Location: Ottawa, ON (preferred) | Montreal
Department: Engineering
Reports to: Head of Aircraft Design
The RoleWe're standing up the structures organization that takes autonomous airframes from concept to flying prototype - composite and metallic, on rapid-prototyping timelines, against military airworthiness standards. This is both a leadership role and a build role: you hire and lead the team, own the methods and toolchain they work in, choose the suppliers who build with us, and stay hands-on through demonstrator builds and non-conformance calls. You set the standard, and you're on the floor when the first article goes together.
The hard part isn't any single airframe - it's building a structures function that can iterate fast without ever getting loose on safety or airworthiness. That's the job.
What You'll Do- Build and lead the structures organization. Hire, scale, and retain a high-performing team of structural designers, stress analysts, composite experts, and mass properties engineers. Define team structure, career pathways, and resource allocation across parallel rapid-prototyping and program tracks.
- Set the technical culture. Foster engineering excellence, design innovation, rapid iteration, and strict adherence to aerospace safety and airworthiness standards. Mentor the team's design and analysis judgment.
- Own the structures toolchain and methods. Select, implement, and maintain best-in-class CAD, FEA, computational fluid-structure interaction, and PLM tools. Establish standardized design methodologies, stress and margin-of-safety handbooks, and test protocols for both composite and metallic airframes.
- Ensure airworthiness and compliance. Make structural designs comply with applicable military airworthiness standards (e.g. MIL-STD-810, MIL-HDBK-516, DEF STAN 00-970) and customer-specific structural design criteria.
- Lead supplier selection and technical management. Evaluate and select strategic suppliers and subcontractors for structural components, advanced composites, additive manufacturing, aerospace alloys, tooling, and test services. Manage their technical deliverables against weight, strength, thermal, dynamic, and interface requirements, and support procurement on technical SOWs, NRE terms, and delivery schedules.
- Drive design for manufacturability. Partner with Manufacturing, Tooling, and Quality Engineering to push DFM/DFA principles into early structural concepts.
- Run demonstrator builds. Provide hands-on oversight through structural test articles, scale demonstrators, and full-scale flight prototypes. Direct disposition of structural non-conformances, material review board (MRB) engineering, and rapid design changes during build and assembly.
- Own program execution. Hold structural department milestones, budget forecasts, and technical risk registers across active programs. Align structural milestones with systems engineering, aerodynamics, propulsion, avionics, and flight test.
What We're Looking For- Degree in Aerospace or Mechanical Engineering, or equivalent, with deep aircraft structures background across composite and metallic airframes.
- Proven experience building, leading, and scaling structural engineering teams (design and stress).
- Depth in structural analysis and airworthiness substantiation to military standards (e.g. MIL-HDBK-516, MIL-STD-810, DEF STAN 00-970, or equivalent).
- Hands-on demonstrator and prototype build experience - you've been on the floor through MRB and rapid design changes, not just in design reviews.
- Supplier technical evaluation and management for structural components and advanced materials.
- Program execution fluency: milestones, budgets, technical risk, EVM.
- Eligible to obtain and maintain a Canadian security clearance (Secret or higher).
Nice to Have / Bonus Points- Attritable or expendable structures philosophy - designing for cost-of-loss, not just cost-of-acquisition.
- Additive manufacturing and advanced composite processes for airframes.
- Experience standing up a structures function from early stage.
- Arctic or cold-weather materials behaviour and field logistics.
- RCAF, DND, or NATO airworthiness exposure for uncrewed systems.
No defence background required.
We've hired people who didn't tick every box. If this is the work you want to do, please apply anyway.
Compensation & Benefits- Competitive base salary and company equity*
- Comprehensive health benefits
- Additional equity granted based on impact*
*Equity awarded to full time employees only.
