Senior systems engineer

Location: Ottawa, Canada

In fast changing markets, customers worldwide rely on Thales. Thales is a business where brilliant people from all over the world come together to share ideas and inspire each other. In aerospace, transportation, defence, security and space, our architects design innovative solutions that make our tomorrow's possible.

For decades, Ottawa has been a global technology leader. Today, Canada’s capital holds one of the brightest and most diverse technological ecosystems in North America. Voted as Canada’s best place to live 2017 by Maclean's, Ottawa offers a low cost of living with a high quality of life. The Thales Ottawa office has been a major supplier and long-term trusted partner to DND, enabling the Canadian Armed Forces and the Canadian Coast Guard to achieve mission success.

Victoria, B.C., Ottawa, ON., Halifax, N.S., (CAN.), Hybrid

Position Summary

Thales Canada, Defence & Security is engaged in supporting the Canadian Army’s Land Command, Control, Communications & Computers (C4) Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (LC4ISR) systems which enable critical decisions on a daily basis. Together with industry partners, Thales is building on the existing networks and applications to enhance digitized operations, support communications between joint and allied forces, and monitor and defend against the threats and evolving capabilities of potential adversaries.

Thales has a vacancy for a Senior Systems Engineer to join our Innovation team, supporting the development and integration of autonomous systems and LC4ISR solutions. The successful candidate will work at the intersection of customer needs, business opportunities and product development. They will collaborate closely with Business Development, Product Engineers, Software Engineers and other technical stakeholders to understand operational needs, derive system and software requirements, and manage those requirements throughout the solution lifecycle. This role is well suited to a systems thinker who is comfortable working in a fast-paced innovation environment where requirements may initially be incomplete and must be progressively refined through customer engagement, prototyping, demonstrations and technical analysis.

Regulatory Compliance Requirement

This position requires direct or indirect access to hardware, software or technical information controlled under the Canadian Export Control List and/or the US the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). All applicants must be eligible or able to obtain authorization for such access.

Key Areas of Responsibility

In their efforts to develop and sustain mission systems, a Systems Engineer will be called upon to integrate a variety of hardware, software, and firmware, and apps on commercial and military platforms. The essential functions and responsibilities of a Systems Engineer include:

• Tailor the system engineering process, practices and tools.
• Provide timely and accurate status updates.
• Develop the preliminary and detailed designs for system and subsystem elements.
• Review and validate internal and subcontractor designs, plans, and schedules.
• Identify, characterize, and describe issues in the system or its design through problem reports and document and design reviews.
• Author technical documentation to capture the system and subsystem designs including the architecture, interfaces, and installation elements.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to ensure the designs are consistent with needs, desires, and concerns of the end-users.
• Support the development of verification and validation artefacts including plans and procedures.
• Collaborate with other functions during the implementation and integration of the system and subsystem designs.
• Resolution of technical issues arising during the implementation, integration and testing of the system and subsystem elements.
• Support the installation and/or integration testing of the systems remotely or on customer site and/or technical subcontract management including management of work scope and compliance of the (subcontractor) supplied solution;

For this specific project, typical duties will include:

• Engage with Business Development, customers, end users and technical stakeholders to understand operational needs, use cases and capability gaps.
• Translate customer and operational needs into clear, measurable and verifiable system and subsystem requirements.
• Develop and maintain requirements documentation, including operational concepts, use cases, system requirements, interface requirements and acceptance criteria.
• Manage requirements traceability from customer needs through design, implementation, integration, verification and validation.
• Facilitate requirements workshops and technical discussions with internal teams, partners and customers.
• Work closely with Product Engineers, Software Engineers and Solution Architects to ensure requirements are technically feasible and aligned with product capabilities and roadmaps.
• Support system architecture development, functional analysis, interface definition and trade-off studies.
• Identify requirement gaps, ambiguities, conflicts, assumptions and technical risks, and coordinate their resolution.
• Support the integration of autonomous platforms, command-and-control applications, sensors, communications systems and mission-management capabilities.
• Contribute to technical proposals, statements of work, estimates, product demonstrations and customer briefings.
• Support system integration, test planning, verification and validation activities.
• Maintain requirements baselines and manage changes throughout iterative and agile development cycles.
• Support field trials, demonstrations and experimentation activities in Canada and internationally, as required.

Minimum Qualifications

Skills and Abilities:

• At least 10 years of professional experience in the design and integration of complex systems in commercial and/or military domains.
• At least 3 to 7 years of relevant systems engineering, requirements engineering or complex software/system integration experience.
• Demonstrated experience eliciting, analyzing, documenting and managing technical requirements.
• Experience translating operational or business needs into system and sub-system requirements.
• Understanding of systems engineering principles, including system decomposition, interface management, traceability, verification and validation.
• Experience working with multidisciplinary engineering teams in an iterative or agile development environment.

Education:

Bachelor’s degree in Systems Engineering, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering or a related technical discipline.

Special Position Requirements

Full time, standard business hours. Possibility of travel to east or west coast sites for technical support / installation onboard ships in dock.

Pay Transparency

The anticipated Total Target Compensation (TTC), inclusive of annual salary and bonus eligibility, for this role is $120,000 to 170,000 CAD Annual​. The Company reserves the right to ultimately pay more or less than the posted range and offer additional benefits and other compensation, depending on circumstances not related to an applicant’s status protected by local, provincial, and federal laws.

AI

We use artificial intelligence–enabled tools as part of our recruitment process to support activities such as candidate discovery, résumé matching, and interview scheduling. These tools may help screen and assess applications and recommend potential matches based on the requirements within the job description. All hiring decisions, including candidate evaluation, selection, and disposition, are made by human recruiters. Artificial intelligence does not make hiring decisions on our behalf.

What We Offer

Thales provides an extensive benefits program for all full-time employees working 24 or more hours per week and their eligible dependents, including the following:

• Company paid Extended Health, Dental, HSA, Life, AD&D, Short-term Disability, Cancer Care Program, travel insurance, Employee Assistance Plan and Well-Being program.
• Retirement Savings Plans (RRSP, DCPP, TFSA) with a company contribution and a match to a DCPP, with no vesting period.
• Company paid holidays, vacation days, and paid sick leave.
• Voluntary Life, AD&D, Critical Illness, Long-Term Disability.
• Employee Discounts on home, auto, and gym membership.

Why Join Us?

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Thales provides an extensive benefits program for all full-time employees working 24 or more hours per week and their eligible dependents, including the following:

• Company paid Extended Health, Dental, HSA, Life, AD&D, Short-term Disability, Cancer Care Program, travel insurance, Employee Assistance Plan and Well-Being program.
• Retirement Savings Plans (RRSP, DCPP, TFSA) with a company contribution and a match to a DCPP, with no vesting period.
• Company paid holidays, vacation days, and paid sick leave.
• Voluntary Life, AD&D, Critical Illness, Long-Term Disability.
• Employee Discounts on home, auto, and gym membership.

Thales is an equal opportunity employer which values diversity and inclusivity in the workplace. Thales is committed to providing accommodations in all parts of the interview process. Applicants selected for an interview who require accommodation are asked to advise accordingly upon the invitation for an interview. We will work with you to meet your needs. All accommodation information provided will be treated as confidential and used only for the purpose of providing an accessible candidate experience.

This position requires direct or indirect access to hardware, software or technical information controlled under the Canadian Export Control List, the Canadian Controlled Goods Program, the Canadian Industrial Security Program, the US International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and/or the US Export Administration Regulations (EAR). All applicants must be eligible or able to obtain authorization for such access including eligibility to the Canadian Controlled Goods Program and able to obtain a Canadian NATO Secret clearance.