Director of Autonomy

Location: Ottawa Office, On-Site

Reports to: Founder & CEO

Type: Full-Time

The Role

Autonomy that works in a lab is not the problem. Autonomy that holds up in the Arctic — degraded links, no GPS, no cloud, an operator who needs the system to keep making sensible decisions when the mesh drops — is. Our systems are in the field with the CAF now, across the air, the ground, and the water, and they run on one sovereign Canadian stack rather than three disconnected ones.

You set the technical direction for autonomy at Dominion. You own the autonomy roadmap end to end: what we build, in what order, and how it integrates with AuraNet — our C2, mesh, and tasking layer — so that autonomy is a capability every Dominion product inherits rather than something bolted onto each platform. The function sits across hardware and software today and is expected to become its own department as it grows. You are the person who decides what that becomes.

What You'll Do

• Set the autonomy strategy and roadmap, and turn it into a sequenced technical plan with real milestones — capability by capability, platform by platform.

• Define how autonomy integrates with AuraNet: tasking, telemetry, mesh, and edge compute, designed for disconnected and bandwidth-constrained operation from the start.

• Build the autonomy architecture across domains — uncrewed air, ground, and maritime systems working from the same policy and tasking foundation, not per-platform one-offs.

• Make the call on where deterministic policies belong and where probabilistic ones do, and set the standard for how both are trained, evaluated, and trusted before they reach an operator.

• Grow the autonomy team — hire, structure, and lead the engineers who take it from a cross-functional effort to a standing function.

• Work shoulder to shoulder with hardware, software, and simulation, and get to the field yourself: trials, integration, and operator feedback, in days not quarters.

What You Bring

• A senior engineering leader who has personally built and deployed autonomous systems in real-world environments, not only in simulation or research.

• Autonomy experience across all three domains — robotics, aerospace, and marine. This one is non-negotiable; we are building a stack that has to work on all three.

• A track record of scaling autonomy capability and the team behind it, from a small group to a function with its own roadmap and headcount.

• Strong command of reinforcement learning and autonomy policies, including how policies are evaluated, bounded, and made safe for fielded systems.

• Hands-on experience with both deterministic policies (the system follows predefined rules consistently) and probabilistic ones (the system decides under uncertainty and changing conditions), and clear judgement about which the mission calls for.

• Based in Ottawa, or ready to relocate — this role is on-site with the team and close to the customer.

Nice to Have

• Experience with mission autonomy and multi-agent or collaborative tasking, including collaborative autonomy tasking language work.

• Familiarity with ROS 2 and edge compute on constrained hardware.

• Simulation-in-the-loop and sim-to-real experience for training and validating autonomy before it flies, drives, or sails.

• Exposure to defence or dual-use programs, interoperability standards, or work alongside operators.

• Experience with systems fielded in harsh or Arctic conditions.

No defence background required.

We've hired people who didn't tick every box. If this is the work you want to do, please apply anyway.

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.