Senior Project Manager, Aircraft Program Development (ACP)

Reports to: ACP Program Manager

Type: Full-Time

The Role

You own the engineering scope, schedule, development cost and risk for the ACP aircraft as a whole. Not a single subsystem. The vehicle. Every discipline building it, Aerodynamics, Structures, Avionics, GNC, Propulsion, Mission Systems, Autonomy, resolves its trades against the baseline you hold, and you're technically fluent enough to monitor that resolution yourself, not just track it on a schedule someone else built.

You carry the program the full distance: concept, requirements, design, integration, ground test, flight test. When a design decision creates a conflict between two disciplines, or the schedule and the physics disagree, you ensure the right decision maker is on it, and quickly. When the Program Manager needs a straight answer on where the engineering effort stands, that answer comes from you and it has to be right. Things have to move at the right pace, and that pace is on you.

You work closely alongside the ACP Program Manager, who carries the business case, partnerships, procurement and manufacturing strategy, and the customer relationship. Your job is the engineering effort behind the aircraft: the disciplines, the baseline, the integration, and the pace. The Program Manager tracks the development program as a whole and needs a reliable read from you on scope, schedule, cost and risk to do it.

What You'll Do

• Hold accountability for the engineering scope, schedule and development cost of the ACP aircraft against the baseline set by the Program Manager. Technical decision authority lies with your peers, but you own scope, schedule and costs.

• Maintain the integrated program schedule and risk register, and ensure the resolution of conflicts between disciplines before they become schedule risks.

• Define scope of work and timeline across Aerodynamics, Structures, Avionics, GNC, Propulsion, Mission Systems and Autonomy as the accountable leader, not just a coordinator relaying status.

• Carry the program from concept and requirements through integration, ground test, and flight test.

• Ensure that the technical teams complete the configuration and program reviews (SRR, SDR, PDR, CDR) and build the data packages that go with them.

• Manage the technical execution of engineering subcontracts and development partner statements of work once they are in place: scope, schedule and deliverables.

• Give the ACP Program Manager a reliable read on engineering scope, schedule, cost and risk, and provide the inputs the Program Manager uses for customer (CAF) and DD management reporting. Represent the engineering baseline at technical reviews with customer engineering staff when asked.

• Provide engineering inputs to the Program Manager's manufacturing, procurement and partnership plans, including design-for-manufacture and supplier technical requirements.

What You Bring

• 10+ years progressing complex technical programs in aerospace or defence, with real authority over scope, schedule, and cost.

• Technically fluent enough to monitor engineering trades across multiple disciplines for completeness.

• Experience carrying a program the full lifecycle: concept through flight test or fielding.

• Experience briefing status, risk and trade-offs to senior internal leadership and to customer technical staff at design reviews.

• Degree in Engineering.

Nice to Have

• Experience with an Integrated Master Schedule and standard PM tooling (MS Project, JIRA, Confluence, or Smartsheet).

• Background on an uncrewed or autonomous aircraft program specifically.

• Supplier and technology-partner management experience on a flight hardware program.

• PMP or equivalent program management certification.

• Exposure to RCAF, DND, or NATO airworthiness pathways for uncrewed systems.

No defence background required.

At Dominion Dynamics, you’ll:

• Shape Canada’s future by building real defence capability for the CAF and our allies.

Compensation & Benefits

• Competitive base salary and company equity*

• Comprehensive health benefits

• Additional equity granted based on impact*

*Equity awarded to full time employees only.