Building Research Engineer (310413)
Job Description
The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is a world-class research institution tackling some of the most challenging problems in energy, the environment, and national security. PNNL’s Buildings & Connected Systems Group performs applied research to that drives energy and water efficiency, occupant productivity, and resilient operation of buildings and their connected energy and water systems. We are a mission-driven organization providing economic, environmental, security, and societal benefits to the nation by applying to buildings our core research capabilities in energy simulation, performance evaluation, control system optimization, distributed energy and water system integration, and data analytics.
The Position
The Buildings & Connected Systems Group seeks a Building Research Engineer to support its research on building performance evaluation. This candidate will contribute to a variety of tasks including: field assessments of building energy and water systems and associated site infrastructure; use of whole-building modeling and other tools to analyze building performance; lifecycle-cost analysis of building retrofit measures; and identification of solutions to improve performance. The candidate will also support the development and demonstration of new technologies, tools, and assessment methods that enable more efficient commercial building performance.
The hiring level will be determined based on the education, experience and skill set of the successful candidate. Key responsibilities include the following:
Level I: Applying knowledge of science and engineering theories and basic technical approaches to solve building performance research challenges with minimal oversight. Executing tasks with guidance on new assignments. Contributing to the development of technical products, such as technical reports and journal articles. Teaming with staff across the group and project teams to to share resources and optimize approaches.
Level II: Applying science and engineering theories and developing technical approaches to solve building performance research challenges. Executing tasks independently or with limited guidance on new assignments. Defining and leading small tasks and executing within budget and timeframes allotted. Contributing to or leading the development of sections of technical products, such as technical reports and journal articles, and presenting at conferences and technical forums. Teaming with staff across the group and division to share resources and optimize approaches. Contributing to the development of proposals for business and capability development opportunities.
The successful candidate will be accountable to:
- Project and/or Task Managers for performing assigned roles, following applicable project and field procedures, and performance of assigned tasks on time and within budget;
- The Buildings & Connected Systems Group Leader , and Building Performance Evaluation Team Leader , for general staff performance and development, operational discipline (e.g., maintaining training qualifications, procedural compliance, safe operations), and project execution.
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor’s in Engineering with 0-1 years of experience or Master’s degree in Engineering with 0-1 years of experience.
Preferred Qualifications
- BS/BA with 2 years of experience, MS/MA with 0-2 years of experience, or PhD with 0 years of experience.
- Master’s degree or Ph.D. in mechanical engineering, energy systems, or a related engineering field.
- Knowledgeable of building HVAC equipment and systems.
- Practical experience conducting building energy evaluations or audits, and using building energy modeling (e.g. eQUEST, Energy Plus, FEDS) or other analysis tools.
- Programming skills (e.g. Visual Basic .NET)
- A passion for learning and innovation, and a desire to advance the building sciences domain through improvements in energy and water efficiency.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to convey complex technical information effectively to technical and nontechnical audiences.
- A collaborative approach to problem-solving.