Senior Manager, Project Integration- MC2

De-Havilland-Aircraft-of-Canada-Lt; Woolwich; On-site; CAD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Westerkirk Capital seeks a Senior Manager, Project Integration to oversee the technical coordination of aircraft modification programs. You will own the technical content, align engineering, DAO, manufacturing, installation, supply chain and suppliers, and drive certification readiness.

You will chair technical reviews, manage interfaces with OEMs and customers, and ensure on-time delivery while controlling technical risk and conformity through to STC issuance.

Qualifications

• Ten years in aircraft modification, design and certification, including leading multi-disciplinary projects.
• Experience inside a Design Approval Organization and with its delegates.
• Experience with avionics OEMs and equipment suppliers on technical matters.
• Knowledge of airworthiness requirements for applicable aircraft categories.

Responsibilities

• Coordinate and maintain a single technical view of modifications across avionics, structure and mechanics.
• Chair technical meetings and ensure decisions are tracked to closure.
• Define needs from each department and secure commitments before critical moments.
• Resolve technical disagreements and elevate when necessary.
• Oversee manufacturing, installation and shop-floor technical authority.
• Manage interfaces with OEMs, suppliers and data/control processes.
• Provide technical basis of the plan to project management and customers.
• Support bids with scope, certification approach and estimates.
• Release engineering data and drive certification evidence to closure.

Skills

Project leadership

Engineering coordination

Stakeholder management

Airworthiness knowledge

Education

Degree in aerospace engineering

Professional Engineer (P.Eng.)

Tools

Design data management

Job description

Position summary

Our company designs, develops, manufactures, installs, tests and certifies aircraft modifications, principally avionics upgrades together with the structural and mechanical work those upgrades require. The company holds a Design Approval Organization (DAO), an Approved Maintenance Organization (AMO) for Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO), and a manufacturing capability.

The Senior Manager, Project Integration is the senior technical point of contact for an assigned modification project, inside the company and outside it. The position works alongside the Project Manager, who holds the contract, the customer relationship and the master schedule. The Project Manager owns the plan. This position owns the technical content the plan depends on, and the coordination between every group that has to deliver it: design engineering, the DAO, manufacturing, installation, supply chain, and the equipment suppliers.

While delay and cost escalation on a modification project can arise from the boundaries between those groups, as well as data released that cannot be built as drawn, or a software load that arrives after the aircraft is already open, so preventing or closing those gaps early is the main purpose of the role.

Key responsibilities

Coordination and integration

• Maintain one technical view of the modification, covering avionics, structural and mechanical content, and keep it current as the design develops.
• Chair the project's technical meetings. Record what was decided and follow it through to closure.
• Establish what the project needs from each department and when, and obtain those commitments before the need becomes urgent.
• Resolve technical disagreements at working level, and elevate the ones that cannot be.

Manufacturing and installation

• Involve manufacturing engineering, liaison engineering and the installation teams during design and installation, so that build and installation constraints are treated as design requirements.
• Define the modification kit: what is manufactured in house, what is purchased, what the customer supplies, and the date each is required.
• Act as the technical authority for the shop floor and the hangar. Manage the technical query process and its response times.
• Disposition non-conformances with the DAO and feed the outcome back into the drawings, so that the same query does not recur on the next aircraft.
• Lead the prototype installation and the transition into repeatable production installations.

Equipment suppliers and OEMs

• Act as the technical contact for the avionics Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) supplying hardware, Line Replaceable Units (LRUs) and software.
• Agree and control the electrical, mechanical, data and software interfaces. Interface definitions are documented and under change control before manufacture starts.
• Obtain the supplier qualification and certification data the approval depends on, and confirm on receipt that it is adequate.
• Manage software loads, part numbers, service bulletins and configuration compatibility across the project.
• Track supplier issues to closure. Give early warning when a supplier date is at risk.
• Work within export control, Controlled Goods and intellectual property restrictions attached to supplier information.

Programs and the customer

• Provide the Project Manager with the technical basis of the plan: scope, estimates, durations, dependencies and a realistic status, early enough to be useful.
• Assess changes and emerging risks for their effect on design, manufacture, installation and certification, and put that assessment to the Programs team and the Project Manager before commitments are made.
• Represent the company technically with the customer: what the modification will do, what it will not do, and what is needed from them.
• Support bids and proposals with scope definition, certification approach and estimating.

Engineering data and certification

• Act as the interface into the DAO for the completion, release and approval of engineering drawings and compliance data supporting issue of the Supplemental Type Certificate (STC).
• Support the certification plan, certification basis and means of compliance, and drive the compliance checklist through to closure.
• Sequence the engineering work so that certification evidence is produced in the order the approval requires.
• Maintain control of the drawing tree, bill of materials, part numbering and effectivity. Assess every engineering change for certification impact before it is accepted.
• Plan and support conformity inspection, ground test and flight test.
• Confirm the delivered data set is complete: Instructions for Continued Airworthiness, Aircraft Flight Manual Supplement, master drawing list and installation instructions.

Required qualifications and experience

• Degree in aerospace, electrical, mechanical or systems engineering, or an equivalent qualification supported by a demonstrable engineering record.
• Must have ten (10) years in aircraft modification, design and certification, including at least five (5) years leading multi-disciplinary modification projects from concept through to installation.
• Personal involvement in taking STCs to issue. At least one must have been an avionics-led modification that also carried structural and mechanical work. Candidates should expect to discuss these projects in detail at interview, including what went wrong on them.
• Direct experience working inside a Design Approval Organization and with its appointed delegates.
• Experience on the production and installation side of the business, including responsibility for engineering data that was subsequently built and installed.
• Experience managing avionics OEMs and equipment suppliers on technical matters, not only commercial ones.
• Working knowledge of the airworthiness requirements applicable to the aircraft categories concerned.
• Experience of engineering data release and configuration control in an approved environment.

Preferred

• Delegate or authorized signatory status within a Design Approval Organization.
• Experience of STC validation between authorities under bilateral agreement.
• Special mission, surveillance, air ambulance, maritime patrol, head of state or military modification experience.
• Experience within an Approved Maintenance Organization, or in continuing airworthiness management.
• Registration as a Professional Engineer (P.Eng.) or equivalent.

Attributes

• Able to work through people who do not report to the position.
• Willing to hold a release, decline a shortcut or challenge a date while it is still early, and to say so plainly.
• Credible in a certification discussion and on the hangar floor.
• Writes clearly. Interface documents and dispositions have to be understood by people who were not in the meeting.

Working conditions and requirements

• On site at Kitchener. Regular access to the shop floor and hangar, where safety footwear and hearing protection are required.
• Occasional travel to customer, supplier, test and installation locations.
• Must meet the requirements to obtain and hold Controlled Goods Program registration and Government of Canada security clearance.