Sandia is moving 500 employees outside fence

Labs’ hiring binge is prompting the need to locate other offices

Sandia National Laboratories is preparing to move 500 employees off of its main campus next month.

Heather Clark, spokeswoman for the laboratory, told the Journal that the move is a temporary effort to add additional capacity for the more 1,000 new hires the lab is bringing on.

“These moves were needed to make room for those new employees,” Clark said.

In May, Scott Aeilts, Sandia’s associate labs director for mission services, told the Albuquerque Economic Forum that the lab intends to hire 1,900 new employees. Of those new employees, 1,100 would fill newly created positions, according to Journal archives.

The new hires represent a boost to what was already one of Albuquerque’s largest employers. Sandia employed 12,769 workers, the vast majority of whom work in Albuquerque. However, most work inside the lab’s facility on Kirtland Air Force Base. Clark added that around 1,100 employees work in offices elsewhere in Albuquerque, with most of those working at the Sandia Science & Technology Park near the base.

Clark said Sandia began moving employees around about a month after the announcement. In June, the lab transferred around 90 employees from its main facility to an empty space in the Gibson Medical Center, at 5600 Gibson Boulevard SE. She added that most of the employees being transferred to the Gibson facility are IT specialists.

Beginning in October, the lab is planning to move 500 human resources, safety and finance employees to a 161,000-squarefoot office building on Buena Vista Drive SE. The building is part of a larger office complex in SE Albuquerque.

Clark said the long-term plan is to build additional buildings on Sandia’s Eubank complex, allowing the lab to return all 950 employees to the primary facility. However, she noted that the laboratory hasn’t settled on a specific course of action yet.

“Sandia continues to implement its long-term strategic plan, which includes the need for new construction, but no specific plans have been determined at this time,” Clark wrote in an email.