Intern, R&D Undergraduate Summer

About Our Team

Sandia's Advanced Concepts Engineering department develops early-stage mission, vehicle, and technology concepts for missile, air, and space applications. Our team uses physics- and algorithm-based modeling and simulation to explore new concepts, derive mission-informed requirements, assess survivability and performance, and help sponsors make faster decisions about future capabilities. We work at the front end of programs, connecting mission needs, vehicle design, kill-chain modeling, and technology trade studies to identify concepts that can mature into larger funded efforts.

About the Role

We are seeking multiple motivated interns to support advanced concept modeling, simulation, and design across three complementary work areas: RACE hypersonic vehicle design, Ascent guidance/navigation/control and kill-chain modeling, and AFSIM mission/engagement survivability analysis. Interns will help build reusable analysis workflows, model libraries, software hooks, scenario laydowns, data inputs, and automation capabilities that improve the department's ability to rapidly explore advanced aerospace concepts. A major theme across the internship work will be developing sandbox environments that enable AI-assisted hypersonic design, kill-chain analysis, and survivability assessment. Due to the nature of the work, the selected applicant must be able to work onsite.

Potential Work Areas

• RACE Vehicle Concept Design and AI-Enabled Hypersonic Design Sandbox

• Develop reusable vehicle concept design capabilities, including representative input libraries, data structures, model interfaces, and analysis workflows.

• Work may include outer mold line trade studies, trajectory-informed vehicle analysis, packaging and mass property evaluation, aerodynamic or aerothermal model integration, parameter sweeps, visualization, and automation.

• Support development of a vehicle concept sandbox that enables AI/ML methods to configure, evaluate, compare, and iterate on hypersonic vehicle concepts.

• Ascent GNC, Trajectory, and Kill-Chain Sandbox Development

• Develop, modify, clean up, and test reusable guidance, navigation, control, trajectory, and mission-analysis capabilities.

• Work may include implementing closed-loop guidance or navigation algorithms, trajectory evaluation routines, analysis modules, data processing scripts, and visualization tools.

• Support development of a reusable kill-chain sandbox including Ascent-based models, representative inputs, software hooks, and workflows to enable AI/ML-assisted hypersonic system design and analysis.

• AFSIM Survivability Analysis and AI-Ready Mission Sandbox

• Build and analyze mission and engagement scenarios that assess survivability, attrition, and kill-chain performance for missile, air, space, and unmanned systems.

• Work may include building representative sensor and weapon laydowns, modeling communications and command-and-control elements, running parameter sweeps, processing simulation outputs, and visualizing survivability drivers such as detection, tracking, engagement, and probability of mission success.

• Help develop an AFSIM sandbox environment that can be leveraged for future AI-enabled scenario exploration, algorithm evaluation, and automated trade-space analysis.

On any given day, interns may

• Develop analysis scripts
• Build model/input libraries
• Automate workflows
• Run simulations
• Generate plots
• Document assumptions
• Clean and improve code
• Help connect RACE, Ascent, AFSIM, and other department tools.

This work will help accelerate the department's ability to perform repeatable, defensible analyses by reducing setup time, enabling larger trade studies, and creating reusable infrastructure for future AI-enabled advanced concept exploration.

Requirements & Tech Stack

• Currently attending and enrolled full time in the spring term immediately preceding the internship (or scheduled to graduate in the spring) in an accredited undergraduate program
• Pursuing a science, engineering, or math major
• Minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0/4.0
• Ability to work up to 40 hours per week during the summer
• Ability to secure and maintain a U.S. security clearance which requires U.S. citizenship.
• Note: If you have not earned a HS diploma or equivalent, please apply to a high school intern position.

Qualifications We Desire

• Current junior or senior undergraduate student, pursuing a degree in aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, computer science, applied mathematics, physics, or a related technical field.
• Coursework or experience in one or more of the following: aerospace systems, modeling and simulation, vehicle design, flight mechanics, guidance/navigation/control, data analysis, numerical methods, or software development.
• Ability to program or script in Python, MATLAB, C++, or a similar language.
• Strong analytical problem-solving skills.
• Ability to work collaboratively with a multidisciplinary technical team.
• Experience or interest in one or more of the following: hypersonics, missile defense, UAS/cUAS, space systems, kill-chain modeling, survivability analysis, trajectory analysis, aerodynamics, GNC, sensors, radar, EO/IR, fire control, or engagement modeling.
• Experience developing reusable software, analysis scripts, input libraries, simulation workflows, or automated data processing tools.
• Familiarity with Git/version control, Linux, data visualization, numerical methods, Monte Carlo analysis, parameter sweeps, or optimization.
• Interest in AI/ML-enabled modeling and simulation, automated design exploration, reinforcement learning, or multidisciplinary design analysis and optimization.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to obtain and maintain required access/clearance, if needed.