Posting Title

Graduate (Year-Round) Intern - Industrial and Fuel Supply Optimization Modeling/Analysis

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Location

CO - Golden

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Position Type

Intern (Fixed Term)

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Hours Per Week

40

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Working at NLR

NLR is located at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Golden, Colorado is the nation's primary laboratory for energy systems research and development.

Join the National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR), where world-class scientists, engineers, and experts are accelerating energy innovation through breakthrough research and systems integration. From our mission to our collaborative culture, NLR stands out in the research community for its commitment to an affordable and secure energy future. Spanning foundational science to applied systems engineering and analysis, we focus on solving complex challenges to deliver advanced, secure, reliable, and cost-effective energy solutions. Our work helps strengthen U.S. industries, support job creation, and promote national economic growth.

At NLR, you'll find a mission-driven environment supported by state-of-the-art facilities, multidisciplinary research teams, and strong collaborations with industry, academia, and other national laboratories. We offer robust professional development opportunities, and a competitive benefits package designed to support your career and well-being.

Job Description

The Integrated Modeling and Economic Analysis Group develops and applies energy and economic models to evaluate and inform the evolution of the energy system and the associated implications for the economy, environment, and society. We are looking forward to welcoming a new researcher to our team to contribute to a growing body of research evaluating alternative pathways to satisfy increasing energy demand from the US economy.

Working with senior researchers, the successful candidate will assist with data management and complementary coding for the Fuels and Industry Integrated Optimization (FINITO) model—a new model simulating the evolution of the US industrial and fuel supply sectors—with applications towards a range of research topics, including:

• evaluation of the implications of alternative policy designs for energy technologies,
• evaluation of effects of research and development (R&D) driven improvements to the cost and performance of energy technologies,
• evaluation of how energy changes in the industrial sector would interact with other energy sectors (e.g., electricity),
• explore impacts of different manufacturing energy decisions on US manufacturing competitiveness.

In particular, the intern will contribute to identifying, synthesizing, and implementing new data within the FINITO modeling structure; editing processing scripts; coordinating data workflow and updates; visualizing data via Tableau. In addition, the intern will assist in communication products, including presentations to deliver at workshops/conferences, technical articles for submission to peer-reviewed journals, as well as shorter written products for policy audiences.

The ideal candidate will have a high level of enthusiasm to expand one’s knowledge of the energy system, learn new skills, and apply such knowledge and skills to help identify how the US can increase energy choices while decreasing environmental impacts. We welcome applicants pursuing advanced degrees from any field, but a strong applicant must have experience developing and applying python scripts and a solid background in data management and analysis.

General job duties include:

• Assist in research that generates independent, high quality, and reproducible results,
• Research, acquisition, and analysis of complex datasets requiring substantial pre-processing and harmonization,
• Assist in development of new data architectures to flexibly describe infrastructure systems,
• Assist in executing scenarios and visualizing, analyzing, and interpreting results,
• Assist senior researchers in the design, implementation, and reporting of the research project,
• Contribute to technical reports, journal articles, and presentations.

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Basic Qualifications

Minimum of a 3.0 cumulative grade point average.

Undergraduate: Must be enrolled as a full-time student in a bachelor’s degree program from an accredited institution.
Post Undergraduate: Earned a bachelor’s degree within the past 12 months. Eligible for an internship period of up to one year.

Graduate: Must be enrolled as a full-time student in a master’s degree program from an accredited institution.