Location: Oak Ridge, TN
Job Title: Modern Manufacturing Specialist
Career Level From: Specialist
Career Level To: Senior Specialist
Job Specialty: Production Projects
What You'll Do
Basic Function Of Position
The Modern Manufacturing Specialist provides technical integration, data synthesis, and project coordination for the site’s transformation into a world-class manufacturing center of excellence. Supporting the Principal Strategist and the Site Strategies Director, this role is responsible for the collection and analysis of site-specific data, coordination of external consulting activities, and the preparation of professional, audit-ready strategic documentation.
Core Responsibilities And Deliverables
- Data Collection & Baseline Analysis: Conduct research to identify equipment lifecycles, maintenance requirements, and production gaps. Translate raw operational data into the foundational datasets used for the long-range roadmap.
- Coordination: Serve as the primary facilitator for external partners; manage stakeholder access, coordinate interviews, and ensure all data requests are fulfilled in compliance with security protocols.
- Strategic Documentation Support: Assist the Principal Strategist in the consolidation of research and the development of technical white papers, investment cases, and executive briefings.
- Benchmarking Coordination: Execute the tactical requirements for domestic and international benchmarking, including site coordination, data gathering, and the production of post-visit technical reports.
- Project Milestone Tracking: Maintain the master schedule for the strategy development phase, tracking deliverables for both internal teams and external vendors to ensure project adherence to established timelines.
- Secure Connectivity Expertise: Familiarity with the technical requirements for industrial wireless and secure digital connectivity in a high-security manufacturing environment.
- Cross-Functional Integration: Interface with Production, Engineering, and Maintenance departments to document existing technical constraints and infrastructure requirements for inclusion in the modernization plan.
- Enterprise Transformation: Influence the holistic evolution of the Y-12 production ecosystem, transforming it from a collection of legacy assets into a modern, agile, and integrated manufacturing enterprise.
- National Security Resilience: Ensure long-term viability of the nuclear deterrent by designing "future-proof" systems that can rapidly adapt to changing mission requirements and technological breakthroughs.
- Legacy Stewardship: Play a definitive role in transitioning a one-of-a-kind national asset into its next era, balancing the preservation of core nuclear capabilities with the adoption of state-of-the-art industrial models.
- Intellectual Autonomy: A role designed for a self-directed expert to define the technical execution and data-modeling paths of the transformation.
What You Can Expect
- Meaningful work and unique opportunities to support missions vital to national and global security.
- Top-notch, dedicated colleagues.
- Generous pay and benefits with a stable organization.
- Career advancement and professional development programs.
- Work-life balance fostered through flexible work options and wellness initiatives.
Minimum Job Requirements
- Bachelor's degree: Minimum 4 years of relevant experience.
- OR Master's degree: Minimum 3 years of relevant experience.
- OR PhD.
- Twelve or more years of education and/or relevant experience may be considered to satisfy educational and years-of-experience requirements for this posting.
Preferred Job Requirements
- Systems Engineering Mindset: Proven ability to manage "systems of systems" where facility, technology, and mission requirements intersect over long timelines.
- Complex Facility Experience: Significant experience modernizing aged industrial sites, ideally within nuclear, aerospace, or heavy defense sectors.
- Regulatory & Policy Navigation: Experience identifying and navigating institutional constraints (e.g., security protocols, nuclear safety requirements, or federal acquisition regulations) that impact the adoption of modern manufacturing technologies.
- Strategic Communication: Demonstrated ability to synthesize complex engineering data and industrial constraints into cohesive, long-range strategy documents and defensible investment cases for executive and federal stakeholders.
- Advanced Manufacturing Expertise: Practical experience with Industry 4.0/5.0 implementations, including automation, digital twins, or advanced material processing.
- Operational Background: Direct production or plant management experience that informs a practical approach to implementing large-scale modernization while maintaining continuous mission-critical operations.
Why Y-12?
You get #morethanajob. We encourage employees to achieve a healthy personal balance among home, work and the community. One of the ways we embrace work-life balance is by offering flexible work arrangements that provide alternatives to the traditional workweek, while still meeting business needs. Top talent and personal commitment mean more to our success than any other factors, so we reward our people with the kinds of benefits that make a positive difference in the quality of their lives. Benefits such as: medical plan, prescription drug plan, vision plan, dental plan, employer matched 401(k) savings plan, disability coverage, education reimbursement and many more. Want to stay healthy and fit but hate the cost of a gym membership? Take advantage of one of our onsite workout facilities and eat healthy in our onsite cafeterias. Much more than a workplace, at Y-12, you can build a career that lasts a lifetime.
Notes
The minimum education and experience for the lowest career level in the job posting range are listed under Minimum Job Requirements. Successful candidates hired into a higher career level than the minimum in the range must meet the requirements listed in the job leveling charts for the career level into which they are being hired.
If a range of Career Levels is posted, i.e., Senior Associate to Senior Specialist, internal applicants already in one of the Career Levels would come across at their current Career Level. Internal applicants currently in a lower level Career Level would move to the lowest posted Career Level.
Requires a Q clearance; however all qualified candidates will be considered regardless of their current clearance status. The ability to obtain and maintain a Department of Energy Q clearance is required.
This position may require entry into the Material Access Areas (MAA) and participation in the Human Reliability Program (10 C.F.R. Part 712), which requires successful competition of a DOE counterintelligence evaluation and may include a counterintelligence-scope polygraph examination.
This position may be categorized as a “designated position” identified by 10 C.F.R. Part 709, requiring successful completion of a DOE counterintelligence evaluation that may include a counterintelligence-scope polygraph examination.
CNS is a drug-free workplace. Candidates accepting a job offer will be required to pass a pre-placement physical, drug screening and background investigation. As an employee, you may be required to receive and maintain a security clearance from the United States Department of Energy in order to meet eligibility requirements for access to sensitive information or matter. U.S. citizenship is a requirement for security clearance applicants. All employees are subject to being randomly selected for drug testing without advance notification.
CNS is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment based on merit and without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, protected veteran status or disability.
