Sandia National Laboratories Systems Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

The interviews spanned from early morning to late afternoon, with about an hour spent with each interviewer. The difficulty of conversations varied; some were relaxed chats about my work and research, while others presented challenging, situation-based questions. Lunch was included with some employees. A significant part of the day involved a one-hour research presentation, specifically detailing my doctoral research, which is expected to be highly technical for a National Lab setting. I received positive feedback on the talk. I later incorporated aspects of the presentation into my one-on-one discussions. While the overall interview process wasn't overly tough, the full day can be tiring. It's important to be ready to discuss your research from various angles. The people were really nice and easy to connect with, and I enjoyed the experience of getting to know them.

I had a standard phone interview for a Systems Engineer role. They mentioned they had posted the job several times before, and this was the 3rd or 4th attempt. They indicated they wanted to hire me and asked me to fill out some documents to get an offer. I completed the documents and waited about a week. When I emailed to ask if they needed anything else, they said it takes 5-10 days for review. It's been about a month and I still haven't heard back. If they do send an offer, I'll probably decline due to this delay. I've since been contacted by LANL and am now working at LLNL. I used to be a contractor at SNL, so I know this kind of HR delay is pretty normal for them.

It was a remote panel interview with 6 interviewers. It wasn't a very traditional behavioral interview, it was much more focused on technical aspects of my past projects and my skills. The manager was present, and every other member there was a member of the team. I did not get an offer, it took about 1 month to hear that result, about 2 months total. The manager was very nice.