Job description
N51 is building KANATA, a multi-modal AI fusion platform for Canada's armed forces. As AI Systems Architect, you will own the end-to-end technical architecture of the platform: how data moves from sensor to decision, how components communicate, how the system scales, and how it performs under the constraints of tactical edge deployment. You will work directly with the founding team and set the architectural standards the entire engineering organisation builds against. This is a founding-team-level role with significant ownership and visibility.
What will you do?
Design and own KANATA's multi-modal data fusion architecture from ingestion through inference to operator output. Define technical standards, APIs, and integration patterns across the INUKSHUK, KITCHI, and MISTIG product layers. Evaluate and select core infrastructure components — compute platforms, message queues, model serving frameworks — for edge and cloud-adjacent deployments. Work with sensor fusion and ML engineers to ensure latency, reliability, and classification-level security requirements are met end to end. Represent technical architecture in DND/CAF evaluation and demonstration contexts. Contribute to IDEaS Challenge 13 technical documentation.
Requirements:
- 8+ years of software engineering with at least 3 in systems or platform architecture roles
- Deep experience designing real-time data pipelines at scale — ideally with heterogeneous data sources
- Strong understanding of edge computing constraints — SWaP, latency, disconnected operation
- Experience with ML inference pipelines and model serving at the edge
- Familiarity with defence or government security frameworks is a strong asset
- Canadian citizenship or permanent residency required
- Security clearance eligibility required — active clearance a strong asset