This contribution presents a scheme for integrating a model reduction technique into a simulation-based method for reliability sensitivity analysis of a class of medium/large nonlinear finite element models under stochastic excitation. The solution of this type of problems requires a large number of finite element model re-analyses to be performed over the space of system parameters. A component mode synthesis technique is implemented to carry out the sensitivity analysis in a reduced space of generalized coordinates. The reliability sensitivity analysis is performed by an approach based on a simple post-processing of an advanced sampling-based reliability analysis. The feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed scheme is demonstrated on a bridge finite element model under stochastic ground excitation. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Regular 2015FONDECYTFONDECYT