Line Technician

Non-Commissioned Member | Full Time, Part Time

As a member of the military, Line Technicians provide fast, reliable, wired communications infrastructure and support to wireless systems utilizing leading edge cable distribution systems. They are part of a larger team that provides the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) with communications and information services throughout Canada and around the world.

Line Technicians expertly install, remove, maintain, and repair leading edge communications infrastructure such as:

• Interior structured cable systems, consisting of copper cables, fibre optic cables, and supporting infrastructure
• The integration of radio, satellite, and microwave broadband equipment and infrastructure into wired networks
• Communications towers and antennas
• Fibre optic and copper cable distribution and supporting infrastructure in buildings and military bases

Work environment

Line Technicians experience the unique adventures and challenges that come with working primarily outdoors. Line Technicians work across the country and around the world wherever the CAF has a footprint. They are required to work at heights and in confined spaces for extended periods of time, and are required to be well versed in the application of safety standards.

If you chose a career in the Regular Force, upon completion of all required training, you will be assigned to your first base. While there is some flexibility with regards to postings (relocations), accommodations can’t always be made, and therefore, you can likely expect to move at some point in your career. However, if you decide to join the Primary Reserve Force, you will do so through a specific Reserve unit. Outside of training, your chosen Reserve unit will be your workplace on a part time basis, and you will not be obligated to relocate to a different base. As part of the Primary Reserve Force, you typically work one night per week and some weekends as a minimum with possibilities of full-time employment.

Line Technicians create physical links for all voice and data networks in the Canadian Armed Forces so that our soldiers, sailors, aviators and Special Forces can share crucial information anytime, anywhere, under any circumstances.

Line Techs spend most of their time outdoors. It’s physical, active, challenging work — with very little time behind a desk. They work on both fiber optic and copper cabling as well as strategic antennas to enable the connectivity of communications and information systems for Canadian Armed Forces operations. That can sometimes mean working underground in confined spaces and steam tunnels — or above ground on telephone poles or on steel towers up to 600 feet tall.

Line Techs often travel to work at locations all over the world. On international missions, Line Techs are among the first Canadians to hit the ground — wiring headquarters and forward operating bases to create robust and seamless communications links.

Once fully trained, Line Techs are assigned to a crew of three to six personnel and work on either antenna or cable projects that typically take up to six weeks to complete. The main hub of activity for Line Techs is 77 Line Regiment headquartered in Kingston, Ontario, which has detachments located across the country, including on every Canadian Armed Forces base or garrison. Line Techs can also be posted to a detachment at one of three brigades across Canada or to the Canadian Forces Joint Signal Regiment in Kingston, where they work on tactical line systems providing links to support peacekeeping, as well as battlefield and humanitarian operations.

The minimum required education to apply for this occupation is the completion of the provincial requirements for Grade 10 or Secondary 4 in Quebec including Grade 10 Applied Math or Math 416 in Quebec.