Archived listing. The details below describe a past opening.
Field Service Engineer
Location: Calgary, AB
Compensation: 60K to 90K
Role Overview
We are looking for a Field Service Engineer to support the deployment, commissioning, troubleshooting, and maintenance of our rugged IoT and wireless connectivity systems used in mining, forestry, construction, and other heavy industrial environments.
This is a hands-on field role involving embedded IoT devices, vehicle-mounted gateways, Wi-Fi mesh routers, LTE connectivity, CAN/J1939 vehicle data, cloud-connected systems, and customer site support. The ideal candidate is comfortable working around heavy equipment, traveling to remote industrial sites, solving practical technical problems, and communicating clearly with both customers and internal engineering teams.
This position involves frequent international travel, including short-notice travel to customer sites across Canada, the United States, Europe, and other destinations. The successful candidate must maintain valid travel documentation and meet applicable entry requirements for business travel without restrictions that would prevent performance of the responsibilities associated with this role.
Key Responsibilities
Field Deployment & Commissioning
- Install, configure, and commission industrial IoT devices, vehicle gateways, routers, antennas, cables, and related equipment.
- Deploy and validate Wi-Fi mesh networks in mines, forestry operations, construction sites, yards, and remote industrial locations.
- Support installation on heavy equipment such as haul trucks, loaders, drills, dozers, shovels, skidders, and support vehicles.
- Configure device networking, LTE, Wi-Fi, Ethernet, MQTT/cloud connectivity, and local management interfaces.
- Perform site acceptance testing and confirm that systems meet deployment requirements before handoff.
Troubleshooting & Field Support
- Diagnose field issues involving device connectivity, power, antennas, RF coverage, CAN data, cloud communication, and software behavior.
- Collect logs from embedded Linux devices, OpenWrt routers, cloud dashboards, and network tools.
- Troubleshoot Wi-Fi mesh performance, packet loss, roaming issues, poor coverage, intermittent links, and gateway failures.
- Investigate LTE/cellular connectivity issues, SIM problems, antenna placement, signal strength, and modem behavior.
- Support urgent customer issues remotely or on-site as required.
Wireless Mesh & Network Support
- Deploy and support OpenWrt-based mesh routers and vehicle/stationary access points.
- Validate mesh connectivity, routing, latency, packet loss, throughput, failover, and recovery.
- Perform wireless site surveys and help identify optimal placement for routers, antennas, and backhaul links.
- Use tools such as ping, iperf3, tcpdump, Wireshark, OpenWrt logs, OpenWISP, and RF survey tools.
- Support underground mine and open-pit wireless deployments where coverage, obstructions, reflections, and mobility are major factors.
Vehicle & Machine Integration
- Connect and validate vehicle interfaces including CAN, J1939, OBD-II, RS232, RS485, J1708, CDL, digital inputs, and sensors.
- Confirm that machine data is being collected, decoded, stored, and transmitted correctly.
- Work with customer maintenance teams and OEM documentation to identify correct connection points.
- Support installation of antennas, harnesses, power connections, TPMS receivers, and other vehicle-mounted accessories.
- Document machine-specific installation notes and troubleshooting steps.
Cloud, OTA & Device Management
- Verify device communication with cloud platforms such as AWS IoT, MQTT brokers, or internal device management systems.
- Validate store-and-forward behavior when devices move in and out of network coverage.
- Assist with firmware/software updates, configuration changes, OTA validation, and rollback checks.
- Confirm device status, logs, versions, connectivity, and telemetry using cloud dashboards and internal tools.
- Escalate software defects or configuration issues to engineering with clear evidence and reproduction steps.
Customer & Internal Communication
- Act as the technical point of contact during field deployments and service visits.
- Train customer technicians, operators, and maintenance staff on basic system operation and troubleshooting.
- Create clear field reports, installation records, issue summaries, and service documentation.
- Communicate risks, blockers, and site findings to product, engineering, and management teams.
- Translate real-world field problems into actionable feedback for hardware, software, and product improvements.
