Director, Hardware Engineering — Field Deployable Systems

Ctrl; Ottawa; Hybrid; CAD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity participation

Health and dental coverage

Field kit

Certifications and training

Job summary

Ctrl is seeking a Director of Hardware Engineering to own the hardware program for dock installations, sensor payloads, power and comms systems, and field-test discipline. This forward‑deployed role involves hands-on work with deployed systems in real environments and leadership of a small senior hardware team as the fleet scales.

You will drive end-to-end hardware integration, manage vendor relationships, and ensure robust environmental and endurance validation for outdoor deployments.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in hardware/electrical/mechatronics with fielded product experience.
• 3+ years leading hardware teams or programs.
• Two or more of: power systems, RF/comms, sensor integration, ruggedized enclosures.
• Experience with regulatory and environmental certification for outdoor systems.
• Hands-on builder—prototype, instrument, and debug on bench and field.
• Canada security clearance eligibility preferred; defence background not required.

Responsibilities

• Own hardware architecture across dock installs, payload integration, and edge compute nodes.
• Lead integration of DJI, Skydio, Starlink, C-UAS, and sensor systems into unified deployments.
• Build the test and validation program: environmental, endurance, and pre-deployment checks.
• Manage vendor relationships, sourcing, and low-volume production runs.
• Establish maintenance engineering—component life tracking, failure analysis, retrofits.
• Grow a small, senior hardware team as the deployed fleet scales.

Skills

Hardware engineering

Team leadership

Power systems

RF/comms

Sensor integration

Regulatory certs

Field prototyping

Security clearance eligible

Job description

Ctrl is seeking a Director of Hardware Engineering to own the hardware program for dock installations, sensor payloads, power and comms systems, and field-test discipline. This forward‑deployed role involves hands-on work with deployed systems in real environments and leadership of a small senior hardware team as the fleet scales.

You will drive end-to-end hardware integration, manage vendor relationships, and ensure robust environmental and endurance validation for outdoor deployments.