“I feel like I’ve trained my whole life for this,” Laura McGill said.

An audience member at Sandia’s May 14 town hall in Albuquerque had asked what it meant to Laura to be Sandia’s new Labs Director.

Hearing her history at events in New Mexico and California, the statement is undeniable.

As she shared at the Labswide events, her first since ascending to Sandia’s top job on May 1, a childhood fascination with science began up an educational and professional path that developed skills, knowledge, perspective and experience perfectly suited to the challenges of leading the premier national laboratory for engineering.

Originally from a Seattle suburb, Laura received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Washington. Her curiosity led her to discover systems engineering and pursue a master’s degree in aerospace systems. She became a chief engineer who worked on complex systems at Raytheon before joining Sandia as deputy Labs director for Nuclear Deterrence in 2021.

A broader role

“So, you know me as coming from the nuclear deterrence portfolio, but I’ll tell you, I couldn’t be more exhilarated to be in this position for the entire Labs because I love it all,” Laura said. “As a systems engineer, I can’t help but look at anything as a system. Sandia itself is a system. How we all interact, the infrastructure, how we interface with the infrastructure, how we do our work is all part of a system.”

Laura emphasized Sandia’s role as the lead systems integrator in the nuclear security enterprise, distinguishing between systems engineering and systems integration.

“Systems engineering is a methodology. Systems integration is more about the execution of good systems engineering in a way that is efficient and effective for the enterprise,” she said.

For example, she said, if Sandia is designing a subcomponent, even if it’s designed correctly, Labs engineers need to anticipate how it will interact with other items in the system that Sandia does not deliver. “These interfaces are critical, and our role is making sure we’re getting ahead of those interfaces and recognizing when effective decisions have to be made,” she said.

To the town hall audience in California, Laura said, “The wide breadth of capabilities here is a system integrator’s dream.”

In both presentations to the workforce, Laura ranked Sandia’s “incredible people” and “delivering on missions that protect the nation” — the latter impossible without the former — as things she values most. She emphasized the importance of critical thinking at every step of the process, specifying that teams should recognize opportunities to deliver work ahead of schedule and initiate that conversation with the customer.

She also encouraged staff to be cost-conscious in every decision. “I think of it as, if it were my cost, is it worth it? Do we think it’s a good use of the taxpayer money?” she said.

Forward thinking

Her assessment of the Labs was assuredly positive. Laura described several challenges facing Sandia. To outpace national security threats, “we have to do things that are more aggressive, balancing the risk,” Laura said in California. While delivering faster, the Labs must steward the health of its workforce and infrastructure for the long term, investing in artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, digital engineering, facilities and IT. She conveyed confidence Sandia will meet these challenges.

“I feel a debt of gratitude to (former Labs Director) James Peery for where he has stewarded the Lab…we are in a really good position,” she told the New Mexico town hall. “It’s also thanks to everybody in this room. We have a really high-performing team. We’re hitting the numbers. We’re making our deliveries. We’re leading the enterprise and the nation in a lot of key expertise. And to be able to lead the Labs at this point, that’s a gift.”

Acknowledging tough tasks ahead, Laura reflected on an approach she has taken since youth track and field.

“I’m a very competitive person, but I never competed to get to a promotion… I just wanted to have a really challenging job where I could demonstrate my full potential, learn something new, stretch my skills and have an impact on something I thought was important,” she said. “The high jump is a perfect example. You’re competing against other people, but all I cared about was how high I can get. I don’t remember which meets I won or lost, but I do remember what heights I cleared. That’s how I’ve tried to live my career. There’s been times in my career where it’s been really rough. Big challenges we had to get through, the same kind of challenges we face here all the time. It’s just given me great trust and belief that people who are committed to the mission and bring the expertise that you do, there’s really no limit to what we can accomplish. And I just feel like I’m in the right place at the right time.”