Digital Payload Architect for Fastwater Staffing

HIKINEX • Montreal, QC

73d

About The Position

Fastwater Staffing is seeking a Digital Payload Architect to establish functional, performance, environmental, and security requirements with mission stakeholders and CONOPs. This role involves translating requirements into clear payload performance parameters, defining the overall digital regenerative payload architecture, and leading trade-offs for various technologies. The architect will also build end-to-end models, oversee performance simulations, and own system-level specifications for hardware designers. This position requires cross-functional coordination, technical leadership, and support for integration and verification activities, as well as on-orbit and operations support.

Requirements

• B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering, Aerospace or Physics (M.Sc. preferred) with 12 + years of digital regenerative payload system design experience on LEO/MEO missions.
• Comprehensive knowledge of digital regenerative communications, SDR, DSP, DVB RCS/SX protocols, Modulation schemes, Class of Service, Networking, MPLS, 2G, 5G, NTN.
• Strong technical writing ability (requirements, ICDs, test procedures, risk reports) and presentation skills; comfortable interfacing with customers, suppliers and senior leadership.
• Strong understanding of aerospace system engineering fundamentals.
• Hands-on individual who can support systems integration processes and capability to test systems and resolve problems.
• Experience with Confluence and JIRA.
• Demonstrated capability to efficiently work with little supervision.
• Ability to distill complex problems to fundamentals to solve with analysis, similarity, or creativity.
• Demonstrate excellent written and oral communication skills in English.

Nice To Haves

• Knowledge of French will be considered an asset

Responsibilities

• Establish functional, performance, environmental and security requirements with mission stakeholders & CONOPs.
• Translate requirements into clear payload performance parameters and maintain bidirectional traceability throughout the project lifecycle.
• Establish with cybersecurity team payload‑specific requirements & embed resilience and security by design.
• Define the overall digital regenerative payload architecture (optical/RF ISLs, antenna arrays, digitizers/ onboard processing, Feeder links, master reference oscillator & clock synchronizations).
• Define Interface Control Documents (ICDs) with spacecraft bus, ground segment and payload specific subsystems.
• Define high‑speed data‑bus I/F (Serdes, SpaceWire, SpaceFibre, Ethernet, CAN, fiber).
• Lead trade‑offs for technologies, ASIC/FPGAs/SoCs, high‑speed data‑bus, and on‑board processing algorithms, PVT.
• Identify emerging technologies and incorporate them into our client’s long‑term roadmap.
• Build end‑to‑end models of the signal chain (optical/RF, analog/digital) using MATLAB/Simulink, SystemView or Python‑based toolkits.
• Run Monte‑Carlo and tolerance analyses to verify gain, SNR, dynamic range, spectral efficiency, G/T, EIRP and other key metrics.
• Optimize payload design and performance with operation with traffic models/CONOPs.
• Oversee performance simulations & analysis (Gain, Spurious, Linearity, SNR, dynamic range, spectral efficiency, pointing, G/T, EIRP…etc.) and tolerance budgeting.
• Optimize Payload DC power budget with traffic & utilization models.
• Own system‑level specifications to hardware designers, review schematics, layouts, thermal & mechanical interfaces.
• Oversee MODCODs selection and on‑board processing pipelines; define BIST, timing, latency and deterministic behavior.
• Communicate technical status, risk assessments and trade‑study results to senior management and/or customers or partners.
• Act as the primary technical liaison with Electrical, Power, Structures, Thermal, Software, Ground Segment and Mission Operations teams to resolve integration issues early.
• Support payload design authority in System design reviews and Mission Operations hand‑over.
• Support B&P (Phase 0 & pre-phase A).
• Author Payload Verification Master Plan covering unit‑test, subsystem‑test, payload‑level test, environmental and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) test campaigns.
• Define test‑automation framework set‑up, test‑case definition, results analysis and test‑report certification.
• Mentor, guide junior engineers and interns.
• Act as technical liaison with customers, partners and external vendors.
• Act as Continuous Improvement stakeholder.
• Contribute to our client’s knowledge‑base, process enhancements, and standards development.
• Ensure all artefacts, analysis, software, deliverables and documentation are version controlled in PLM environment.
• Chair design reviews (SRR, PDR, CDR, MRR/TRR…etc.).
• Support Technology Road‑Mapping & Innovation.
• Technical support to Mission Operations for routine payload health monitoring, contingency handling and performance trending.
• Lead root‑cause investigations for on‑orbit anomalies; update design baselines and lessons‑learned.
• Analyze on‑orbit telemetry, update filter parameters, and generate performance reports.
• Define SOOH and associated operator training.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior