PNNL

Randy Hansen is the deputy laboratory director for operations and chief operating officer at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). PNNL is a Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science multi-program national laboratory, with more than 6,400 researchers and mission support staff, serving a broad range of mission areas for DOE and for the nation. 

Hansen assumed his current role in 2024, overseeing institutional risk; priorities; safe, secure, and reliable operations; and the infrastructure capabilities needed to deliver innovative scientific research. PNNL is undergoing a campus transformation and is emerging as one of the most modern and productive national laboratories for DOE.

Before this role, Hansen served as chief operating officer for PNNL’s National Security Directorate (NSD), where he was responsible for smooth and efficient directorate operations, project execution, and capabilities. He has decades of line management experience of increasing complexity and was a division director in NSD before serving as director of campus development and nuclear operations. In that role, Hansen was responsible for facilities strategic planning, engineering, design and drafting, and project management. He was also responsible for nuclear operations, including PNNL’s hazard category 2 nuclear facility and the nuclear and criticality safety programs.

With a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, Hansen joined PNNL as a graduate fellow while pursuing a master’s degree in electrical engineering and spent over a decade serving in various research roles. He also served as the director of the Homeland Security Sector and has led or co-led two separate science and technology Lab Objectives. 

Hansen’s experience before PNNL includes serving as an operations engineer at the Fast Flux Test Facility where he reviewed, authorized, and oversaw work performed during plant work cycles and was fully qualified to serve as a senior watch officer for the reactor during shutdown operations. Hansen also operated a foundry for Zimmer, a subsidiary of Bristol Myers Squibb, where he produced medical implants and implemented numerous improvements that reduced reject rates by 30%.