Climbing the Technical Ladder at Sandia National Laboratories

1. Climbing the Technical Ladder at Sandia National Laboratories Cynthia A. Phillips Discrete Algorithms and Complex Systems Dept. CRA-W Advanced Mentoring Workshop 11/14/08

2. Who am I? • AB in Applied Mathematics from Harvard • PhD in Computer Science from MIT • Part-time work at Thinking Machines Corp in grad school • Joined Sandia National Laboratories as a senior member of technical staff (SMTS) in 1990. • Principal MTS in 1998 (when current ladder instituted) • Distinguished MTS in 2000 • Always in research. Dept name evolved through reorganizations • Theoretical computer science • Optimization and uncertainty quantification • Algorithms and discrete math • Discrete mathematics and complex systems

3. Mathematical Mercenary • Parallel combinatorial optimization • Polyhedral combinatorics • Experimental algorithmics • Scheduling • Manufacturing and transportation planning • Computational biology • Computer security • Network reliability • Social network analysis • Sensor placement in networks (roadway, water) • Quantum computer architecture design

4. National Laboratories Environment (Research) • More applied than academia • Impact on problems important to the nation • Less driven by the bottom line than industry • Wealth of research questions • Flexible scheduling • Pay tracks to industry • Every hour charged to a project • Get funding to do what you want to do • Resources (supercomputers, rocket sleds, particle-beam fusion accelerators, …) • Annual formal merit review

5. Sandia Technical Ladder • Levels • Member of Technical Staff (MTS) • Senior (SMTS)  Assistant professor • Principal (PMTS)  Tenured associate professor • Distinguished (DMTS)  Full professor • Senior Scientist • Fellow • Quotas as move up • Formally based on • Technical ability (breadth and/or depth) • External visibility • Customer contacts/program development • Creativity • Leadership of people, projects, programs

6. Impact • Quantifiable impact on an important project • Solve a problem you couldn’t before • Solve a problem significantly better than before • Frequently involves code • People use it (especially for important things) • Bringing in funding • Publications • Patents • Major awards (e.g. R&D 100)

7. Visibility • Talks are an opportunity to shine • Annual department review • Any external review of project or group • Dog & Pony shows for potential or current sponsors • Tailor your talk to your audience • Want them to walk away with • Your one-line technical message • A sense of your competency, vision, integrity, and passion • They don’t care about the details as much as you do • Topic selection (when an option): management attention span

8. Mentorship • When starting out, attach to a good mentor • Deliver for them • Take advantage of the association to become visible • Learn from them • Then get out from the shadow and lead your own project • Managers tend to associate a project only with the leader • Then become a mentor yourself • Leading a group of others is important • You get to lead by bringing in money • You get to lead by being technically capable and delivering

9. Other Pluses • Good writing skills • Write clearly and quickly • Be a resource • Have a good network inside and outside the lab • Know who to ask • Keep up with the literature