Engineering Governance & Technical Leadership Lead

About Mda Space

Building the space between proven and possible, MDA Space is a trusted mission partner to the global space industry. A robotics, satellite systems and geointelligence pioneer with a 55-year+ story of world firsts and more than 450 missions, MDA Space is a global leader in communications satellites, Earth and space observation, and space exploration and infrastructure. The global MDA Space team of more than 4,000+ space experts has the knowledge and know-how to turn an audacious customer vision into an achievable mission – bringing to bear a one-of-a-kind mix of experience, engineering excellence and wide-eyed wonder that’s been in our DNA since day one. For those who dream big and push boundaries on the ground and in the stars to change the world for the better, we’ll take you there.

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The Position

MDA Space Geointelligence is seeking an experienced Technical Leadership Governance Lead to build and enable consistent technical leadership across all Geointelligence projects. This is an organizational governance and enablement role focused on strengthening how Technical Leads and Team Leads contribute to project success through clear standards, practical guidance, community engagement, and visible governance metrics.

The successful candidate will help establish and grow a Technical Lead and Team Lead community of approximately 20 people. While a strong formal community does not yet exist, there is a clear opportunity to build one that supports learning, shared expectations, stronger technical execution, and more consistent partnership with Project Managers across the project portfolio.

This role reports to the Director of Operations and is part of a three-member Engineering Governance team, providing peer support and shared ownership for governance maturity. The direct manager has experience leading large engineering teams and will provide leadership support, coaching, and organizational context as the role establishes standards, influences adoption, and enables the Technical Lead and Team Lead community.

Key Responsibilities

Technical Leadership Governance

Define, maintain, and evolve a governance framework for technical leadership across all Geointelligence projects, including expectations for Technical Lead and Team Lead responsibilities, technical planning, technical risk and issue management, escalation practices, and engagement within the technical leadership community.

Establish and monitor governance metrics that provide visibility into technical leadership effectiveness, community engagement, technical risk and issue management, task planning maturity, escalation practices, and contribution to project execution outcomes.

Set standards and influence adoption through collaboration, coaching, governance forums, practical tools, and transparent feedback rather than through a compliance-only model.

Continuous Improvement

In the first 6 to 12 months, assess current Technical Lead and Team Lead capability, identify training and learning gaps, and develop a practical plan to address those gaps through targeted learning, coaching, forums, and shared resources.

Develop recommendations, tools, templates, and guidance that make it easier for Technical Leads and Team Leads to plan technical work, manage risks and issues, understand when to escalate, and engage effectively with Project Managers.

Lead the implementation of governance improvements in a way that is practical, collaborative, and sensitive to project delivery realities, ensuring changes are communicated clearly and adopted sustainably.

Measure and track the effectiveness of governance improvements using defined metrics and feedback from the Technical Lead community.

Collaboration & Stakeholder Engagement

Partner closely with Project Managers, Technical Leads, and Team Leads to strengthen the way technical leadership is paired with project leadership and aligned to project objectives, delivery rhythms, risk management, issue resolution, and escalation pathways.

Build and facilitate a collaborative Technical Lead and Team Lead community of practice that creates space for shared learning, problem solving, peer support, lessons learned, and consistent technical leadership behaviours across projects.

Collaborate with Engineering, Operations, Quality, and the broader Engineering Governance team to ensure technical leadership governance enables project delivery while strengthening technical discipline, transparency, and accountability.

Capability Building & Training

Lead the overall training and capability-building approach for Technical Leads and Team Leads. This may include delivering training directly, bringing in external learning resources, coordinating subject matter experts, facilitating peer learning, or creating practical guidance and onboarding materials.

Grow and sustain the community by establishing recurring forums, onboarding support, coaching opportunities, mentoring connections, and learning pathways that help people build confidence and capability in technical leadership roles.

Performance & Talent Enablement

Define clear expectations and success criteria for Technical Leads and Team Leads related to technical execution, community contribution, engagement, risk ownership, task planning, issue management, collaboration with Project Managers, and timely escalation.

Provide transparent governance insight and trend data to support leadership understanding of community maturity, contribution levels, engagement, execution effectiveness, and areas requiring additional support or intervention.

Assess Technical Lead and Team Lead contribution and engagement using defined, transparent criteria, with the goal of recognizing strengths, identifying support needs, and guiding development conversations that improve community effectiveness and project execution.

Support onboarding, professional development, and capability planning for the Technical Lead and Team Lead community, helping create a clear path for people who want to grow into or strengthen technical leadership roles.

Required Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical discipline (advanced degree is an asset).
• 10+ years of experience in a safety-critical, mission-critical, complex engineering, or technical project environment. Experience in aerospace, defense, space systems, regulated software, systems engineering, project engineering, operations excellence, or technical program delivery is an asset.
• Credibility in technical execution or technical leadership, with an understanding of how Technical Leads plan work, manage risk, resolve issues, partner with Project Managers, and know when to escalate.
• Demonstrated experience building governance practices, metrics, tools, training plans, or communities of practice that improve consistency, visibility, engagement, and shared learning across projects or teams.
• Proven ability to influence and collaborate across functions, levels, and disciplines.
• Experience working collaboratively with Project Managers, Technical Leads, Team Leads, Engineering, Operations, Quality, and other stakeholders to enable successful project delivery without relying solely on formal authority.
• Experience leading training, coaching, mentoring, capability development, or community-building activities for technical or project delivery professionals.
• Excellent communication, facilitation, and training skills.
• We encourage candidates with diverse technical, operational, project delivery, governance, and leadership backgrounds to apply. If you meet many, but not all, of the qualifications and are excited about building an inclusive technical leadership community, we welcome your application.

Comments/Special Considerations

Successful candidates must obtain and hold security clearance at the Reliability level , and pass security assessment for the Controlled Goods Program (CGP) .

We’re a dream team of purpose-driven, collaborative and passionate people, and we are constantly looking for others to join #TeamMDA to ignite new and innovative approaches to problem-solving that push us forward to improve life on and above Earth. If you’re excited to expand our place in space and driven to inspire the next generation, we’ll take you there.

We have entered a new era of exploration and development, and MDA welcomes all who yearn to suit up and be part of it. An equal opportunity employer prizing diversity, integrity and collaboration, we are committed to growing MDA’s and Canada’s leadership in this next golden age.

MDA provides competitive compensation and benefits packages for its employees at all locations. As a team member of MDA, you and your qualified dependents are eligible to participate in a benefit plan that ensures a comprehensive level of protection through competitive health care including; extended healthcare and flexible drug plans, dental and vision benefits, disability income protection, life insurance, group retirement savings plans; and an employee and family assistance program.

MDA is proud to provide accommodation(s) during the recruitment process. Should you require any accommodations, please indicate this on your application/cover letter and we will work with you to meet your accessibility needs.

The compensation range for this position is $130,000 - $185,000 annually. The specific compensation offered will be based on the qualifications and experience of the successful candidate.

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