Post Masters Research Associate - AI for Scientific and Energy Systems
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 Physical and Computational Sciences Directorate's (PCSD’s) strengths in experimental, computational, and theoretical chemistry and materials science, together with our advanced computing, applied mathematics and data science capabilities, are central to the discovery mission we embrace at PNNL. But our most important resource is our people—experts across the range of scientific disciplines who team together to take on the biggest scientific challenges of our time. The Advanced Computing, Mathematics, and Data Division (ACMDD) focuses on basic and applied computing research encompassing artificial intelligence, applied mathematics, computing technologies, and data and computational engineering. Our scientists and engineers apply end-to-end co-design principles to advance future energy-efficient computing systems and design the next generation of algorithms to analyze, model, understand, and control the behavior of complex systems in science, energy, and national security.
Requirements
- Candidates must have received a Master’s degree within the past 24 months or within the next 8 months from an accredited college or university.
- Masters degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Applied Mathematics, Electrical Engineering, Computational Engineering, or a closely related field.
- Prior research experience, including internship experience within a national laboratory setting.
- Experience in data preparation, integration, and applications involving large language models.
- Strong technical computing skills in Python, with proficiency in NumPy or similar scientific computing frameworks.
- Ability to translate ambiguous or evolving technical objectives into clear, actionable analytical approaches.
- Experience working in applied research settings or collaborative R&D environments.
- Demonstrated ability to work effectively within interdisciplinary and geographically distributed teams, using a collaborative and solutions‑oriented approach.
Responsibilities
- Clean, transform, and integrate structured and unstructured datasets and documents, including equipment datasheets and ArcGIS-based spatial data, from environmental and energy systems domains.
- Knowledge of power grid systems and resilience, with experience applying agentic AI to model power grid simulations, analyze grid-related problems, and support more efficient and reliable operational decision-making.
- Design scalable data systems (ETL, data lakes, data meshes) that support large-scale legislation, regulatory, and legal document workflows.
- CI/CD, testing, version control, and open-source practices enabling reliable, reproducible systems across research and production.
- Develop and apply computer vision methods for crystallography workflows and metadata processing, including image analysis, object detection, tracking, segmentation, and automated interpretation, to enable automation of light source beamline operations in scientific and real-world environments.
- Development and evaluation of large-scale generative AI systems, including fine-tuning, agents, tool use, and optimization for robustness, alignment, and efficiency.
- Design and deploy scalable agentic AI systems with autonomous workflows, dynamic tool use, and complex decision-making to support advanced scientific and operational tasks.
Benefits
- health insurance
- flexible work schedules
- 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
- fertility support
- company-funded pension plan
- 401 (k) savings plan with company match
- 120 vacation hours per year
- ten paid holidays per year
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Entry Level
Number of Employees
1,001-5,000 employees
