Deputy Laboratories Director – Nuclear Deterrence and Chief Technology Officer
As Deputy Laboratories Director for Nuclear Deterrence and Chief Technology Officer, Laura McGill leads programs to meet the nuclear weapons modernization schedule and assure the reliability of the existing stockpile.
Laura has worked in the defense industry for more than three decades, the last 27 years in the development and production of weapons systems. In 2019, she was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering.
Before joining Sandia, Laura served as deputy vice president of engineering at Raytheon Missiles & Defense, a Raytheon Technologies business with 30,000 employees, including 15,000 engineers and scientists. Before that, she was vice president of engineering for Raytheon Missile Systems, leading an organization of 7,800 engineers and scientists developing and producing weapons for the U.S. military and Department of Defense. She was responsible for systems performance, technical execution, test and flight operations, technology investment, engineering career development and capital investments. Prior to vice president, she served as the chief engineer for the $2B Air Warfare Systems program portfolio, including Tomahawk cruise missiles, air-to-air combat systems, and precision strike weapons. She was named a Raytheon Principle Fellow in 2010 and has taught numerous graduate courses in Systems Engineering as an adjunct faculty member at John Hopkins University Whiting School of Engineering. She is a Lifetime Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and served as President from 2022–2024.
In her current role, Laura leads the Labs in embedding modern engineering tools and practices for all nuclear deterrence programs and projects. She is responsible for meeting Sandia’s nuclear deterrence deliverables as the design and engineering laboratory for non-nuclear components and weapon System Integrator of the nation’s nuclear stockpile.