Senior Advisor, Reliability, Mechanical

VIA Rail Canada•Montreal, QC

13d•CA$102,816 - CA$127,008•Hybrid

About The Position

Reporting to the Senior Manager, Engineering, the Senior Advisor Reliability, Mechanical plays a key technical leadership role in ensuring VIA Rail’s new and future Rolling Stock fleets are designed for long-term maintainability, reliability, and operational excellence. You will work closely with the contractor’s technical teams and subject-matter experts to confirm that all design decisions support safe, efficient, and cost‑effective maintenance throughout the equipment’s lifecycle—and that they align with the needs of VIA’s maintenance teams and facilities. This role is a cornerstone of VIA Rail’s governance and performance monitoring structure. During revenue service, you will participate in key processes such as the Failure Review Board, troubleshoot fleet defects alongside our Maintenance teams, contribute technical expertise, and help strengthen reliability for both the new Corridor fleet and the upcoming Long Distance, Remote and Regional (LDRR) fleet. As VIA Rail continues to modernize its operations, your engineering insight will become essential to the successful introduction and long-term performance of next‑generation rolling stock.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, or a related technical field
Proven experience (10 years) in reliability engineering or maintenance, preferably within the railway or transportation industry (a combination of experience and education may be considered)
Practical background: experience and motivation to work in shop and maintenance environment to: Write, use, improve or comment inspection and repair procedures to ensure compliance to standards and regulations while allowing simple, concise and efficient work execution.Gather, understand and discern pertinent feedback from maintenance and operations staff. Perform fleetwide verifications and measurements on VIA’s rolling stock.Provide support to technicians
Experience in design, design reviews and production implementation phases of a product: Excellent understanding of the design process and documentation (drawings, supplies lists, specifications) and how they relate to maintenance aspects such as maximised use common tools, standardised materials, hardware or consumables. Knowledge and experience in materials selection, tolerancing, finishes, heat treatments, assembly performance of fastening systems, mechanisms, stresses, vibration, heat transfer.Design or propose special tools, lifting attachments, adapters or fixtures if an opportunity to optimise maintenance or enhance safety is noted
Proficiency in reliability analysis tools and methodologies such as FMEA, RAM analysis, fault tree analysis (FTA), FRACAS, and root cause analysis (RCA)
Strong problem-solving abilities with the capacity to analyze complex technical data and implement simple, elegant and effective solutions
Excellent communication skills for presenting technical reports and interacting with both internal teams and external stakeholders
Proficiency in using reporting tools and coding (e.g. PowerBI, SQL, Python)
Strong project management skills and the ability to manage resources, timelines, and priorities
Operational expertise in Rolling Stock equipment (asset)
During the project phase, the incumbent will be required to attend sessions at the contractor’s (or subcontractor’s) design, testing and manufacturing facilities. In addition, the incumbent will be required to attend sessions at VIA’s Maintenance facilities; principally, MMC, TMC, WMC and VMC. As such, travel to and from these locations should be expected.

Responsibilities

Overseeing and collaborating with contractor’s technical team to ensure that the Locomotives are designed to be maintainable consistent with the requirements of the Maintenance Requirements Specifications for the Maintenance Contract
Overseeing contractor’s SME’s review and sign off on the maintainability of the design; Including Maintainability Demonstrations
Review/comment completeness of the Maintenance Manuals including work instructions
Review/comment compliance of the executable Maintenance Plan, including associated contract deliverables
Review/Comment completeness and compliance of role specific Life Cycle Maintenance Schedule
Act as VIA’s Maintenance focused technical representative in Project Specific Failure Attribution meetings (Corridor and LDRR)
Lead FRACAS (Failure Reporting, Analysis, and Corrective Action System) governance and reliability reviews
Act as VIA’s Maintenance focused technical representative in Failure Review Board meetings
Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including design, operations, maintenance, and quality assurance to align maintenance requirements into executable tasks
Develop and maintain relationships with contractor and other external / internal parties to ensure knowledge acquisition and transfer to sustain the reliability of the locomotive and its subsystems
Work together with VIA’s system’s engineers (design) to ensure a comprehensive technical dossier is created for each defect
Ensure support to current corridor new fleet governance and apply lessons learned to new fleet LDRR
Monitor the performance of the systems to ensure Contractor meets the Performance Regime targets of the contract (Corridor and LDRR)
Support the investigation of locomotive and sub-system failures, review contractor’s reports and review/comment suggested technical modifications to the maintenance plan (or manuals)
Responsible for reliability performance of systems assigned to you, with support from senior engineers (Corridor and LDRR)
Perform Reliability, Availability, and Maintainability (RAM) assessments (Corridor and LDRR)
Act as the system SME and provide on-site support for technicians, technical advisors and suggest training improvements
Act as the system SME for adapting the Contractor’s Maintenance Program to VIA Rail’s new Maintenance Process
Address technical questions and evaluate contractor’s recommendations, as well as provide technical expertise for troubleshooting