Naval Communication Systems Engineer

Location:

Ottawa, Canada In fast changing markets, customers worldwide rely on Thales. Thales is a business where brilliant people from all over the world come together to share ideas and inspire each other. In aerospace, transportation, defence, security and space, our architects design innovative solutions that make our tomorrow's possible.

For decades, Ottawa has been a global technology leader. Today, Canada’s capital holds one of the brightest and most diverse technological ecosystems in North America. Voted as Canada’s best place to live 2017 by Maclean's, Ottawa offers a low cost of living with a high quality of life. The Thales Ottawa office has been a major supplier and long-term trusted partner to DND, enabling the Canadian Armed Forces and the Canadian Coast Guard to achieve mission success.

This is for a hybrid role in Ottawa, ON. Role can be located also in Nova Scotia (east) or British Columbia (west) or New Brunswick.

Position Summary

We have a current vacancy for a Naval Communication Systems Engineer to join our Team in Ottawa, ON.

Thales Canada Defence and Security has been engaged by the Canadian Department of National Defence for the In-Service Support (ISS) of the VICTORIA Class Submarine AJU Integrated Communications Mast in close collaboration with the OEM, Thales UK Ltd. This 10-year contract was signed in 2025 with several options for extension and includes the provision of engineering services, modernization, maintenance, and sustainment of the system for the life of the AJU Integrated Communications Mast and ancillaries.

You will join the Systems Engineering team at one of our locations within Canada (Victoria, Ottawa, Fredericton, or Halifax) to provide engineering support to the upgrade of the existing systems in a multidisciplinary and collaborative environment. Given the long-term nature of the contract, day-to-day work is driven through a Task Authorization model and will require collaboration with Thales personnel both within Canada and abroad.

This job carries the potential for limited travel to the customer's facilities on the east coast as well as to the Technical Lead (Thales UK) for collaboration, installation/repair, and other duties as required.

Key Areas of Responsibility

In their efforts to develop and sustain naval systems, Systems Engineers are called upon to integrate a variety of sensors, software, firmware, and apps on commercial and military platforms. The essential functions and responsibilities of a Systems Engineer include:

Tailor the system engineering process, practices and tools;

Provide timely and accurate status updates;

Develop the preliminary and detailed designs for system and subsystem elements;

Identify, characterize, and describe issues in the system or its design through problem reports and document and design reviews;

Author technical documentation to capture the system and subsystem designs including the architecture, interfaces, and installation elements;

Collaborate with stakeholders to ensure the designs are consistent with needs, desires, and concerns of the end-users;

Collaborate with other functions during the implementation and integration of the system and subsystem designs;

Resolution of technical issues arising during the implementation, integration and testing of the system and subsystem elements; and/or

Support the installation and/or integration testing of the systems remotely or on customer site.

For this specific project, typical duties will include:

System Design & Modernization:
Designing, upgrading, and maintaining radio equipment, including antennas, receivers and transmitters;

Integration & Testing:
Integrating radio equipment with submarine subsystems (matching uning units, amplifiers, antennas) and conducting testing to verify performance;

RF and Data Analysis:
Analyzing radio frequency data, troubleshooting electronic and electro-mechanical systems, and diagnosing communication failures;

Modeling & Simulation:
Using Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) to analyze potential impacts of changes to the submarine’s communication architecture;

Security & Compliance:
Ensuring systems meet high-security standards for the…