Meet Shahnaz Punjani. Star Wars helped spark her interest in becoming an astronaut. As the division director for #NNSA’s Ballistic Missile Weapons Division, she doesn’t orbit the earth, but she has made a life and career that are out of this world.
National Nuclear Security Administration
May 20, 2024
minute read time
How do you support NNSA?
I work in the Office of Stockpile Sustainment. As the division director for the Ballistic Missile Weapons Division, I am responsible for sustaining the W76, W78, W87, and W88 weapons systems, as well as supporting the United Kingdom’s nuclear deterrent under the Mutual Defense Agreement. I work with the U.S. Navy and the Air Force to support the nuclear deterrent with safe, secure, and reliable nuclear warheads. My organization is responsible for stockpile surveillance and assessment. We work with the labs, plants, and sites on projects and development activities addressing stockpile needs over the life of the system.
What is your personal background, and how has that shaped you and your approach to your career?
I am originally from the East Coast and am one of the few Pakistani-Irish people at NNSA. My father was born in Bombay (now Mumbai), India and moved to Karachi, Pakistan after Partition in 1947. This is when Pakistan and India separated into two different countries after gaining independence from Britain. My parents met in Lowell, Massachusetts while my dad was going to college there. An Irish Catholic marrying a Pakistani Shia was a bit unusual in 1968.
Growing up in the 1970s with a single mom after my parents divorced influenced me a lot. As a latchkey kid, I became very independent. The release of Star Wars sparked a desire to be an astronaut, which influenced my plans to get a degree in engineering.
What did you study in school and how did it impact you personally and professionally?
The first part to becoming an astronaut is getting an engineering degree, typically in aerospace. I couldn’t afford college, but when I started, the Cold War was still in effect and the military had defense funding for STEM education. The Air Force paid for my college through a Reserve Officer Training Corp (ROTC) scholarship at Penn State.
Penn State had a great engineering school and a large Air Force ROTC detachment. At the time, I wasn’t planning on having a military career. I just needed to pay for college. My plan was to serve my four years to cover my service commitment and rejoin the civilian workforce. That plan completely fell apart. Through the Air Force, there were so many opportunities to get advanced degrees, work an amazing mission, and meet great people. The Air Force paid for two master’s degrees – one in engineering and one in the “art of war.” I also got to fly as a flight test engineer when I went to Air Force Test Pilot School which was an amazing experience. While I never became an astronaut, I used my aerospace engineering degree working in space launch and satellite development in the latter half of my Air Force career.
What led you to a career in nuclear security?
When I retired from the military, I still wanted a career doing something that mattered. , I learned about NNSA through a former commander who joined after he retired from the Air Force. It was just what I was looking for, and I have not been disappointed. We have a rewarding mission that impacts the nation at a strategic level.
What is the best part about your job?
The people I get to work with. The Office of Stockpile Sustainment team members are all-in. We support each other and work together to execute the mission of maintaining the stockpile. Lots of people have definitions of what a high performing team is, but to me it’s one where each person works hard and doesn’t care about getting the credit. We *all* make sure people get the credit for the hard work they do – we are a high performing team.
What is your proudest accomplishment while supporting NNSA?
During the COVID pandemic, the Office of Stockpile Sustainment had a surveillance working group alongside Kansas City and Sandia. We discussed a sustainable plan to ensure surveillance testers were maintained and refreshed as needed to support the surveillance mission. At that time, the testers were funded on an ad hoc basis, and maintenance and refresh were done on irregular cycles due to irregular funding. I asked to be the NNSA federal point of contact to support them in finding a funding approach for this work. While my support was minute compared to the overall scope of the work, we found a supportable, executable plan to ensure steady, future funding for these critical assets. It wasn’t big dollars, but it was a big impact. Both Kansas City and Sandia are on a path to close this risk to mission execution.
Tell us something interesting about yourself.
Being in the military, I got a chance to do and see some amazing things. While my dreams of being an astronaut did not pan out, I still had a huge interest in the space program. While at Cape Canaveral, Florida doing flight tests on missile guidance systems, we had a chance to do a once-in-a-lifetime tour of the NASA space shuttle facilities. We got up close and personal with a number of space shuttles in the process of refurbishment and even a trip out to the launch pad. I was pregnant for the first time and completely exhausted from the nighttime flight tests, but through the haze of fatigue I remember thinking, “This is the most incredible thing I have ever seen.” Of course, that was before I saw my daughter’s face for the first time…
What advice would you have for anyone interested in a career in nuclear security/STEM/public service?
Never be afraid to ask questions. That is the primary way we learn, and people love to share what they know.
Who is someone that inspires you and why?
My husband inspires me every day. While I served in the military, he had the constant struggle of trying to maintain a career as we moved around the country. When we had our children, he decided to be a stay-at-home dad. He was a workaholic in the business world. It wasn’t easy giving up a career, and stay-at-home dads were not that common. He transferred that dedication to his new role. He volunteered in the classroom, went on field trips, he was PTA president and military spouse club president multiple times. When I had breast cancer in 2011, he took care of all of us when I was too exhausted from chemotherapy to function. When I was the Launch Group Commander at Vandenberg Space Force Base, one of my squadron commanders was convinced my husband was a clone since he did so many things around the base. My husband continues to support the community as the Kirtland AFB Thrift Shop manager earning money to support college scholarships.
How do you plan to commemorate AANHPI Heritage Month?
This month I plan to read books from my two favorite Asian authors: Nalini Singh and Marjorie Liu. I have two Nalini Singh books on my reader right now. She is of Indo-Fijian descent from New Zealand. While they are paranormal fiction, her books focus on how bringing together people from different backgrounds and perspectives leads to a greater whole. I also plan to re-read a series by Marjorie Liu. She writes comic books and novels. Her novels were the key to getting me through chemotherapy when I had breast cancer. When I went to San Diego Comic-Con, I made a point to meet her and thank her for her amazing work and share how much it helped me. She even signed my e-reader!