Signal Processing Engineer (Acoustic)

Open People Network (OPN); Toronto; On-site; CAD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Osprey Systems is building Canada’s sovereign counter-drone capability and owns acoustic sensing end to end for real-time detection and localization on embedded compute in extreme conditions.

You will design microphone arrays, implement beamforming, and optimize performance in cold environments while contributing to field campaigns and early-stage startup growth.

Qualifications

• 4+ years in signal processing with real deployed systems.
• Deep DSP fundamentals: filtering, spectral estimation, detection theory, beamforming or direction finding.
• Experience taking algorithms from notebook to embedded target under latency and power constraints.
• Hands-on measurement: build the rig, calibrate the array, trust your own data.

Responsibilities

• Design microphone array geometry and the acoustic front end with weatherproof, cold-rated packaging.
• Build the real-time beamforming and direction-of-arrival pipeline for detection and localization.
• Develop robust performance in hostile acoustic environments, including very cold air.
• Extract classification features including harmonic structure and signatures that separate targets of interest from ambient machinery at range.
• Optimize for real-time execution on embedded compute within a strict power budget.
• Build acoustic data collection and ground-truth workflows for field campaigns and winter characterization.
• Help shape engineering culture, tooling, and hiring as the team grows.

Skills

Signal processing

DSP fundamentals

C++ for real-time

Python for research

Embedded development

Field campaigns

Tools

C++

Python

Job description

Osprey Systems is building Canada’s sovereign counter-drone capability. Our distributed detection and interception system is designed for the environments where everything else fails: extreme cold, GPS-denied, and network-degraded conditions. We serve critical infrastructure operators and defense customers with a single product line, built in Canada.

We are a small founding team backed by a clear funding pathway through Canadian defense innovation programs and paid civilian deployments.

The role

Some targets are effectively silent on the radio spectrum. They are not silent acoustically. You will own acoustic sensing end to end: microphone array design, beamforming and localization, signature characterization, and the real-time pipeline running on embedded compute, all of it working in wind, industrial noise, crowd noise, and cold air that changes how sound propagates.

What you will do

• Design microphone array geometry and the acoustic front end with weatherproof, cold-rated packaging.
• Build the real-time beamforming and direction-of-arrival pipeline for detection and localization.
• Develop robust performance in hostile acoustic environments, including very cold air.
• Extract classification features including harmonic structure and signatures that separate targets of interest from ambient machinery at range.
• Optimize for real-time execution on embedded compute within a strict power budget.
• Build acoustic data collection and ground-truth workflows for field campaigns and winter characterization.
• Help shape engineering culture, tooling, and hiring as the team grows.

What we are looking for

• 4+ years in signal processing with real deployed systems, ideally array processing or acoustics.
• Deep DSP fundamentals: filtering, spectral estimation, detection theory, beamforming or direction finding.
• C++ for real-time pipelines; Python for research and analysis.
• Experience taking algorithms from notebook to embedded target under latency and power constraints.
• Hands-on measurement comfort: build the rig, calibrate the array, trust your own data.
• Willingness to do winter field campaigns.

Nice to have:

TDOA or MUSIC-family localization; machinery or vehicle acoustic signatures; MEMS arrays and custom PCB collaboration; wind-noise mitigation; ML applied to audio; sonar or ultrasonics; early-stage startup experience.