Landing Gear Engineer

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

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

Equity for full-time employees

Job summary

Dominion Dynamics is seeking an experienced Landing Gear Engineer to take the Scout landing gear from requirements through qualified, assembled systems such as structure, extension/retraction, brakes, shock absorption, and steering. You will work with suppliers and the manufacturing team to integrate hardware and qualify components for flight testing.

The role emphasizes hands-on testing, traceability to airworthiness standards, and collaboration with the CAF and allies.

Qualifications

• Experience designing, analyzing, or integrating aircraft landing gear systems on a program that reached hardware.
• Strong mechanical/structural analysis fundamentals — static and dynamic loads, fatigue, and damage tolerance.
• Experience with multibody dynamics simulation of mechanisms.
• Experience writing landing gear requirements against airworthiness regulations.
• Hands-on test experience — rig design, functional & flight testing, and turning test data into design changes.

Responsibilities

• Design and integrate the landing gear system — structures, kinematics, extension/retraction mechanisms, shock absorbers, brakes, and nose-wheel steering control.
• Run trade studies and evaluate static and dynamic loads, shimmy, fatigue, and damage tolerance for landing gear components.
• Derive system and subsystem requirements compliant with airworthiness regulations, and maintain traceability through verification.
• Model deployment, retraction, and drop-test dynamics with multibody simulation tools.
• Plan and execute ground & flight test campaigns, including software- and hardware-in-the-loop testing of gear actuation and steering control.
• Work with component suppliers and the manufacturing team through fabrication and final assembly, resolving issues on the floor rather than over email.

Job description

Reports to: Director, Aircraft Systems

Type: Full-Time

The Role

Dominion Scout is Canada’s first autonomous collaborative platform (ACP) — a clean-sheet, sovereign aircraft built to operate in Canadian and Arctic conditions, with a support footprint well below a crewed fighter fleet. Landing gear takes the hardest loads the aircraft sees, packs into the tightest space on the airframe, and has to deploy every time, on northern runways, with no pilot onboard to work around a fault on approach.

You take Scout’s landing gear from requirements to a qualified, assembled system: structure, extension and retraction, shock absorption, brakes, and nose-wheel steering. The demonstrator reuses proven, flight-worthy components wherever possible, so a large part of the job is selecting, integrating, and qualifying the right hardware with suppliers, then getting it built, tested and flown.

What You’ll Do

• Design and integrate the landing gear system — structures, kinematics, extension/retraction mechanisms, shock absorbers, brakes, and nose-wheel steering control.

• Run trade studies and evaluate static and dynamic loads, shimmy, fatigue, and damage tolerance for landing gear components.

• Derive system and subsystem requirements compliant with airworthiness regulations, and maintain traceability through verification.

• Model deployment, retraction, and drop-test dynamics with multibody simulation tools.

• Plan and execute ground & flight test campaigns, including software- and hardware-in-the-loop testing of gear actuation and steering control.

• Work with component suppliers and the manufacturing team through fabrication and final assembly, resolving issues on the floor rather than over email.

What You Bring

• Experience designing, analyzing, or integrating aircraft landing gear systems on a program that reached hardware.

• Strong mechanical and structural analysis fundamentals — static and dynamic loads, fatigue, and damage tolerance.

• Experience with multibody dynamics simulation of mechanisms.

• Experience writing landing gear requirements against airworthiness regulations.

• Hands‑on test experience — rig design, functional & flight testing, and turning test data into design changes.

• Comfort working directly with suppliers and technicians through build and assembly.

Nice to Have

• Shimmy analysis and nose-wheel steering control design.

• Brake system and hydraulic or electromechanical actuation design.

• FEA experience (e.g. ANSYS, Abaqus, Nastran) on gear structures.

• Landing gear for uncrewed aircraft, or for unprepared, short, or cold‑weather runways.

• Integrating off‑the‑shelf gear components into a new airframe, and managing supplier qualification.

• Clean‑sheet or demonstrator aircraft programs, or defence and dual‑use air programs.

No defence background required.

We’ve hired people who didn’t tick every box.

Why Join Us

Building something meaningful starts with the right people.

At Dominion Dynamics, you’ll:

• 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.