Mission Autonomy Development Engineer
Dominion Dynamics · Ottawa
Reports to: Senior Vice President, Aerospace Engineering
Type: Full-Time
The Role
You will develop the autonomy that flies the platform. Dominion Dynamics is building a sovereign Autonomous Collaborative Platform (ACP) for RCAF and NORAD missions. Our autonomy and C2 layer, AuraNet, is a Canadian alternative to closed foreign stacks, purpose-built for the Arctic operating environment and near-peer threat, and our digital proving ground, AuraSim, lets us design, train, and validate autonomous tactical behaviour before it ever reaches a test platform.
Working directly with mission systems, tactics, simulation, and test stakeholders, you'll turn operational intent into executable behaviour using a hybrid approach: behaviour trees for structured, auditable, doctrine-anchored tactics, and learned policies (RL/IL) where adaptive, high-dimensional decision-making wins. You'll then prove that behaviour in simulation and help roll it out onto test platforms.
This is a build-and-deploy role, not a research-only role. You'll own autonomy end-to-end — from a tactician's whiteboard to a policy running on a test aircraft. The behaviours you build won't sit in a paper; they'll fly.
What You'll Do
Elicit and codify tactical behaviour. Work with pilots, tacticians, and capability stakeholders to translate combat employment into clear, testable autonomy requirements.
Design hybrid autonomy. Architect and implement behaviour trees for structured tactical logic and integrate learned policies where they outperform, deciding deliberately where each belongs and how they hand off. Map behaviours against our PA/MA/CA autonomy taxonomy and Capability Register.
Develop teaming behaviour. Build multi-agent coordination, target engagement, and survivability across cooperating platforms.
Build in simulation. Stand up and instrument scenarios in AuraSim to develop, train, and stress behaviours against representative threat and mission sets across our operating environment.
Train and validate learned policies. Work within our RL training pipeline — reward shaping, curriculum design, and large-scale rollouts — and validate policy behaviour against doctrine and mission requirements.
Verify and validate. Test behaviours through the full V&V lifecycle, including safety and constraint enforcement.
Deploy and test on hardware. Take behaviours from sim to test platforms: integration with the runtime autonomy stack, HIL/SIL testing, flight-test support, and closing the loop on observed vs. simulated performance.
Analyse mission data. Use mission logs and performance data to diagnose failures and refine behaviour models.
Collaborate across the team. Work across simulation, sensors/perception, hardware, and flight test to integrate autonomy end-to-end.
What You Bring
Strong software engineering fundamentals (Python and/or C++), with experience building autonomous or decision-making systems.
Hands-on experience with behaviour trees and/or learned policies (reinforcement or imitation learning) — ideally both, and a clear sense of when to use which.
Experience developing and validating autonomy in simulation environments, including scenario design and instrumentation.
Comfort taking systems from simulation to real platforms — integration, testing, and iterating against real-world performance.
Ability to work directly with operational stakeholders and turn tactical intent into engineering requirements.
Sound software practices — version control, code review, CI, and test discipline.
Nice to Have
Tactical knowledge of aircraft combat employment: BVR/WVR engagement, sensor and weapon employment, EW/survivability, or air battle management. Background as aircrew, a weapons/tactics instructor, an operational analyst, or an equivalent test/training environment is a major asset.
Experience in a test-and-evaluation or flight-test setting.
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.
More jobs at Dominion Dynamics · Software Engineering jobs in Ottawa