Virtual Hiring Event – Principal Software Engineers

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory•Richland, WA

7h•Hybrid

About The Position

Great minds meet national scale challenges. Ready to build the AI platform that reduces discovery cycles from years to months? Join PNNL on the frontier of cutting edge science! PNNL is hiring Software Engineers to help stand up the next wave of AI-enabled science and security capabilities—where agentic AI, petabyte-scale data, and real-time intelligence processing come together in production-grade systems. It’s building the AI-native platforms, orchestration frameworks, and secure infrastructure that will power a nationwide effort to integrate world-class computing and scientific data into a unified AI system that accelerates breakthroughs for energy, national security, and critical technologies. You’ll help connect advanced computing with real operational needs building custom tools, integrating multi-modal data, enabling autonomous workflows, and delivering systems that can run in secure and mission-critical environments. You’ll play a key role in delivering innovative, mission‑driven work such as: Design and deploy scalable agentic AI systems with autonomous workflows and complex decision-making Build LLM orchestration frameworks (LangChain, LlamaIndex, LangGraph, etc.) and production-ready developer tooling Engineer petabyte-scale pipelines and real-time streaming platforms handling terabytes per hour Deliver monitoring/observability (logging, metrics, tracing) and security-first DevSecOps across secure enclaves Build end-to-end MLOps: model versioning, deployment, monitoring, and AI governance We’re hosting a virtual hiring event, giving you the opportunity to connect directly with our hiring teams and explore how your skills align with our work. Event Details: Our virtual hiring event will take place during the week of April 27, 2026. All applications are reviewed based on job-related skills, qualifications, and experience. Selected candidates may be invited to participate in virtual technical interviews during this timeframe and will be contacted directly with scheduling details. Apply your skills to meaningful work across our mission driven focus areas: National Security Directorate (NSD) Build resilient, secure software and data systems that support high-consequence missions—where performance, reliability, and security are critical. Physical and Computational Sciences Directorate (PCSD) Engineer platforms that accelerate scientific computing and discovery—connecting large-scale computing with data-rich scientific workflows (aligned with DOE’s integrated AI platform vision). There is a strong preference for on‑site/hybrid presence at one of our PNNL campuses, including Richland, WA or Seattle, WA based on the position.

Requirements

Programming & Systems Development: Python and multi-language development (C++, Go, C#/.NET, TypeScript) for high-performance systems supporting scientific and ML applications
Software Engineering & DevOps: CI/CD, testing, version control, and open-source practices enabling reliable, reproducible systems across research and production
System Architecture & Distributed Systems: Design of modular, scalable, and distributed systems for data-intensive scientific and operational workloads
Machine Learning & LLM Systems: Development of deep learning and LLM-based systems (PyTorch, TensorFlow, JAX), including RAG pipelines, and agent architectures
Agentic AI & Intelligent Workflows: Design of agent-based systems with memory, tool use, inter-agent communication, and multi-modal data integration for scientific and real-world tasks
LLM Evaluation & Reliability: Evaluation frameworks for model performance, including task success, faithfulness, latency, and robustness under realistic workloads
Data Engineering & Pipeline Architecture: Design of scalable data systems (ETL, data lakes, data meshes) supporting large-scale scientific and production data workflows
Streaming & Event-Driven Systems: Real-time data processing using Kafka, Flink, and Spark Streaming for high-throughput, low-latency applications
Cloud-Native & Distributed Computing: Deployment across AWS, Azure, and GCP, including cloud services (S3, EC2), REST APIs, and infrastructure for large-scale compute, simulation, and ML workloads
Containerization & Orchestration: Kubernetes and container-based systems for scalable, portable environments across research and production contexts
ML Systems Deployment & Production: Model serving, monitoring, scaling, and lifecycle management for deployed ML systems
Scientific Computing & Domain Integration: Application of software and ML systems to scientific domains through collaboration with domain experts, enabling data-driven discovery and mission impact
Cloud Cost Optimization & Efficiency: Resource optimization, cost allocation, and predictive modeling of compute usage for large-scale experiments and ML systems
PhD in software engineering or related field and 5 years of Software Engineering experience -OR-
MS/MA in software engineering or related field and 7 years of Software Engineering experience -OR-
BS/BA in software engineering or related field and 9 years of Software Engineering experience -OR-
AA and 18 years of Software Engineering experience in designing, architecting, programming, deploying, and automating software solutions in support of scientific research or consumer digital product development -OR-
HS/GED and 20 years of Software Engineering experience in designing, architecting, programming, deploying, and automating software solutions in support of scientific research or consumer digital product development
U.S. Citizenship
Applicants selected will be subject to a Federal background investigation and must meet eligibility requirements for access to classified matter in accordance with 10 CFR 710, Appendix B.
All Security Clearance positions are Testing Designated Positions, which means that the applicant selected for hire is subject to pre-employment drug testing, and post-employment random drug testing. In addition, applicants must be able to demonstrate non-use of illegal drugs, including marijuana, for the 12 consecutive months preceding completion of the requisite Questionnaire for National Security Positions (QNSP).
Applicants will be considered ineligible for security clearance processing by the U.S. Department of Energy if non-use of illegal drugs, including marijuana, for 12 months cannot be demonstrated.

Responsibilities

Design and deploy scalable agentic AI systems with autonomous workflows and complex decision-making
Build LLM orchestration frameworks (LangChain, LlamaIndex, LangGraph, etc.) and production-ready developer tooling
Engineer petabyte-scale pipelines and real-time streaming platforms handling terabytes per hour
Deliver monitoring/observability (logging, metrics, tracing) and security-first DevSecOps across secure enclaves
Build end-to-end MLOps: model versioning, deployment, monitoring, and AI governance

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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