Director of Engineering

Xiphos Systems Corporation, founded in 1996, is a vibrant and energetic company in the heart of Montreal’s Plateau area. For over 20 years, we have pushed the envelope of what is possible in NewSpace and secured the trust of various space agencies and space companies around the world. The industry has adopted our design approach and, as a result, we have been experiencing several years of rapid, steady growth and the trend is continuing!

Our vision is to migrate terrestrial computing and network communication techniques into space environments. The company’s expertise in networked processors has evolved into a line of high-performance, fault-tolerant flight control and sensor processing hardware and software solutions in wide and varied advanced space applications.

Xiphos’ primary markets are small satellites, space station applications, as well as lunar landers, rovers, and robotics. We have delivered our standard and custom products all over the world and have been essential to many successful space missions. With low power consumption, high processing power, enhanced flexibility, excellent robustness, and proven functions available off-the-shelf, our Q-cards are increasingly the preferred solution in the fast-growing field of NewSpace.

MAIN TASKS

Reporting directly to the Chief Technology Officer, the Director of Engineering is accountable for the organizational health, engineering capability, and predictable execution of Xiphos’ multidisciplinary engineering organization. The Director will build a leadership and operating system that converts product and project priorities into credible, resourced engineering plans and delivers those plans through clear ownership, disciplined follow-through, and effective cross-functional execution.

As a successful candidate, you will ensure the success of all our development and engineering efforts by fostering efficiency and a focus on requirements. You will continue to grow the culture of inspiration and collaboration, such that each team member team brings their best. You will remove obstacles to maximize the team’s efforts and support an environment in which these are value-added and each member is inspired and intellectually fulfilled. As continuous improvement is key, you will lead the team in the ongoing process of identification and implementation of opportunities to evolve our processes.

The Director of Engineering will take the necessary actions to facilitate efficient development and testing. The company is on significant growth trajectory.

The Director of Engineering will partner closely with the Chief Engineer, Project Management, and Product Management. The Chief Engineer provides technical authority and product-level technical leadership. Engineering develops and owns the executable technical work plan and provides the resources required to deliver it. Project Management integrates that work into the overall project plan and owns schedule, risk, and customer-facing execution. Product Management owns product priorities, requirements tradeoffs, and product decisions.

To support a primarily in-office team, this position is a full-time, in-office role in Montreal.

At Xiphos, our customers’ mission success is our primary goal. The successful candidate will be key to Xiphos’ ensuring that we are able to deliver on that goal.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Oversee and manage the engineering team and Team Leads, providing direction, guidance and mentorship
• Ensure that each of the technical teams (Hardware, Software, Logic, Test) has the required expertise, tools and resources to fulfill their diverse mandates
• Promote effective communications between the engineering teams to support our culture of collaboration and increase efficiency across projects
• Fostering a one-team approach within the Engineering team and with all stakeholders, at Xiphos, with suppliers and sub-contractors, and with our customers
• Ensure the right data tools and processes are in place, such that the right information is readily available
• Deliver development projects using repeatable, cross-functional engineering plans that define outcomes, technical workstreams, appropriate resource loading, validation and verification, and readiness criteria.
• Build an accountable leadership model in which team members have clear responsibilities, decision rights, performance expectations, and escalation paths.
• Coach and develop leaders by providing clear expectations, regular feedback, development planning, and corrective action where required.
• Partnered with the CTO, Product Management, and Project Management, establish and protect priorities, make resource conflicts visible, and ensure that changes in scope or priority include explicit schedule and capacity tradeoffs.
• Support efforts related to AS9100 quality processes and audits, maintaining process and documentation, and ensuring the team meet various requirements

QUALIFICATIONS

• 15+ years of experience developing complex, mission-critical hardware and software products, including a successful track record of leading multidisciplinary engineering organizations.
• Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical Engineering, Embedded Systems, Mechatronics, or Software an asset), a Master’s degree a plus
• Experience leading engineering teams, including success managing engineering managers or functional leads across multiple technical disciplines.
• Demonstrated ability to assess organizational capability, strengthen or replace underperforming structures, develop leaders, and reduce dependency on key individuals.
• Leadership style characterized by listening, constructive challenge, clear decisions, delegated ownership, direct feedback, and disciplined follow-through.
• Functionally bilingual (French and English)
• Ability to obtain Canadian security clearance (Controlled Good Program)
• A strong knowledge of system engineering (electronic, software, mechanical)
• Experience working in the aerospace industry, with a focus on space, an asset

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