Digital Payload Architect (Fastwater Staffing)

The company provides full relocation support, including immigration assistance, and offers a relocation bonus upon arrival in Montreal. Selected candidates may work remotely during the initial months while their immigration process is being completed; however, the long-term expectation is for the individual to transition to onsite work in Montreal once relocation has been finalized.

Tasks summary:

Architecture Concept & Requirements

• Establish functional, performance, environmental and security requirements with mission

stakeholders & CONOPs.

• Translate requirements into clear payload performance parameters and maintain bidirectional

traceability throughout the project lifecycle.

• Establish with cybersecurity team payload‑specific requirements & embed resilience and

security by design.

Payload Architecture Definition

• Define the overall digital regenerative payload architecture (optical/RF ISLs, antenna arrays,

digitizers/ onboard processing, Feeder links, master reference oscillator & clock

synchronizations).

• Define Interface Control Documents (ICDs) with spacecraft bus, ground segment and payload

specific subsystems.

• Define high‑speed data‑bus I/F (Serdes, SpaceWire, SpaceFibre, Ethernet, CAN, fiber).

Trade‑Study & Technology Road‑Mapping

• Lead trade‑offs for technologies, ASIC/FPGAs/SoCs, high‑speed data‑bus, and on‑board

processing algorithms, PVT.

• Identify emerging technologies and incorporate them into the company's long‑term roadmap.

System Modeling & Performance Simulation

• Build end‑to‑end models of the signal chain (optical/RF, analog/digital) using

MATLAB/Simulink, SystemView or Python‑based toolkits.

• Run Monte‑Carlo and tolerance analyses to verify gain, SNR, dynamic range, spectral

efficiency, G/T, EIRP and other key metrics.

• Optimize payload design and performance with operation with traffic models/CONOPs.

Simulation & Analysis

• Oversee performance simulations & analysis (Gain, Spurious, Linearity, SNR, dynamic range,

spectral efficiency, pointing, G/T, EIRP…etc.) and tolerance budgeting.

• Optimize Payload DC power budget with traffic & utilization models.

Hardware & Firmware

• Own system‑level specifications to hardware designers, review schematics, layouts, thermal &

mechanical interfaces.

• Oversee MODCODs selection and on‑board processing pipelines; define BIST, timing, latency

and deterministic behavior.

Cross‑Functional Coordination, Stakeholder & Program Interaction

• Communicate technical status, risk assessments and trade‑study results to senior

management and/or customers or partners.

• Act as the primary technical liaison with Electrical, Power, Structures, Thermal, Software,

Ground Segment and Mission Operations teams to resolve integration issues early.

• Support payload design authority in System design reviews and Mission Operations

hand‑over.

• Support B&P (Phase 0 & pre-phase A).

Integration & Verification (IVV)

• Author Payload Verification Master Plan covering unit‑test, subsystem‑test, payload‑level test,

environmental and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) test campaigns.

• Define test‑automation framework set‑up, test‑case definition, results analysis and test‑report

certification.

Technical Leadership & Mentorship

• Mentor, guide junior engineers and interns.

• Act as technical liaison with customers, partners and external vendors

• Act as Continuous Improvement stakeholder

• Contribute to the company's knowledge‑base, process enhancements, and standards development.

Configuration, Documentation & Standards Management

• Ensure all artefacts, analysis, software, deliverables and documentation are version controlled

in PLM environment.

• Chair design reviews (SRR, PDR, CDR, MRR/TRR…etc.).

• Support Technology Road‑Mapping & Innovation.

On Orbit & Operations Support

• Technical support to Mission Operations for routine payload health monitoring, contingency

handling and performance trending.

• Lead root‑cause investigations for on‑orbit anomalies; update design baselines and

lessons‑learned.

• Analyze on‑orbit telemetry, update filter parameters, and generate performance reports.

• Define SOOH and associated operator training.

Required Qualifications:

B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering, Aerospace or Physics (M.Sc. preferred) with 12 + years of digital

regenerative payload system design experience on LEO/MEO missions.

Comprehensive knowledge of digital regenerative communications, SDR, DSP, DVB RCS/SX

protocols, Modulation schemes, Class of Service, Networking, MPLS, 2G, 5G, NTN.

Strong technical writing ability (requirements, ICDs, test procedures, risk reports) and

presentation skills; comfortable interfacing with customers, suppliers and senior leadership.

Strong understanding of aerospace system engineering fundamentals.

Hands-on individual who can support systems integration processes and capability to test

systems and resolve problems.

Experience with Confluence and JIRA.

Demonstrated capability to efficiently work with little supervision.

Ability to distill complex problems to fundamentals to solve with analysis, similarity, or

creativity.

Demonstrate excellent written and oral communication skills in English; knowledge of French

will be considered an asset (Contact with clients outside Quebec and work on deliverables in

English).