Role: Senior Vice President, Engineering & Technology
Location: Montreal (relocation assistance provided)
Industry: Manufacturing & Defense
About the company:
A global technology and manufacturing company serving the defense and security industry. They combine advanced research, engineering, and production capabilities to deliver high-performance systems that enhance safety, reliability, and operational effectiveness in complex and mission-critical environments worldwide.
The role:
Our client is seeking a visionary and accomplished SVP of Engineering & Technology to lead and unify all engineering, product development, and innovation activities across the organization.
Reporting to the CEO and serving as a key member of the executive leadership team, this role will be instrumental in driving the company’s next generation of defense and performance systems—from early-stage research and technology maturation through to fully validated, production-ready solutions that meet market and customer requirements.
The successful candidate will shape the strategic technical roadmap, champion innovation across multiple technology domains, and ensure that all systems meet the highest standards of reliability, survivability, and mission readiness. This leader will also play a critical role in building a cohesive vision, prioritizing resources, aligning technology strategies, and ensuring accountability in how engineering work is scoped, staffed, funded, and delivered.
This role demands deep technical expertise, strong change management skills, a thorough understanding of highly regulated design and acquisition processes, and a proven track record of leading multicultural and geographically dispersed teams, and multidisciplinary engineering organizations in a high-stakes environment.
Key Responsibilities
- Partner with internal and market-facing stakeholders to understand evolving customer and market needs and guide the development of next-generation soldier systems and solutions.
- Collaborate with Product Management to define short- and long-term technology and product roadmaps that align engineering priorities with business goals.
- Lead R&D and technology initiatives by identifying emerging technologies, evaluating trends, and driving feasibility studies, concept development, and prototyping aligned with long-range strategy.
- Align engineering efforts with business and customer objectives, reducing redundancy and promoting cross-functional collaboration.
- Foster partnerships with defense research organizations and align internal R&D with evolving industry and military needs.
- Serve as the technical interface with government program offices, defense primes, and end-users.
- Implement best-in-class systems engineering practices across the full product lifecycle—from requirements definition through validation and verification.
- Oversee architecture, integration, and testing across mechanical, electrical, software, and systems domains.
- Oversee the formal test strategy, test equipment development, test execution and reporting necessary to validate system performance, reliability, and compliance with customer specifications.
- Ensure rigorous modeling, simulation, lab testing, and field trials to de-risk technical solutions prior to production hand-off.
- Integrate design-for-manufacturability, cost, and sustainment principles early in development to improve efficiency and scalability.
- Build and lead a high-performing, geographically dispersed engineering organization, fostering collaboration, innovation, and continuous learning.
- Serve as a change agent to modernize and unify engineering processes in a complex, matrixed environment.
Performance Metrics:
Success in this role will be evaluated across the following dimensions:
- Technology Advancement: Progression of concepts/prototypes through TRL milestones.
- Test & Evaluation Outcomes: First-pass yield, test coverage, reliability growth, and customer acceptance.
- Program Execution: On-time, on-budget delivery of Engineering & Technology milestones.
- Innovation Metrics: Number of IP filings, advanced prototypes, and field-evaluated technologies annually.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Internal partner satisfaction (P&L Leaders, BD/Sales, Product Mgmt., Operations, Finance).
- Regulatory Compliance: Audit performance, compliance rates with specifications, ITAR, and other defense regulations.
- Team Development: Engineering retention, engagement, technical capability growth, and succession planning.
- Business Impact: Contribution to product commercialization, gross margin improvements, and win rates in competitive procurements.
Educational requirements:
- Required: Bachelor’s degree in Systems, Electrical, Mechanical, Aerospace Engineering, or a closely related technical field.
- Preferred: Master’s degree in Engineering, Engineering Management, or Business Administration (MBA). Additional credentials in Defense Acquisition, Lean/Six Sigma, or Program Management are a plus.
Qualifications:
- 15+ years of progressive engineering/R&D leadership, with a significant portion in defense, aerospace, or other high-reliability sectors.
- 5–7+ years in executive or senior technical roles with direct accountability for Engineering, Technology, Product & Systems development, and engineering team leadership.
- Strong change management and communication skills—able to lead through influence, handle pushback, and align diverse teams.
- Demonstrated success delivering complex integrated systems to Defense customers (or related highly regulated industry) under formal acquisition or prototyping efforts.
- Experience in product-based companies with embedded manufacturing at medium-high volumes, and medium-high technology.
- Familiarity with Defense acquisition lifecycle and test & evaluation processes (an asset).
- Proven ability to balance rapid prototyping with disciplined engineering rigor.
- Background in transitioning technologies from lab environments into fielded, ruggedized, production-ready systems.
- Skilled at balancing innovation with disciplined execution, with an ability to move quickly and decisively in an ambiguous environment.
Why Join the company?
This is a newly created executive role with significant opportunity to shape the company's future and lead transformative initiatives that directly impact warfighter effectiveness and survivability.
Your impact will be both strategic and tangible: building a unified engineering culture, improving product delivery, and helping the company scale efficiently as they grow their international footprint.
