Pros
Smart, diverse, and interesting colleagues. Projects are generally interesting. In theory, chances to work on a lot of diverse projects. Work-life is OK most of the time. Not so much with deadlines looming.
Cons
All engineers start as term employees and term extensions/career conversions have a lot to do with "business need', as well as current project funding and little to do with performance. The Engineering Division matrixing may work during the quiet years but fails during large projects (i.e., many people are hired with no intension of converting them to career and are kept in the dark). Management seems to think that engineers are interchangeable. The project I am leaving in a few weeks has had quite a few continuity issues, where a responsible person either termed out or left because they thought they would be termed out (in some cases, they were wrong but no one told them) and their replacement spent a long time wrapping their head around the subject matter or misunderstood the level of maturity, leading to issues down the road. When funds are in good shape, extensions are 1-2 years. When funds are tight, extensions are 6 months. Given the local rental market, a six month extension may need extending a lease and then breaking it which does not work out well. This also poses issues with real estate but, let's face it, the salary is not high enough to buy property. In addition to that, the pay is on the lower end of the local market. Add to that the usual job security found at all other national labs and it's OK. Given what I described above, it is really not. It seems that the lab is coasting on reputation and on misplaced employee loyalty. Though, given the current mood, this might not last long.
