Aircraft Configuration & Layout Engineer

Dominion Dynamics; Ottawa; On-site; CAD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive base salary

Company equity

Comprehensive health benefits

Job summary

Dominion Dynamics in Ottawa, ON is seeking a lead Aircraft Configuration Engineer to own the layout, outer mold lines, and mass properties from concept through PDR. You’ll coordinate propulsion, avionics, and payload placement while balancing CG and maintenance access.

You will run sizing analyses, perform trade studies, and present configuration baselines across aerodynamics, structures, and flight controls. CAD fluency and an aerospace degree are required, with security clearance readiness.

Qualifications

• Degree in Aerospace Engineering or equivalent with depth in aircraft configuration and layout.
• Track record owning aircraft configuration through preliminary design.
• Fluency with 3D CAD for full-aircraft layout and packaging trades.
• Strong command of aircraft performance: drag buildup, sizing, range/endurance, mission analysis.
• Hands-on weight & balance / mass properties management, tracking mass growth against target.
• Eligible to obtain and maintain a Canadian security clearance (Secret or higher).

Responsibilities

• Define aircraft geometry, layout & general arrangement.
• Develop and refine 3D configurations, outer mold lines (OML), and general arrangements from concept through preliminary design review.
• Integrate the subsystems. Direct the physical placement of propulsion, fuel/energy storage, landing gear, avionics, sensors, communications, and payloads.
• Manage internal volume and CG. Optimize packaging density, preserve maintenance access, and keep the design inside its operational CG envelope.
• Run performance and sizing analysis. Build aerodynamic drag buildups, range/endurance and mission-profile analyses.
• Own the mass properties baseline. Establish and maintain the program weight & balance baseline.
• Execute rapid trade studies. Quantify how geometry and payload affect mission capability.
• Hold the configuration baseline. Control and communicate the authoritative configuration baseline.
• Resolve integration conflicts. Interface between discipline leads to catch spatial, weight, dynamic, and thermal conflicts.
• Lead configuration reviews for SRR, SDR, and PDR milestones.
• Benchmark competition using OSINT and market data to model competitor configurations.

Skills

Aircraft configuration

Mass properties management

3D CAD

Systems integration

Trade studies

Education

Aerospace Engineering

Tools

3D CAD

Job description

Location: Ottawa, ON (preferred) | Toronto & Montreal consideredDepartment: Engineering — ACP / AircraftReports to: Head of Engineering / ACP Program Lead

About the Role

Every subsystem on an autonomous aircraft competes for the same volume, the same CG margin, and the same access panel. This role owns the configuration that resolves those fights — the authoritative 3D arrangement that propulsion, structures, avionics, and payload all build against. You'll take mission requirements and turn them into a real vehicle: outer mold lines, internal packaging, and a weight-and-balance baseline that holds from concept through PDR while the design keeps changing underneath you.

These are clean-sheet platforms on startup timelines, with fast iteration and real operator feedback. You'll also be the person who knows what the threat looks like — benchmarking competitor and adversary unmanned systems so our configuration trades are grounded in what actually flies.

What You'll Do

• Define aircraft geometry, layout & general arrangement.
• Develop and refine 3D configurations, outer mold lines (OML), and general arrangements from concept through preliminary design review.
• Integrate the subsystems. Direct the physical placement of propulsion, fuel/energy storage, landing gear, avionics, sensors, communications, and weapons or specialized payloads — resolving the spatial trades between them.
• Manage internal volume and CG. Optimize packaging density, preserve maintenance access, and keep the design inside its operational center-of-gravity envelope.
• Run performance and sizing analysis. Build aerodynamic drag buildups, range/endurance and mission-profile analyses, and payload-range trades across the operational envelope.
• Own the mass properties baseline. Establish and maintain the program weight & balance baseline — current estimate vs. target mass, moments of inertia, and mass growth allowances.
• Execute rapid trade studies. Quantify how geometry, wing sweep/aspect ratio, engine selection, and payload integration move overall mission capability.
• Hold the configuration baseline. Establish, control, and communicate the authoritative configuration baseline across aerodynamics, structures, avionics, flight controls, and manufacturing.
• Resolve integration conflicts. Act as the primary technical interface between discipline leads to catch spatial, weight, dynamic, and thermal conflicts early in the design cycle.
• Lead configuration reviews. Build the configuration-focused data packages and presentations for SRR, SDR, and PDR milestones.
• Benchmark the competition. Analyze OSINT, defense publications, and market data to model competitor and adversary configurations — speed, range, loiter, payload, signature — and feed capability-gap findings into roadmap trades and business development.

What We're Looking For

• Degree in Aerospace Engineering or equivalent, with real depth in aircraft configuration and layout.
• A track record owning aircraft configuration or general arrangement through preliminary design — you've held a baseline, not just contributed to one.
• Fluency with 3D CAD for full-aircraft layout (not just individual parts) and configuration-level packaging trades.
• Strong command of aircraft performance: drag buildup, sizing, range/endurance, mission analysis.
• Hands‑on weight & balance / mass properties management, tracking mass growth against target.
• Comfort making defensible engineering calls under uncertainty at startup velocity.
• Eligible to obtain and maintain a Canadian security clearance (Secret or higher).

Nice to Have / Bonus Points

• Experience with uncrewed or attritable platforms, or unconventional configurations.
• Competitive intelligence / threat benchmarking of unmanned systems from open‑source data.
• CG‑driven layout on ISR, loyal-wingman, or contested‑environment platforms.
• Arctic or cold‑weather design considerations (icing, materials, field logistics).
• Exposure to RCAF, DND, or NATO airworthiness pathways for uncrewed systems.
• No defence background required.

Why Join Us

• Building something meaningful starts with the right people.
• Shape Canada’s future by building real defence capability for the CAF and our allies.
• Make decisions that ship in a high-trust environment with short feedback loops and rapid iteration.
• Move fast, field faster, and work directly with the operator — our systems are in the field with the CAF now.
• Have an impact from day one with equity, responsibility, and direct access to leadership.
• If you’re curious, hands‑on, and driven by the opportunity to make a difference, this is where you belong!

Compensation & Benefits

• Competitive base salary and company equity*
• Comprehensive health benefits
• Additional equity granted based on impact*
• We use AI tools to support parts of the hiring process, including screening and reviewing responses. Final hiring decisions are always made by people and follow all applicable privacy and employment laws in Canada.
• Equity awarded to full time employees only.