BNL’s Nonproliferation and National Security Department (NN) contributes to U.S. nuclear security and safeguards efforts by assisting in the development, analysis and assessment of policies that strengthen international regimes, collecting and analyzing data to identify trends and threats to the U.S. and international communities, developing and implementing new technologies to address existing and emerging threats, and strengthening the domestic and international institutions that form the framework of the nuclear non-proliferation and nuclear security regimes through training and engagement.  The Radiation Detection and Emerging Safeguards Technologies (RD&EST) Group pursues research and development in radiation detection technology and applications in security, safeguards, and healthcare, ranging from development of novel radiation detectors and design and construction of detector systems for broad applications to test and evaluation of radiation detection equipment to support sponsors in operation and research. In addition, the Group also work on artificial intelligence and machine learning to address questions related to detection and safeguards of nuclear and radioactive materials.

The Nonproliferation and National Security Department seeks an Associate Staff Engineer with knowledge and experience in electronic circuit design and application development. Working under the supervision of the Group Leader, you will be a key person in the group in charge of electronics design and system development. You will participate in the ongoing research, leading design and testing of data acquisition systems for custom radiation detectors in X-ray and SPECT imaging systems as well as detector prototypes for nonproliferation applications.  In addition, you will contribute to future proposals to develop new research opportunities in the group. This position has a high level of interaction with an international and multicultural scientific community. 

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Work with the Group Leader and research scientists/engineers to create development plans for radiation detection systems in applications of national security, nuclear security and healthcare
• Responsible for electronics designs in product development cycle from schematic design to firmware/software development, system integration, and system testing
• Work closely with engineering team on PCB layout designs and PCB/Detector assembly
• Participate in the testing and evaluation of custom-built and commercial radiation detection systems in the laboratory and at other experimental sites
• Provide engineering support to radiation detector test and evaluation campaigns
• Give presentations at BNL lectures, conferences, and project review meetings where research results are discussed

Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• A Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Nuclear Engineering, Physics or related discipline
• Knowledge of I/O and communication standards, e.g., SPI, I2C, USB 2/3, PCIe, and Gigabit Ethernet
• Knowledge and experience in data analysis to determine performance of circuits and systems
• Demonstrated knowledge of troubleshooting in printed circuit boards
• Demonstrated knowledge of circuit board schematic and layout designs
• Demonstrated knowledge of  FPGA programming in VHDL or Verilog language and development of firmware for standalone microcontrollers or SoC chip
• Clear and concise oral and written communication and presentation skills

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Preferred Knowledge, Skills, andAbilities:

• A Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Nuclear Engineering, Physics or related discipline
• Three years full time progressively responsible relevant experience
• Working knowledge of and experience in radiation detectors and radiation detection systems
• Laboratory experience in troubleshooting in printed circuit boards
• Hands-on experience in printed circuit board schematic and layout designs
• Hands-on experience in FPGA programming in VHDL or Verilog language and development of firmware for standalone microcontrollers or SoC chips
• Working knowledge and experience in electronics manufacturing and production
• Experience in the latest Xilinx/Altera FPGAs and/or SOC FPGAs
• Experience in ARM and/or RISC-V CPUs
• Programming experience using C++ with QT framework
• Experience in desktop application development in C/C++ or Python in Linux and/or Windows
• Working knowledge of real-time Operating Systems

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Environmental, Health & Safety Requirements:

The main scope of work will be conducted in an office environment as well as in the laboratory.  The successful candidate must be able to conduct the activities safely in BNL laboratories by completing required trainings, interpreting laboratory safety information postings, and wearing appropriate personal protective equipment.

Other Information:

• Position may require occasional travel (~15%)
• Irregular hours possible based on experiment design and on program requirements
• This is a fully onsite position located at BNL

Brookhaven Laboratory is committed to providing fair, equitable and competitive compensation. The full salary range for this position is $78000 - $82000. Salary offers will be commensurate with the final candidate’s qualification, education and experience and considered with the internal peer group.