Kepler Communications

Senior Manager, Mechanical Engineering

Kepler Communications • $120K — $150K *
Toronto, ON M3C 0E3Hybrid
Aerospace & Defense
8 - 10 years of experience
Today
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Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering or equivalent
  • 10+ years of experience in mechanical engineering
  • Experience leading engineering teams across multiple mechanical domains
  • Strong understanding of mechanical design, structural analysis, and thermal engineering principles
  • Experience delivering hardware from concept through qualification and flight readiness
  • Strong communication, leadership, and organizational skills

Responsibilities

  • Lead and scale the mechanical engineering organization across various disciplines
  • Drive the mechanical development of spacecraft with advanced systems
  • Oversee design and integration for extreme environments
  • Champion innovative engineering solutions for spacecraft capabilities
  • Define and execute technical vision for spacecraft systems
  • Foster a culture of first-principles engineering and rapid iteration
  • Evaluate technical trade-offs to align with business objectives
  • Influence technology investment and partnerships for competitive advantage
  • Build and lead advanced design and manufacturing teams
  • Continuously adopt emerging methodologies and production techniques
  • Promote engineering approaches leveraging rapid prototyping and digital practices
  • Ensure designs are optimized for manufacturability and assembly
  • Lead the transition from prototype to scalable production
  • Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams to accelerate development
  • Establish processes for program resilience and repeatability
  • Mentor and scale high-performing engineering teams
  • Establish engineering standards for innovation and execution
  • Align engineering roadmaps across programs
  • Drive resource allocation for efficiency
  • Communicate technical strategies clearly to stakeholders
  • Evolve engineering tools for complex development programs

Benefits

  • Innovative work environment in cutting-edge aerospace industry
  • Opportunity to lead and shape mechanical engineering practices
  • Work on advanced spacecraft design and manufacturing
  • Collaborative team culture emphasizing creativity and excellence
  • Involvement in transformative projects enabling space exploration
Full Job Description
Key Responsibilities:

Technical Leadership & Innovation

  • Lead and scale the mechanical engineering organization across mechanical architecture, structural & thermal design and analysis, and mechanisms disciplines


  • Drive the mechanical development of spacecraft featuring large-scale deployable systems, complex mechanisms, advanced thermal management solutions, and high-performance lightweight architectures


  • Oversee the design and integration of systems operating under extreme thermal loading, dynamic environments, and tightly constrained mass and volume requirements


  • Champion ambitious engineering solutions that challenge conventional aerospace constraints and significantly advance spacecraft capability, scalability, and manufacturability


  • Define and execute the technical vision and long-term roadmaps for next-generation spacecraft structures, thermal systems, mechanisms, and mechanical architectures aligned with Kepler's future mission and platform strategy


  • Drive the adoption of advanced engineering approaches, development methodologies, and enabling technologies that keep Kepler at the forefront of spacecraft design, performance, manufacturability, and production scalability


  • Foster a culture rooted in first-principles engineering, rapid iteration, technical excellence, and innovation focused on solving exceptionally difficult problems


  • Evaluate and communicate technical, schedule, manufacturability, and cost trade-offs to align engineering investment decisions with company strategy and long-term business objectives


  • Influence long-term technology investment strategy, external partnerships, and supplier ecosystem development to maximize spacecraft capability, scalability, and competitive advantage


Advanced Manufacturing & Product Realization

  • Build and lead an engineering organization that remains at the forefront of advanced design and manufacturing technologies


  • Continuously drive the evaluation, adoption, and application of emerging methodologies, tools, and production techniques from aerospace and adjacent high-performance industries


  • Drive the adoption of advanced manufacturing technologies including additive manufacturing, advanced composites, topology optimization, precision fabrication, and highly integrated assembly techniques


  • Promote engineering approaches that leverages rapid prototyping, iterative development, modern digital engineering practices, and rapid hardware iteration methodologies throughout the organization


  • Ensure spacecraft designs are optimized for manufacturability, reliability, assembly, integration, and test at scale


  • Lead the transition from prototype to scalable production for increasingly sophisticated spacecraft systems


  • Partner closely with manufacturing, systems engineering, and supply chain teams to accelerate development cycles into flight-ready hardware


  • Establish scalable engineering processes, verification methodologies, and development infrastructure that ensure program resilience, continuity, and repeatable delivery at an increasing production scale


Organizational Leadership

  • Build, mentor, and scale high-performing engineering teams and leaders while recruiting, developing, and retaining exceptional talent across multiple mechanical engineering domains


  • Establish engineering standards, development processes, and organizational structures that enable breakthrough innovation and disciplined execution


  • Drive strong cross-functional collaboration with systems, RF, electrical, software, avionics, payload, production, and mission operations teams


  • Balance technical risk, execution speed, reliability, and business priorities while enabling ambitious engineering outcomes


  • Align engineering roadmaps, organizational capacity, and technical priorities across multiple spacecraft programs and platform initiatives


  • Drive resource allocation and organizational prioritization to maximize execution efficiency and long-term platform scalability


  • Communicate technical strategy, execution status, risks, and trade-offs across executive leadership, customers, external partners, and cross-functional stakeholders


  • Provide clarity, alignment, and decisive leadership in highly ambiguous and rapidly evolving technical environments


  • Drive the evolution of engineering tools, simulation environments, and digital infrastructure to support increasingly complex spacecraft development programs


Required Skills & Qualifications:

  • Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering or equivalent


  • 10+ years of experience in mechanical engineering


  • Experience leading engineering teams across multiple mechanical domains (e.g., design, structural, thermal); experience managing managers is an asset


  • Strong understanding of mechanical design, structural analysis, and thermal engineering principles


  • Experience delivering hardware from concept through qualification and flight readiness


  • Strong communication, leadership, and organizational skills


Bonus Points:

  • Experience developing spacecraft or aerospace systems with high mechanical complexity and demanding performance requirements


  • Strong background in advanced manufacturing technologies and scalable hardware production


  • Proven ability to lead and grow large engineering organizations delivering complex aerospace hardware


  • Demonstrated history of pushing technical boundaries and delivering innovative systems previously considered infeasible


  • Passion for building the next generation of space infrastructure and enabling transformative capabilities in orbit

About Kepler Communications

Kepler Communications is a satellite telecommunications provider that is building a global network of satellites to provide connectivity for the Internet of Things (IoT) and other data services. The company was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. Kepler's satellites are designed to provide low-cost, high-bandwidth connectivity to remote and underserved areas around the world. The company's technology is also being used to track ships and other vessels at sea, as well as to monitor environmental conditions and natural disasters. Kepler has partnerships with a number of companies and organizations, including the Canadian Space Agency, the European Space Agency, and the United Nations.
Learn more about Kepler Communications
Size
50 employees
Industry
Transportation
Founded
2015
* Ladders Estimates

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