National Ignition Facility Integration Scientist

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 are seeking a highly skilled and technically adept NIF Integration Scientist to join the National Ignition Facility and Photon Sciences Directorate. In this role, you will provide scientific, technical, and operational integration support for the safe, effective, and coordinated execution of NIF experiments as part of the Target and Laser Interaction Sphere (TaLIS) Expert Group. You will apply advanced technical knowledge and independent judgment to support experimental integration and optimization, ensuring that targets, diagnostics, laser configurations, and facility constraints are aligned to achieve high-quality experimental outcomes as part of the NIF User Office.

You will collaborate closely with physicists, engineers, software developers, designers, technicians, experiment responsible individuals, and program leaders to ensure that experiments are executable, scientifically sound, and compliant with facility requirements, safety expectations, and operational standards.

This position is part of the NIF&PS Directorate and requires substantial on-site presence at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California due to the nature of the work.

You will

• Collaborate in the scientific and technical integration of complex NIF and HED experiments across targets, diagnostics, lasers, chamber, and facility interfaces to meet scientific, operational, and program objectives.
• Independently evaluate experimental configurations for compatibility with chamber geometry, facility limits, operational constraints, and scientific requirements, identifying risks and providing solutions to improve readiness and outcomes.
• Troubleshoot and resolve complex integration challenges in collaboration with physicists, engineers, and subject matter experts, including diagnostic placement, target alignment, cleanliness, debris, shrapnel, backscatter, and other chamber interface issues.
• Serve as a primary technical point of contact for assigned experiments, integration activities, or scopes of work, and support or serve as Shot Responsible Individual (RI) as needed to ensure execution readiness.
• Coordinate across organizational and multidisciplinary teams to support campaign planning, technical integration, experiment execution, and achievement of project deliverables, schedules, and budget constraints.
• May lead technical reviews of new or modified experimental configurations, ensuring compliance with scientific, engineering, operational, safety, quality assurance, and configuration management requirements.
• Manage, track, and communicate technical issues, action items, risks, non-conformances, and readiness status to experiment teams, facility stakeholders, management, and program leadership, ensuring timely resolution and proper documentation.
• Develop, maintain, and improve operational records, review packages, configuration verification data, integration guidance, checklists, interface constraints, technical references, and lessons learned repositories.
• Apply expertise in High Energy Density (HED) diagnostics and facility operations, including systems such as Dante, VISAR, and radiography at NIF and Omega, to support experiment setup, fielding, execution readiness, post-shot analysis, and continuous improvement.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Additional job responsibilities at the SES.4 level,

• Direct technical vision and integration strategy for major experiments, campaigns, and high consequence efforts.
• May lead large scale scientific and technical integration work that supports major experimental objectives, facility capabilities, and program priorities.
• Serve as a primary technical contact for major experiments, campaigns, and institutional initiatives, providing guidance, coordinating cross-functional technical efforts, and supporting strategic decision-making to ensure successful execution and alignment with organizational objectives.
• Utilize independent judgment to establish and develop organizational and technical objectives, guide priorities, methods and influence resource allocation with broad strategic latitude.
• Balance scientific, technical, operational