Job Title: Test Engineer in Ottawa
The Test Engineer supports new product introduction and manufacturing test for fiber optic lab test equipment within an Ottawa-based fiber optic lab and production test business unit. This role sits alongside R&D while owning manufacturing-focused test activities across NPI, production readiness, and ongoing product lifecycle support. The engineer develops and continuously improves automated production test solutions, provides design-for-test guidance during new product development, and defines manufacturing, service, calibration, and configuration strategies. The position also offers international exposure by providing secondary support to contract manufacturing sites in Asia and working at the intersection of advanced fiber-optic technology, automated test, NPI, and global manufacturing.
Responsibilities
- Lead New Product Introduction (NPI) activities for a market-leading optical test platform, ensuring smooth transition from R&D into manufacturing.
- Provide design-for-test (DFT) direction to R&D at the concept stage of new product development to ensure products are highly testable and manufacturable.
- Design, develop, and maintain automated production test solutions, including both hardware and software components, for the optical test product portfolio.
- Drive ongoing continuous improvement of test solutions for existing products to enhance reliability, throughput, and test coverage.
- Define and implement the overall manufacturing, service, calibration, and configuration strategy for new products, optimizing manufacturing and service test processes.
- Plan projects in detail to ensure all production test systems are designed, developed, debugged, and validated in time to support production pilot runs.
- Partner closely with R&D and Manufacturing Engineering to create robust, contract-manufacturing-ready test systems, including jigs and fixtures suitable for high-volume production.
- Plan, debug, and validate production systems for pilot builds to ensure stable, repeatable, and accurate test performance before full deployment.
- Apply measurement-system evaluation techniques in manufacturing and NPI environments to verify test system capability and stability.
- Support international contract manufacturing sites, including facilities in Asia, by troubleshooting test issues, refining test strategies, and enabling stable deployment of test solutions.
- Contribute to test records and data management using appropriate tools and databases to support traceability, analysis, and continuous improvement.
- Collaborate cross-functionally with engineering and operations teams to align test strategies with product requirements, quality targets, and manufacturing goals.
Essential Skills
- At least 5 years of test engineering experience focused on automated test development for production environments.
- Hands-on experience designing and implementing automated test solutions, including both hardware and software components.
- Experience in optical or RF technologies, with a strong preference for fiber optics.
- Experience in New Product Introduction (NPI) or manufacturing, supporting production or moving products from R&D into manufacturing.
- Proficiency with LabVIEW for automated test development.
- Proficiency with Python for scripting and programming in test environments.
- Bachelor of Science degree in Optical Engineering, Physics, Electrical Engineering, or an equivalent technical discipline.
- Experience defining and executing test strategies across the product lifecycle, from concept through pilot builds and full production.
- Ability to plan and manage test-related projects, ensuring on-time delivery and validation of production test systems.
- Understanding of fiber optic communications and related test concepts, such as power meters, spectrum analyzers, OTDRs, and similar technologies.
- Experience with measurement system evaluation techniques in manufacturing or NPI contexts to ensure test system capability and repeatability.
Additional Skills & Qualifications
- Experience with C or C++ in an automated test environment.
- Experience with National Instruments TestStand for test sequencing and automation.
- Programming experience with LabWindows CVI.
- Experience using SQL for test records and data management.
- Familiarity with gage and measurement system evaluation methods in manufacturing or NPI.
- Experience in project planning or project management focused on production-system delivery and validation.
- Experience supporting contract manufacturing operations, including international sites, is an asset.
Work Environment
The role is based onsite in Ottawa.
Job Type & Location
This is a Contract position based out of Ottawa, ON.
Pay And Benefits
The pay range for this position is $50.00 - $60.00/hr.
Individual compensation offered for this position within this range will depend on many factors, including qualifications, skills, relevant experience, job knowledge, geographic location, internal equity, and other pertinent job-related factors.
Job Type & Location
This is a Contract position based out of Ottawa, ON.
Workplace Type
This is a fully onsite position in Ottawa,ON.
À propos d'Actalent
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About Actalent
Actalent is a global leader in engineering and sciences services and talent solutions. We help visionary companies advance their engineering and science initiatives through access to specialized experts who drive scale, innovation and speed to market. With a network of almost 20,000 consultants and 5,000 clients across the U.S., Canada, Asia and Europe, Actalent serves many of the Fortune 500. We are proud to be an Engineering News-Record (ENR) Top 500 Design Firm for our engineering design services and a ClearlyRated Best of Staffing® winner for both client and talent service.
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