Sandia National Laboratories Employee Reviews about "albuquerque"

Pros

Pay is great for Albuquerque, great work life balance and benefits. Options to work on diverse projects.

Cons

Pay not competitive if living outside Albuquerque (telecommuting). Career advancement is slow (driven by highly corporatized management).

Pros

SNL WAS a premier engineering laboratory. The sister lab to Los Alamos. The benefits are good (401k, medical, yoga classes, work from home). If you are an engineer this is a great place to start your career. It looks good on the resume. Don’t end it here. After 3 years you are vested in the 401k. Take the money and run. HR gets point for bring you in below market value, whatever they offer you ask for more. They will cave!

Cons

NTESS took over the operation of SNL. It has been a disaster, worthless politically correct training, critical race theory, more make work than is conceivable. A total waste of tax payer dollars. If SNL was operated the this way during WW2 we would all be speaking German and Japanese now. Try and get something done. Impossible. Offer a different view point or a critical engineering judgement and you’ll be branded a “rogue engineer”. The merit/performance review process is 50% subjective personality by management. Bake cookies. Never complain about ANYTHING. Stay your 3 years. Get your 401k and go to real engineering company that will add 30-50% to your salary. Sure your first few years you might get a good raise, but it is a zero sum game. If you are in a group with all stellar people expect, “well you are new here so we can’t give you a good raise”. Someone is always the sacrificial lamb. Also expect management to tell you to work on your fridays off and your weekends for free. Finally albuquerque is a crime ridden rathole. Don’t even think about sending your kids to the public school system (rated last in the the USA). House price SEEM average if you want to deal with gunfire. Upscale neighborhoods are expensive.

Pros

Incredible family-life balance: The culture encourages using vacation, sick leave, personal time etc. Funds are available to support volunteer activities with local schools. Generous maternity (6 weeks at 100% pay and 6 weeks at 75% pay) and paternity (12 weeks at 75% pay) leave policy. Management seems to generally be supportive of alternative schedules or part time schedules. Excellent lateral mobility: Sandia supports many different interesting missions for a variety of US Government customers, and there are few to no barriers to lateral movement. Especially for early career staff who aren't sure what they want to specialize in, Sandia provides opportunities to learn about and become an expert in a wide range of skills. Generous pay relative to cost of living: While Albuquerque is by no means the most desirable city in the US to live in, one benefit is the relatively low cost of living. When cost of living is taken into account, salaries at the NM site are very generous. Salaries at other sites receive a small adjustment (generally upwards) for cost of living, but as far as I am aware the adjustment is generally much smaller than the cost of living difference.

Cons

Poor vertical mobility: Promotions have been capped at a rate of ~1/person/20 years, and when people are promoted they generally receive a pay raise of less than 5%. Because of this, promotions are generally handed out based on seniority. Performance ratings are gated such that only 40% can receive an "upper" rating, and only "upper" ratings receive bonuses. Management is of course exempt from promotion caps and bonus restrictions. Sandia just hired a member of the executive management team from outside the Labs, which is unusual and possibly unprecedented. Some are taking this as a sign that Sandia no longer believes in the ability of the system to recognize and develop internal talent. Uncertain Future: Sandia has been in the news repeatedly due to failures to deliver on critical missions. The current median experience level is ~7 years, and that number seems likely to decrease over the next 5 years as many experienced staff retire. Sandia historically only hired candidates with a 3.5 or greater GPA and a graduate degree, but is now hiring candidates with bachelor's degrees (into R&D roles) regardless of GPA. Taken individually, none of these are crippling, but in aggregate they raise questions and red flags that management isn't addressing. Of further concern is that the internal discussion forum and the ombuds office were recently closed, removing opportunities for constructive feedback/discussion.