Technical Project Manager - Airborne Optical Systems

Job Description

Job Description

Technical Project Manager Airborne Optical SystemsBurlington ON

• Please note that to be considered for any position at PV Labs, all candidates must be eligible to meet the requirements of the Canadian Controlled-Goods Program of the Defense Production Act, and be able to hold and maintain a Canadian Security Clearance. If you are not clear about your eligibility, please consult the Government of Canada website HERE

About the Role

At PVLabs, Project Managers don't just manage schedules—they turn technical ambition into delivered reality.

You will operate at the center of a highly multidisciplinary organization, aligning Engineering Labs (Electrical, Mechanical, Software, Gateware, Systems), Operations, Leadership, and Customers around a shared execution plan. Your primary job is not task tracking—it is outcome ownership : clarifying priorities, managing risk, sequencing interdependencies, and driving decisions in complex, fast-moving environments.

This is a senior role for someone who thrives in ambiguity, brings technical credibility, and leads through influence rather than authority. You'll guide programs from early uncertainty through execution, balancing long-term system milestones with short-term tradeoffs in design, supply chain, and resourcing.

As PVLabs evolves from a custom-engineering model to a product-centric innovation company, you'll help shape how programs are planned, governed, and scaled across a growing portfolio of airborne ISR systems.

Your Center of Gravity : The PVLabs Engineering Council

You will work closely with the PVLabs Engineering Council—a small group of Staff and Principal Engineers spanning all engineering disciplines.

Rather than micromanaging tasks, youll rely on this group as a force multiplier : translating program priorities into executable engineering work, surfacing technical risk early, and sequencing interdependent deliverables. Your success depends on strong relationships, shared context, and mutual trust—combining your program-level ownership with their deep technical leadership.

What You Will be Responsible ForProgram Ownership & Execution

What You're About :

We value how people work as much as what they deliver. You are someone who :

Your Background

This role is intentionally not suited to generic project management backgrounds.

You've spent a meaningful portion of your career working inside complex, hardware-driven engineering environments—where systems are physical, failure is expensive, and integration risk is real. You understand that managing a program like this requires more than process fluency; it requires technical intuition, judgment under uncertainty, and credibility with engineers.

You likely bring :

8–10+ years in engineering execution, NPI project engineering, or technical program management within aerospace, defense, ISR, robotics, advanced mechatronics, precision optics, avionics, or similarly complex physical systems

Direct experience delivering multi-disciplinary products involving combinations of software, electronics, FPGA / gateware, precision mechanics, optics, and production ramp-up

Exposure to environments where :

You are comfortable operating where :

Explicitly Not a Fit if :

This role will not be a good match if most of your experience comes from :

Those environments develop strong general PM skills—but they do not prepare you for the technical density, decision pressure, and cross-disciplinary integration required here.

What Does Translate

You don't need to have worked on airborne gimbals specifically—but you do need to have lived inside complex engineered systems where :

If you've helped shepherd a difficult system from concept through integration and delivery—and you know why it was hard—you're likely in the right territory.

Why PVLabs?

Because you want to work on something hard, something meaningful, and you want to do it with people who are as driven, smart, and resourceful as you are. You work best in a place built around autonomy, mastery and purpose - and where resulting performance, trust, and accountability is measured in outputs, not hours.

Because you want to work where it matters.

At PV Labs, your work wont disappear into a slide deck. You'll be front and centre of a mission-driven engineering culture, designing high-performance, airborne stabilized imaging systems that outperform anything else in its class, by a significant margin.

Welcome to what may be the hardest job you've ever loved.