SkyWatch is at the forefront of revolutionizing how earth observation data is accessed and utilized globally. Our innovative platform empowers businesses, researchers, and governments to easily integrate satellite data into their operations, driving informed decision-making and unlocking new opportunities for growth and efficiency. Founded on the principle of democratizing access to space-based technology, SkyWatch provides a seamless interface that aggregates data from numerous satellite sources, offering unparalleled access and insights.

Whether monitoring agriculture, managing infrastructure, or advancing scientific research, our scalable solutions cater to diverse industries with a commitment to reliability, security, and sustainability. Whether you are an individual purchasing data for a project, a business seeking to store and share geospatial data, a GIS specialist in need of imagery for maps or workflows, a developer looking to build creative solutions with our API, or a data provider seeking to sell to our user network, you can do it with SkyWatch. It is our company's shared beliefs, values, and practices.

We are opening an Ottawa engineering team to deliver a sovereign version of our platform: deployable in private cloud, on premises and air-gapped environments; accredited for government use; and carrying our AI agents inside the security boundary. You are its first hire and its technical owner. You own the architecture of the sovereign product line and the roadmap and delivery of the Government & Defence engineering team.

You build the team from the ground up, about six engineers and two continuously staffed co-op seats over 2027, and you are the technical acceptance authority at each delivery milestone.



That means your calls have to be good for the customer and good for SkyWatch, and what you ship has to be a pleasure to use, even inside the security boundary. You will design the system, hire the people who build it and sit across the table from government technical authorities, often in the same week.

Deployment architecture for private-cloud, on-premises and air-gapped environments; data segregation and secure multi-tenant distribution; Own the technical evidence for security assessment and authorization, including ITSG-33 controls at Protected B, with audit and logging built in rather than bolted on. Hold a very high bar for user experience. Tactical dissemination and defence data standards (NITF/NSIF, SIDD, GeoPackage, STANAG 4559), and integration with common operating picture, GIS and TAK environments.

Agent workflows over sovereign data with trace retention for audit, human-in-the-loop analyst workflows, and evaluation of answer quality and latency. Own the roadmap and SDLC for Government & Defence against our product direction, and act as technical acceptance authority at each milestone gate. Make calls that are good for the customer and for SkyWatch.

Know what a sovereign deployment costs to build, accredit and support, and build it once for many customers rather than once per contract wherever you can. Hire, lead and grow the Ottawa engineers,



and run a co-op mentorship programme with local universities. The support agent, its user experience and its knowledge corpus inside the sovereign access boundary.

You have shipped software that runs where the internet does not reach and where security is audited. Fluent in defence customers. You understand how Canadian defence and government technical authorities evaluate, accept and accredit systems. 10+ years building production software, including 3+ years as a principal, architect or technical lead on secure or defence systems. ~ Hands-on experience with on-premises, private-cloud or air-gapped deployment, and with security assessment and authorization (ITSG-33, NIST 800-53 or equivalent). ~ Experience leading an engineering team through milestone-based delivery to a government customer. ~ Software you shaped for analysts or operators that set a high bar for usability, and that you can walk us through at an unclassified level. ~ Experience making build decisions with a business trade-off, such as cost to deliver, reuse across customers or time to market. ~ Canadian citizenship and eligibility to obtain and maintain a Government of Canada security clearance (Secret or higher). ~ Experience with geospatial, imagery or ISR data and defence interoperability standards.

Health benefits and on-site or hybrid work from Ottawa. Sovereign access to Earth observation data for Canada and its allies. AI agents operating on satellite, aerial and drone data inside the security boundary.

If you require an accommodation at any stage of the recruitment process, please let us know — we're happy to work with you to ensure your needs are met.

📌 Principal Defence Systems Engineer (Ottawa)
🏢 SkyWatch
📍 Ottawa