Sandia National Laboratories faces challenges in recruiting and retaining women engineers for national security positions. Only 22% of engineering master's degrees in the US are awarded to women, and they are least represented in the disciplines sought by Sandia, such as electrical and mechanical engineering. Sandia has developed programs like the Critical Skills Master's Fellowship Program and Science and Engineering Expo to identify and recruit top female and minority bachelor's and graduate students into national security roles. These efforts have helped increase diversity among new hires and retained employees.

1. Finding, recruiting, and retaining women engineers for national security R&D positions Presentation for ICWES 15 July 20, 2011 Janet L. Williams, Manager, and Michael M. Kline, HR partner Sandia National Laboratories Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory managed and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000.

2. Addressing Our Evolving National Security Environment is of the Greatest Importance Threats from other nation states Traditional strategic nuclear threats Threats from non nation states Other threats: natural disasters, climate change, energy supply Threats of tech surprise

5. First challenge: finding US Citizens *Excerpted from Engineering by the Numbers, by Michael T. Gibbons, American Society of Engineering Educators, 2010 46% of MS degrees awarded in the US went to foreign nationals

6. Next challenge: finding diverse candidates *Excerpted from Engineering by the Numbers, by Michael T. Gibbons, American Society of Engineering Educators, 2010 Only 22% of these degrees were awarded to women

7. Final challenge: finding the right disciplines *Excerpted from Engineering by the Numbers, by Michael T. Gibbons, American Society of Engineering Educators, 2010 Women are least represented in the disciplines we seek