Principal Systems Engineer

Holt Executive Ltd; Canada; On-site; CAD 100,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

A prominent engineering firm in Canada is looking for a Principal Systems Engineer to join their team. The role involves maintaining system-level architectures and collaborating with a multidisciplinary team on a large-scale technical space program. Candidates should have a bachelor's degree in engineering and over 10 years of relevant experience, with strong systems engineering knowledge. This position offers significant influence on system design and integration, as well as mentorship opportunities for junior engineers.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of relevant engineering experience.
• Strong background in formal systems engineering.
• Experience working with large-scale, distributed systems.

Responsibilities

• Characterize and analyze end-to-end system performance.
• Develop, maintain, and track system-level technical performance budgets.
• Support requirements development, allocation, and stabilization through CDR.

Skills

Systems engineering

Performance analysis

Mentoring junior engineers

Requirements management

Collaboration in multidisciplinary environments

Education

Bachelor's degree in Electrical, Aerospace, or Systems Engineering

Tools

JAMA

SharePoint

Confluence

Job description

We are seeking a PrincipalSystems Engineer to join a systems engineering team working on a large-scale, technical space programme. This is a senior technical role suited to an engineer with deep experience in systems of systems, ideally within networking, aerospace, defence, or other large, distributed infrastructures.

You’ll play a key role in maintaining and refining system-level architectures, interface documentation, and technical performance budgets, ensuring requirements are robust, traceable, and aligned across multiple engineering disciplines as the programme progresses through critical design milestones.

You will work within a multidisciplinary systems engineering environment, collaborating closely with system architects, hardware, software, network, and ground infrastructure engineers. The focus is on system performance analysis, requirements allocation, and interface definition across a complex, end-to-end system. This position offers significant technical influence on system design and integration.

The successful candidate must be eligible to work in Canada and able to obtain Reliability Clearance.

Key Responsibilities

• Characterise and analyse end-to-end system performance
• Develop, maintain, and track system-level technical performance budgets
• Maintain and ensure the correctness and completeness of interface documentation
• Ensure verification plans and procedures are fit for purpose
• Support requirements development, allocation, and stabilisation through CDR
• Provide technical input to regulatory, coordination, and market access activities
• Present technical material to both technical and non-technical audiences
• Mentor and support junior engineers, sharing systems engineering best practice
• Collaborate with senior engineers to resolve complex, cross-domain technical issues

Required Experience & Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Electrical, Aerospace, or Systems Engineering (or similar)
• 10+ years of relevant engineering experience
• Strong background in formal systems engineering
• Experience working with large-scale, distributed systems
• Familiarity with requirements management and systems engineering lifecycle processes
• Experience with tools such as JAMA, SharePoint, and Confluence

Desirable Experience

• Background in complex technical systems, networking, or RF-based systems
• Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) experience
• Experience developing or managing system interfaces