Software Engineer and Technical Project Support

Description of Work:

With the increased number of Canadian Safety and Security Program (CSSP) projects utilizing online and standalone tools, there has been an increased need for short notice software engineering and maintenance support services and development support services.

One key project that has an ongoing need for technical operations and development support is the Multi-Agency Situational Awareness System (MASAS). MASAS is being widely recognized nationally and internationally as a highly successful development that was led by the Centre for Security Science since 2010. It has strong nationwide support and uptake from all levels of government and is currently identified explicitly as a targeted component of the Canadian Communications Strategy and Action Plan and is also specified as a cross-border information sharing solution in the CA/US Beyond the Borders Agreement, providing interconnectivity with the US through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) public alerting system. MASAS is currently transitioning out from the operational pilot phase. During the pilot, a self-sustainable business model was selected, an appropriate governance structure was established and a plan was created to smoothly transition MASAS into an operational entity. In October, 2015, an agreement was signed with an independent not-for-profit organization, the Canadian Public Safety Operations Organization (CanOps), to assume the management of MASAS. CanOps and the Centre for Security Science are working in partnership to transition MASAS. As of 2017 there are approximately 550 agencies that are registered and actively exploring operationalization of the MASAS capability.

The Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) Centre for Security Science (CSS), requires on an “as and when requested” basis, agile and competent software development capabilities accessible to the broader activities harmonized in the CSSP. 

There are three objectives to this task-based contract:

• Technical Support to MASAS Operations. Provide software engineering and maintenance support services essential to maintaining MASAS until the completion of the transition of MASAS over to CanOps.
• Software Engineering for Integrated MASAS Developments. Provide software engineering development support to integrate a selected list of high-impact decision-supporting tools and information feeds into a MASAS environment so as to immediately benefit the growing MASAS community across Canada at all levels of government.
• General Software Development Support. Provide software development services on an “as and when requested” basis to support new and ongoing CSSP projects.