Required Qualifications
- 3+ years of experience in field service, industrial electronics, networking, embedded systems, telematics, heavy equipment technology, or similar technical roles.
- Strong hands-on troubleshooting skills with electrical, networking, and software-enabled systems.
- Experience working with Linux-based devices or network equipment.
- Comfortable using command-line tools over SSH or serial console.
- Experience with Ethernet, Wi-Fi, LTE/cellular, routers, antennas, cabling, and IP networking.
- Ability to read wiring diagrams, installation guides, and technical documentation.
- Comfortable working around heavy equipment and in industrial environments.
- Ability to travel frequently to customer sites, including remote locations.
- Valid driver’s license.
- Ability to travel internationally frequently and on short notice, with valid documentation and no material travel restrictions.
- Ability to pass customer site safety orientation, drug/alcohol testing where required, and background checks where applicable.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience with mining, forestry, construction, agriculture, transportation, oil & gas, or other heavy industrial environments.
- Experience installing or supporting telematics, fleet management, dispatch, machine monitoring, or industrial IoT systems.
- Experience with OpenWrt, Wi-Fi mesh, 802.11s, batman-adv, OpenWISP, or industrial wireless networks.
- Experience with CAN/J1939, OBD-II, J1708, CDL, SocketCAN, or vehicle data systems.
- Experience with AWS IoT, MQTT, device shadows, OTA updates, or cloud-connected devices.
- Experience with underground mine communications, leaky feeder, private LTE, Wi-Fi coverage surveys, or fiber-connected access points.
- Experience with antennas, RF troubleshooting, coaxial cables, connectors, grounding, and signal testing.
- Basic scripting experience with Bash or Python.
- Experience using tools such as Wireshark, tcpdump, iperf3, logread, dmesg, journalctl, can-utils, and multimeters.
Useful Technical Skills
The ideal candidate may have experience with some of the following:
- Embedded Linux
- OpenWrt routers
- Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi mesh
- LTE/cellular modems
- Ethernet networking
- MQTT and cloud-connected devices
- CAN/J1939 vehicle networks
- Heavy equipment installations
- Antenna placement and RF troubleshooting
- Serial console and SSH debugging
- Power wiring, fusing, harnessing, and grounding
- Log collection and issue documentation
- OTA software updates
- Remote device management
- Field validation and acceptance testing
Field Work Expectations
This role involves regular travel and hands-on site work. The Field Service Engineer should be comfortable with:
- Traveling to customer sites across Canada and occasionally outside Canada.
- Working in mines, forestry sites, equipment yards, workshops, and remote industrial locations.
- Working near heavy mobile equipment while following site safety rules.
- Wearing required PPE such as hard hat, safety glasses, high-visibility clothing, steel-toe boots, hearing protection, and respiratory protection where required.
- Working variable hours during deployments, commissioning, troubleshooting, or customer shutdown windows.
- Supporting urgent field issues when customer operations are affected.
- Driving to remote locations and transporting test equipment, installation tools, and spare parts.
Example Responsibilities in the Field
The Field Service Engineer may be expected to:
- Install a vehicle gateway on a haul truck and verify CAN/J1939 data collection.
- Deploy stationary mesh routers in an underground mine and validate connectivity.
- Troubleshoot why a mobile node is not joining the expected mesh network.
- Adjust antenna placement to improve LTE or Wi-Fi signal quality.
- Collect logs from an embedded device after a failed OTA update.
- Confirm that telemetry is buffered while offline and uploaded when connectivity returns.
- Support a customer during shift change offload testing.
- Replace faulty hardware and confirm normal device operation.
- Document installation differences between machine models.
- Provide field feedback to engineering after repeated failures or usability issues.
Soft Skills
- Strong ownership mindset.
- Calm and practical under pressure.
- Excellent troubleshooting discipline.
- Clear communication with customers and internal teams.
- Comfortable working independently at customer sites.
- Willingness to get hands-on with hardware, cabling, routers, antennas, and vehicles.
- Ability to document problems clearly instead of relying on verbal updates.
- Safety-first mindset in industrial environments.
- Ability to build trust with customer maintenance, IT, operations, and management teams.
