Senior Sensor Fusion & Data Architecture Lead - LIFT Program (Toronto)

Overview

Our team is hiring a Senior Sensor Fusion & Data Architecture Lead to join our growing team to work on one of the most important Canadian airport projects. The successful candidate will be the authoritative lead for operational and engineering data across the program. This role requires deep expertise in OT and Industrial IIoT architectures, edge computing, cloud architectures and ability to drive data transformation for operational efficiency. The ideal candidate will be responsible for ensuring that data produced by operational technology (OT), infrastructure systems, and IT platforms is intentionally designed, fit for purpose, and aligned to the airport's event driven and digital twin strategy and enabling system of record platforms (e.g., SCADA, PLCs).

The LIFT Program represents a once‑in‑a‑generation airport transformation project, spanning terminals, utilities, airside, landside, and core operational systems. This role exists to define, structure, and govern how data is produced, classified, transported, and consumed. AtkinsRéalis' vast experience of projects and infrastructure operations across key markets provides the successful candidate a unique opportunity to contribute to one of the most important airport projects in Canada.

Role Alignment

• Connect people, data, and technology to transform the world's infrastructure and energy systems.
• Align with AtkinsRéalis' mission to engineer a better future for our planet and its people.

This position is based at our Project Office in the west end of Toronto, Ontario requiring the candidate to be in office Monday to Friday weekly (5 days a week).

The Senior Sensor Fusion & Data Architecture Lead is the authoritative lead for operational and engineering data across the LIFT Program.

• Define airport Programs of Requirements (PoRs) for metering, utilities, OT, and sensor‑producing systems.
• Classify types and classes of data produced by airport systems (OT, IT, infrastructure, facilities).
• Establish standards for what data should be centralized in airport corporate platforms (Data Hub) versus what should remain local to systems of record.
• Work closely with enterprise and solution architects designing Event‑Driven Architecture (EDA) to ensure that event models, data frequency, fidelity, latency, and semantics are suitable for airport operations.
• Act as the bridge between engineering teams, OT vendors, data platforms, and analytics teams.

Your Role

• Develop Programs of Requirements (PoRs) for: Utility and energy metering; Central utilities plant (CUP); Environmental, asset, and condition monitoring; OT and industrial control system data outputs.
• Define data requirements upfront at design stage, not retrofitted post‑construction.
• Ensure PoRs clearly articulate: What is measured; Why it is measured; Expected accuracy, resolution, and frequency; Where the data terminates (system of record vs enterprise platforms).

Data Classification & Governance (OT/IT)

• Establish a practical classification model for airport data, including Operational vs analytical data; Real‑time vs near‑real‑time vs historical; Control data vs telemetry vs events.
• Define data ownership boundaries, explicitly identifying: Data that must remain within OT systems (e.g., PLC/SCADA); Data that should be published to corporate platforms (Data Hub, analytics, digital twin).
• Partner with enterprise data governance to ensure privacy, security, and lifecycle controls are embedded by design.

Event‑Driven Architecture Alignment

• Validate which data points are suitable as events.
• Define event semantics, structure, and metadata.
• Ensure publishing frequency aligns with operational reality (not theoretical models).
• Translate physical‑world measurements into digitally meaningful events that downstream systems can consume reliably.

Sensor Fusion & Operational Insight

• Lead identification of data points of interest across people, assets, infrastructure, and systems.
• Collaborate with engineering teams to determine: What needs to be measured; fidelity; operational and business outcomes.
• Combine people‑based sensing, machine data, and enterprise context to enable: Reliability engineering, Predictive maintenance, Capacity and flow optimization, Digital twin and simulation use cases.

Partnering & Vendor Engagement

• Serve as the airport's technical authority on data access and structure with OEMs and system vendors.
• Lead discussion regarding data outputs, integration constraints, data ownership and access rights.
• Ensure vendor‑provided systems align with the airport's long‑term architecture.

Prototyping, Validation & Value Proof

• Rapidly prototype analytics, simulations, or models to: Test data sufficiency, Validate assumptions, Demonstrate operational value.
• Produce demo‑ready insights that inform investment decisions and program roadmaps.

About You

• Hands‑on experience with OT/IoT/industrial or asset systems.
• Experience working with spatiotemporal, sensor, or time‑series data.
• Enterprise data and systems architecture in complex operational environments.
• Real‑time and streaming data architectures.
• Cloud + edge architectures (Azure strongly preferred).
• System‑of‑systems design (not single‑platform optimization).
• Strong Python and SQL capabilities.

Highly Desirable Experience

• Transportation, aviation, smart infrastructure, energy, or utilities.
• Digital twin, simulation, or agent‑based modelling.
• Event‑driven platforms and streaming ecosystems.
• Applied data science or ML in operational environments.
• Vendor negotiation and data‑access governance.

Personal Attributes

• Systems thinker who sees measurement as a design problem, not an afterthought.
• Comfortable operating between engineering, IT, architecture, and business stakeholders.
• Pragmatic: understands data strategy (centralization and data democratization).
• Able to lead without formal authority in a matrix program.
• Clear communicator who can translate physical system capabilities into digital strategies.

Compensation & Benefits

Expected compensation for this role is between Pay Range $100,200to$131,700 annually. Base salaries are determined by skills, experience, and impact. Participants benefit from a range of flexible benefits including health, wellness, financial, and lifestyle support, plus training and professional development opportunities and a hybrid working culture.

Legal and Accommodation

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Appropriate accommodation will be provided upon request throughout the recruitment and hiring process as required by Company policy and the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA).