers of science and technology to pilot-scale manufacturing and qualification of components and systems. The engineering workforce and technological landscape are undergoing significant transformation through the adoption of advanced manufacturing (additive manufacturing, robotics and automation); digital engineering (data sciences, modeling and simulation) and artificial intelligence tools.

LLNL is one of the nation's premier national laboratories applying leading edge science and technology (S&T) to a broad range of national security missions. LLNL is a Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) operated by Lawrence Livermore National Security (LLNS), Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) for the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration. Today LLNL has a multidisciplinary workforce of approximately 9000 and an annual budget of more than $3.5 billion.

The Laboratory's mission is to meet the nation’s most pressing needs. At our core, we will remain architects and stewards of nuclear deterrence, ensuring the safety, security and effectiveness of the U.S. nuclear stockpile. We are adopting a transformational approach to this mission, seeking to deliver needed capabilities faster and with high confidence while working with our production partners to ensure continuous modernization of our capabilities. Our responsibilities, and the mission we support, extend beyond this foundational role. Our programs in threat analysis and reduction, space superiority, conventional munitions, directed energy, cyber and critical infrastructure resilience, autonomous systems, energy dominance, and biosecurity establish our unique role addressing today’s challenges and preparing for an uncertain future. Underlying all of this, we will continue to be international leaders in strategic areas of science and technology, to both support these missions and send a clear signal of our capabilities.

You will

• Partner with the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) to create and advance strategies to achieve institutional goals.
• Develop and implement strategies for the sustainment and advancement of world class engineering capabilities spanning cutting-edge scientific advances to pilot-scale production and qualification.
• Advance Engineering’s role as custodian of LLNL’s engineering rigor and quality.
• Oversee the operation of engineering facilities, laboratories, and service centers critical to the execution of LLNL missions.
• Manage and grow engineering capabilities by pursuing external funding for early-stage innovative concepts.
• Maintain close partnerships with key stakeholders in government, academia and industry including DOE/NNSA.
• Work with lab leadership to address technical and workforce challenges and opportunities in engineering with a particular emphasis on adoption of AI, digital engineering, and advanced manufacturing tools.
• Collaborate with the SLT on long-term, multidisciplinary initiatives in support of the lab’s future programmatic needs.
• Oversee the directorate’s budget consistent with Laboratory and DOE fiscal policies and practices.
• Manage Directorate personnel, ensuring an effective system for recruiting, hiring, managing and developing a high-quality engineering workforce.
• Provide oversight and personal commitment to safety, security, environmental stewardship, good business practices, compliance, and equal opportunity.

Qualifications

• Ability to secure and maintain a U.S. DOE Q/SCI-level security clearance which requires U.S. citizenship.

• Ph.D. in engineering or related discipline, or the equivalent combination of education and related experience.

• Extensive senior-level experience leading a large-scale, mission-oriented research and development organization.

• Expertise and national visibility in areas of engineering and its applications.

• Broad knowledge of the DOE/NNSA Laboratory enterprise.

• Demonstrated success in managing engineering programs, projects, or organizations and promoting creative contributions to solving complex engineering problems.

• Experience leading and managing a large complex technical organization, including hiring processes, workforce development, resource management, and strategic planning.

• Ability to manage technical priorities and balance the need to deliver program milestones while maintaining world-class capabilities in engineering.

• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills necessary to explain, present, direct, negotiate, influence and coordinate technical or programmatic activities.

• Extensive experience in effectively balancing complex technical, budgetary, and personnel priorities to achieve desired results.

• Experience ensuring that standards of safety, security, environmental stewardship, and quality assurance are established and appropriately followed.

• Qualifications We Desire

• Broad knowledge of national security policy issues.

• Established contacts with the relevant academic, national laboratory, industry, and government communities.

• Pay Range

• $521,580 - $669,864

• This is the lowest to highest salary we in good faith believe we would pay for this role at the time of this posting; pay will not be below any applicable local minimum wage. An employee’s position within the salary range will be based on several factors including, but not limited to, specific competencies, relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, seniority, geographic location, performance, and business or organizational needs.

• Additional Information

• Position Information

• This is an At Will, Career Indefinite position, open to Laboratory employees and external candidates. This key personnel position requires a commitment from you to serve at least two years in this position.

• Why Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory?

• Included in 2026 Best Places to Work by Glassdoor!

• Flexible

Benefits

• Package

• 401(k)

• Relocation Assistance

• Education Reimbursement Program

• Flexible schedules (depending on project needs)

• Our values - visit https://www.llnl.gov/inclusion/our-values

• Security Clearance

• This position requires a Department of Energy (DOE) Q-level clearance. Also, you must have the ability to obtain and maintain Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) access. If you are selected, we will initiate a Federal background investigation