Director, Atmospheric Radiation Measurement User Facility

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory•Richland, WA

About The Position

At PNNL, our core capabilities are divided among major departments that we refer to as Directorates within the Lab, focused on a specific area of scientific research or other function, with its own leadership team and dedicated budget. Our Science & Technology directorates include National Security, Earth and Biological Sciences, Physical and Computational Sciences, and Energy and Environment. In addition, we have an Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a Department of Energy, Office of Science user facility housed on the PNNL campus. The Earth and Biological Sciences Directorate (EBSD) leads critical research in four areas: Atmospheric, Climate & Earth Sciences, Biological Sciences, Environmental Molecular Sciences, and Global Change. Our vision is to develop a predictive understanding of biological and Earth systems in transition. We aim to understand energy and material flows within the integrated Earth system; to understand, predict, and control the response of biosystems to environmental and/or genomic changes; and to Model the Earth system from the subsurface to the atmosphere. The Biological Sciences Division has 17 collaborative, interdisciplinary biology-based teams to tackle major challenges in ecosystem sustainability, bioenergy, human health, and national security. Teams use unique field sites, advanced instrumentation, and integrated computational approaches to explore molecular-scale processes. Strategic efforts focus on advancing molecular measurement capabilities, uncovering the structure and function of molecular dark matter, identifying control points in complex systems, and developing domain-aware AI to accelerate discovery and hypothesis-driven research. PNNL stewards the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) User Facility (www.arm.gov), one of the world’s premier atmospheric research facilities. ARM has produced more than 30 years of continuous, globally extensive atmospheric measurements to benefit the global scientific community. ARM provides critical measurements of clouds, aerosols, precipitation, radiation, and other atmospheric parameters across a network of fixed ground observatories (in the U.S. Southern Great Plains, the North Slope of Alaska, and the Eastern North Atlantic), mobile field observational facilities to sample additional diverse meteorological regimes, and from aerial measurement platforms that complement the ground-based observatories. Through its high-performance computing, data analytics, and modeling capabilities, ARM transforms raw observations into community-accessible data products and large-eddy simulations, enabling scientists around the world to better understand atmospheric processes, improve Earth system models, and estimate impacts to energy systems and resilience. The ARM Director reports to the Associate Laboratory Director for Earth and Biological Sciences and provides overall scientific leadership, strategic direction, and operational oversight for the ARM enterprise, which spans a consortium of nine DOE National Laboratories. The Director guides scientific priorities; leads complex operations across multiple observatories and platforms (ground-, mobile-, and aerial-based); stewards data quality and critical infrastructure; and collaborates closely with DOE, other DOE user facilities, national laboratories, academic institutions, and the broader scientific community. This role requires strong scientific credibility, a forward-looking scientific vision, and demonstrated organizational leadership and management acumen to advance ARM’s mission, ensure sustainable operations, and deliver high-impact science and capabilities.

Requirements

A strong record of scientific leadership and excellence in atmospheric science, environmental science, Earth system science, or related fields.
Knowledge of atmospheric observations, instrumentation, remote sensing, data management, or computational modeling.
Demonstrated ability to develop and implement a strategic vision, organizational agility, and capacity to lead complex operations and long-term planning.
Proven ability to build and maintain relationships with a variety of stakeholders and sponsors.
Strong communication and interpersonal skills.
Experience in operations, deployment, and sustainment of ground-based meteorological instrumentation and advanced aerial atmospheric measurement platforms, for example unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and crewed aircraft within DOE aviation requirements.
A demonstrated commitment to collaboration, transparency, and scientific openness.
Passion for facilitating broad community access to data and enabling impactful science at national and international scales.
Ability to travel to ARM field sites, including areas in remote locations with potentially extreme physical conditions.
Project management experience including development of budgets and schedules.
Knowledge of and commitment to best practices in human performance, safety, security, quality, environment and health.
Strong communication skills and the ability to foster the flow of information in all directions in the organization.
Strong interpersonal, written, and oral communication skills.
Excellent listening skills and the ability to build effective relationships vertically and horizontally in a complex highly matrixed organization.
Skills in creating and articulating a strategic vision and developing, motivating, and empowering staff in executing on the vision.
The ability to create a positive learning environment in which all staff can excel.
The temperament and desire to encourage and support teamwork and positively motivate the members of the technical groups.
The ability to interact at the highest level of management, both internally and externally, in a constructive and collaborative manner and in way that appropriately represents the Laboratory.
The ability to interact effectively with funding agencies (DOE) and other national and international research agencies.
BS/BA and 10 years of relevant experience -OR-
MS/MA or higher and 8 years of relevant experience

Nice To Haves

Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science or a related discipline.
10 years of technical program management experience.
Demonstrated experience managing large, distributed, multi-institutional research or technical programs.
Experience in direct and matrix line management of technical, scientific, and operational personnel.
Experience managing large scale projects on the order of $80-$100M annually.
Knowledge of DOE, specifically BER, research priorities and sponsor relationships.
Experience with ES&H compliance and oversight of laboratory operations.

Responsibilities

Strategic Science Vision and Direction: Provide strategic science leadership to define and advance ARM’s scientific mission and vision in the context of evolving atmospheric research challenges within the context of the broader DOE Office of Science mission.
The new Director will also play a central role in developing and executing ARM’s new 10-year strategic plan, working in close collaboration with the Atmospheric research community, ARM staff, and the Department of Energy Office of Science program sponsors.
Operational Stewardship: Coordinate ARM facility operations, including fixed observatories, mobile facilities, aerial platforms, instrumentation, data services, modeling, and computing infrastructure, along with coordination of ARM operations, development, and planning activities across the 9-lab consortia.
Working with the Associate Director for Operations, the ARM Director provides oversight of field operations including the review and implementation of field campaigns. These include deployment of the ARM mobile facilities to locations around the world.
A key strategic responsibility of the Director is to lead the alignment of organizational and operational structures to effectively integrate and sustain ARM’s expanding aerial capabilities, including a highly instrumented unmanned aerial system (UAS) and the uniquely modified crewed research aircraft – a Challenger 850.
Working with the Associate Director for Research, the ARM Director provides oversight of R&D and new capability development including the procurement and modification of instrumentation as well as software development in support of operations and data products.
Foster a sense of community by ensuring collaboration and coordination with the approximately 300 ARM staff distributed across nine DOE laboratories and other institutions.
Data Management: Ensure ARM produces high-quality, reliable, and FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) data products for the global research community.
Resource Allocation: Optimize and direct resource planning and allocation, budgeting, procurements, and property and instrument management.
Including annual operational execution of atmospheric user research, facility management and operations including data archive and products maintenance, as well as forward looking premier research capability building and sustainment through internal S&T R&D.
Stakeholder and Community Engagement: Engage with the user community by coordinating advisory groups, organizing workshops, reviewing proposals for field campaigns, managing user calls, and maintaining a science-forward, welcoming culture that supports innovation and access. Represent ARM to DOE leadership, funding sponsors, the ARM User Executive Committee and external stakeholders and communicate scientific achievements, facility status, and future directions.

Benefits

Employees and their families are offered medical insurance, dental insurance, vision insurance, robust telehealth care options, several mental health benefits, free wellness coaching, health savings account, flexible spending accounts, basic life insurance, disability insurance, employee assistance program, business travel insurance, tuition assistance, relocation, backup childcare, legal benefits, supplemental parental bonding leave, surrogacy and adoption assistance, and fertility support.
Employees are automatically enrolled in our company-funded pension plan and may enroll in our 401 (k) savings plan with company match.
Employees may accrue up to 120 vacation hours per year and may receive ten paid holidays per year.

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