Technical Project Manager - Airborne Optical Systems

PVLabs; Burlington; On-site; CAD 100,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading aerospace engineering firm in Burlington, Newfoundland and Labrador, is seeking a Senior Technical Project Manager. This role requires 8-10+ years of experience in engineering execution and program management within complex systems. The candidate will oversee project ownership, manage multi-disciplinary teams, and navigate complexities of hardware-driven environments. This position offers a chance to work on innovative airborne imaging systems while driving technical and operational excellence.

Qualifications

• Experience in aerospace, defense, ISR, robotics, or complex physical systems.
• Strong technical background avoiding generic project management experiences.
• Ability to navigate complex environments where documentation and plans evolve together.

Responsibilities

• Own cost, schedule, risk, and performance of technical programs from kickoff to delivery.
• Develop integrated master schedules and risk management frameworks.
• Manage stakeholder communication and align cross-functional teams.

Skills

Technical intuition

Risk management

Cross-functional leadership

Systemic thinking

Clear communication

Education

8–10+ years in engineering execution or technical program management

Job description

Technical Project Manager

Airborne Optical Systems

Burlington ON

Please note that to be considered for any position at PV Labs, all candidates must be eligible to meet the requirements of the Canadian Controlled-Goods Program of the Defense Production Act, and be able to hold and maintain a Canadian Security Clearance. If you are not clear about your eligibility, please consult the Government of Canada website HERE

About the Role

At PVLabs, Project Managers don't just manage schedules—they turn technical ambition into delivered reality.

You will operate at the center of a highly multidisciplinary organization, aligning Engineering Labs (Electrical, Mechanical, Software, Gateware, Systems), Operations, Leadership, and Customers around a shared execution plan. Your primary job is not task tracking—it is outcome ownership: clarifying priorities, managing risk, sequencing interdependencies, and driving decisions in complex, fast-moving environments.

This is a senior role for someone who thrives in ambiguity, brings technical credibility, and leads through influence rather than authority. You'll guide programs from early uncertainty through execution, balancing long-term system milestones with short-term tradeoffs in design, supply chain, and resourcing.

As PVLabs evolves from a custom-engineering model to a product-centric innovation company, you'll help shape how programs are planned, governed, and scaled across a growing portfolio of airborne ISR systems.

Your Center of Gravity: The PVLabs Engineering Council

You will work closely with the PVLabs Engineering Council—a small group of Staff and Principal Engineers spanning all engineering disciplines.

Rather than micromanaging tasks, youll rely on this group as a force multiplier: translating program priorities into executable engineering work, surfacing technical risk early, and sequencing interdependent deliverables. Your success depends on strong relationships, shared context, and mutual trust—combining your program-level ownership with their deep technical leadership.

What You Will be Responsible For

Program Ownership & Execution

• Own cost, schedule, risk, and performance across complex technical programs from kickoff through delivery
• Develop and maintain integrated master schedules, technical baselines, and risk frameworks
• Balance engineering ambition with production realities, supply chain constraints, and resourcing limits
• Cross-Functional Leadership
• Align Electrical, Mechanical, Software, Optics, and Gateware workstreams
• Translate complex technical data into decision-ready insight for leadership and customers
• Manage stakeholder communication with clarity, urgency, and judgment
• Decision & Dependency Management
• Sequence and deconflict interdependent deliverables across disciplines
• Anticipate downstream impacts and resolve issues before they escalate
• Drive tradeoff decisions grounded in realism and system-level thinking
• Process & Scale Enablement
• Help shape PVLabs ERP-integrated project management approach, including resource modeling, material planning, and NRE forecasting
• Contribute to how we plan, track, and communicate work as the organization scales

What You're About:

We value how people work as much as what they deliver. You are someone who:

• Sees both the big picture and the work-package detail
• Leads through credibility, diplomacy, and clarity rather than authority
• Is energized by complex, fast-moving technical environments
• Brings order to ambiguity through structured thinking and decisive action
• Thinks systemically across electro-mechanical-optical products
• Communicates confidently without ego—and know when to ask questions
• Is comfortable navigating tension, tradeoffs, and competing priorities
• Has worked where documentation, plans, and products evolve together

Your Background

This role is intentionally not suited to generic project management backgrounds.

You've spent a meaningful portion of your career working inside complex, hardware-driven engineering environments—where systems are physical, failure is expensive, and integration risk is real. You understand that managing a program like this requires more than process fluency; it requires technical intuition, judgment under uncertainty, and credibility with engineers.

You likely bring:

8–10+ years in engineering execution, NPI project engineering, or technical program management within aerospace, defense, ISR, robotics, advanced mechatronics, precision optics, avionics, or similarly complex physical systems

Direct experience delivering multi-disciplinary products involving combinations of software, electronics, FPGA/gateware, precision mechanics, optics, and production ramp-up

Exposure to environments where:

• Prototypes fly, move, or operate in real-world conditions
• Design decisions are constrained by physics, certification, supply chain, and manufacturability
• Rework is costly, schedules are unforgiving, and just iterate later is not an option

You are comfortable operating where:

• Documentation, plans, and designs evolve together
• Technical teams are small, highly specialized, and deeply opinionatedli>
• Program risk is driven as much by integration and sequencing as by task completion

Explicitly Not a Fit if:

This role will not be a good match if most of your experience comes from:

• Financial services, enterprise IT, SaaS, or purely digital products
• Public sector, policy, or compliance-driven program environments
• Consulting-heavy roles where delivery was abstracted from execution
• Large organizations where programs were insulated from hands-on engineering, production, or supplier realities

Those environments develop strong general PM skills—but they do not prepare you for the technical density, decision pressure, and cross-disciplinary integration required here.

What Does Translate

You don't need to have worked on airborne gimbals specifically—but you do need to have lived inside complex engineered systems where:

• Software and hardware co-evolve
• Engineering trade-offs directly affect cost, schedule, and performance
• Programs succeed or fail based on sequencing, realism, and technical judgment—not reporting cadence

If you've helped shepherd a difficult system from concept through integration and delivery—and you know why it was hard—you're likely in the right territory.

Why PVLabs?

Because you want to work on something hard, something meaningful, and you want to do it with people who are as driven, smart, and resourceful as you are. You work best in a place built around autonomy, mastery and purpose - and where resulting performance, trust, and accountability is measured in outputs, not hours.

Because you want to work where it matters.

At PV Labs, your work wont disappear into a slide deck. You'll be front and centre of a mission-driven engineering culture, designing high-performance, airborne stabilized imaging systems that outperform anything else in its class, by a significant margin.

Welcome to what may be the hardest job you've ever loved.