Robert Leland

As Director of the Nuclear Deterrence Systems Center at Sandia National Laboratories, Rob Leland provides leadership and management direction for the W80-4 and W80-5 Systems Engineering, California Stockpile Systems, and ND Engineering Services and Capabilities organizations. In this role, he oversees a wide range of ND mission responsibilities in collaboration with partners across Sandia and the Nuclear Security Enterprise, including warhead modernization and systems integration for the W80-4 and W80-5; sustainment of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile; and hardware construction, infrastructure capabilities, and system and subsystem testing to meet system qualification and integration requirements.

Rob joined Sandia in 1990 as a high-performance computing researcher. In 1995, he served as a White House Fellow in the Treasury Department. He then held a variety of management roles at Sandia, including Director of Computing Research, Director of Computing and Network Services, and Director of Climate Security. In 2014, Rob served at the White House in the Office of Science and Technology Policy, leading development of the National Strategic Computing Initiative to sustain U.S. leadership in supercomputing.

Rob returned from Washington to serve as Sandia’s Vice President for Science and Technology, Chief Technology Officer, and Chief Research Officer. There he led the Labs’ 2,000-person research organization and oversaw research strategy, internal research investments, academic research partnerships, technology transfer, and research compliance.

In 2017, Rob accepted a position at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory as Associate Laboratory Director for Scientific Computing and Energy Analysis, where he focused on accelerating the transformation of the nation’s energy infrastructure through systems analysis and advanced computing.

He returned to Sandia in 2021 to become Director of the Climate Security Center, where he oversaw the Labs’ efforts in Renewable Energy, Climate Science, Geosciences and Fossil Energy. He also led climate security strategy development across the Labs and was responsible for laboratory and field work in New Mexico, Texas and Alaska.

Rob has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Michigan State University and a PhD in applied mathematics from Oxford University.