Advancement Opportunities

Advancement Opportunities

What You Need to Know

Sandia’s compensation system is designed to create opportunities for advancement, recognize demonstrated growth and to align pay with the contributions Sandians make to our organization. It reinforces that performance drives rewards and that demonstrated growth drives advancement. Both are essential to maintaining the exceptional workforce that secures our nation’s safety.  

Our compensation system:

  • Offers pay that’s competitive with the marketplace
  • Rewards performance and results
  • Recognizes skill development and expanded contributions
  • Supports career growth through multiple advancement opportunities
  • Promotes fairness, consistency and transparency in pay decisions

The compensation system includes base pay, incentive compensation, special recognition and advancement opportunities. Employees can also be promoted or change jobs or roles through the post and bid process, which lets them apply for open positions at Sandia throughout the year.

Employees should regularly discuss their performance, capabilities and development goals with their manager during quarterly performance engagement check-ins. Use the Advancement Guide for Employees to help you further these conversations.

Level Promotions and Special Appointments
Intralevel Advancements
Eligibility
Nomination Process
Timeline
Resources

Level Promotions and Special Appointments

Level promotions are designed to reward employees for consistently demonstrating the ability to perform at a higher level with a broader scope of work. Employees receive an increase in their base pay when they receive a level promotion.

Examples of level promotions include:

  • A Member is promoted to Senior level
  • A Senior is promoted to Principal level
  • An Officer is promoted to Senior Officer

A special appointment is a type of promotion that occurs when an employee moves from:

  • A Principal to Distinguished level
  • A Distinguished to Senior Scientist, Senior Engineer or Senior Administrator (exempt employees only)

Promotion Criteria

Sandia’s promotion criteria includes the following:

  • The organization has sustainable work for the employee at the promotion level.
  • The employee meets the minimum qualifications documented in Sandia’s minimum education and experience qualifications.
  • The employee has demonstrated the ability to work at the promotion level.

Intralevel Advancements

Intralevel advancements are another way that Sandia supports employees and their career and pay growth.

In alignment with manager expectations and available budget, employees can earn an intralevel advancement for gaining and demonstrating new knowledge, skills and abilities within their current job level. Employees can advance through the intralevels by consistently demonstrating increased knowledge, skills and abilities.

Employees typically receive an increase in their base pay when they receive an intralevel advancement.

Intralevel Advancement Criteria

Employees can earn an intralevel advancement by gaining and demonstrating new knowledge, skills and abilities.

  • Knowledge growth: Demonstrates increased learning and knowledge that improves understanding of job-related responsibilities.
  • Skill attainment: Skill advancement beyond current skill set, relative to current job and career level.
  • Expanded ability to contribute: Brings new ideas and broadened expertise to the team and to Sandia’s mission.

Employees should use the proficiency guidance outlined in the Advancement Guide for Employees to evaluate their current capabilities and identify areas for continued growth. As employees develop their skills and demonstrate readiness, they should partner with their manager to discuss their progress, seek feedback and explore development opportunities.

Eligibility

This table highlights who is eligible for level promotions and intralevel advancements.

Employee type Level promotions Intralevel advancements
Regular, non-represented exempt and nonexempt employees Yes Yes
Represented employees No No
Full-time employees Yes Yes
Part-time employees Yes Yes
Individual Contributors
  • Members through Distinguished
  • Senior Administrators, Senior Engineers and Senior Scientists
  • Fellows
 Yes Yes
All other jobs without any or typical career levels (general or intellectual property counsel, investment managers and administrative staff) Yes* Yes
Management
  • Team Leads through Senior Management
  • Directors
 No Yes
Temporary employees, including limited-term staff, student interns, postdoctoral appointees and postdoctoral fellowship appointees No No
Critical skills recruiting program participants No No
Senior Executives, including Executive Directors, Associate Laboratory Directors, Deputy Laboratory Directors and Laboratory Directors No No

*Only for those jobs with available career levels where a promotion can take place

Nomination Process

Managers partner with their leadership team and HR Business Partner to review the budget and coordinate the nomination process at the center or division levels.

They follow a multistep process that includes assessing and identifying promotion and intralevel advancement nomination candidates.

If an employee receives a level promotion or intralevel advancement, their manager will notify them and have an advancement conversation with them.

Timeline

Leaders typically gather nominations for intralevel advancements, level promotions and special appointments no later than February for the first cycle of the year.

By evaluating all submitted advancement types at the beginning of each calendar year, most advancements will occur and are effective by April.

Leaders can nominate employees for level promotions and intralevel advancements throughout the year, subject to center- and division-specific cycles, business needs and available budget.

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Quick Tip

Getting paid for your time

You may be eligible for several additional types of compensation – outside of your base salary – including shift differentials and overtime. Be sure to check out Time & Attendance to learn more.