In this employer spotlight, we speak with Jay Hope, Director of Mechanical Engineering at DarkVision, a cutting-edge company founded by two UBC Engineering alumni. Jay shares how DarkVision is redefining industrial asset inspection, the qualities they look for in co-op students, and how UBC talent is helping drive meaningful innovation.
What does DarkVision do?
At DarkVision, we are developing the future of industrial asset inspection. DarkVision was founded in 2013 by BC-born Stephen Robinson (CEO) and Graham Manders (CTO), two UBC engineers motivated by the desire to create a way to evaluate industrial assets that would not just be incrementally better than their competitors, but an order of magnitude greater. We are creating innovative acoustic imaging solutions that are revealing never before seen or understood cause and effects in critical infrastructure.
Our rapidly growing team of experts from machine vision, medical imaging, aerospace design, and computer graphics have come together to revolutionize how industry quantifies and visualizes the integrity of critical assets. Today, our flagship technology, HADES, is recognized as the gold standard in the industry. We have over 250 employees, operate in over 6 countries, and are actively developing and releasing new product lines.
What is the culture like at DarkVision, and how do you support the professional growth of your employees and co-op students?
Our culture encourages creative destruction, fosters autonomy, and prioritizes differentiation. These cultural norms have set the tone for an environment where people hold each other accountable, are empowered to make decisions that matter, and have permission to go big.
A few key concepts illustrate our culture well:
- We embrace creative destruction: We value creative destruction and swing for the fences, incorporating novel technologies into our products based on first principles and fundamentals. We focus on creating maximum long-term value, not getting bogged down with bureaucratic processes.
- Work with the best and the brightest: We find, hire, and develop people who want to play a meaningful role on a winning team. We're tenacious, open-minded, and embrace humour in our work.
- You're empowered to take charge: We empower our people to make intelligent, practical, risk-adjusted decisions. Our culture encourages innovation and all team members develop self-directed research projects that will challenge them while driving value for the business.
Career progression at DarkVision is not a one-size-fits-all journey. We recognize that our team has diverse aspirations and abilities, so we provide tailored support to help individuals grow within the organization. Through regular check-ins with managers, employees can explore new roles, switch teams, or even carve out entirely new paths that align with their passions. All employees are allocated 10% of their time to explore and develop self-directed R&D projects, contributing to an environment of autonomy and experimentation.
What qualities or skills do you look for when hiring a co-op student?
The same thing we look for in our employees! Our recruitment strategy is centered around potential. While skills and expertise are important, DarkVision prioritizes hiring people who are contribution motivated above those who have specific experience, titles, or tenures. When hiring, we evaluate candidates based on their skills, experience, and their potential to enhance long-term value creation. We assess their ambitions, drive, and how they can add value to our company. We encourage potential hires to be themselves, express their views, and share their unique perspectives and experiences. This approach helps us to maintain an open-minded, innovative, and forward-thinking culture. We screen for people who demonstrate self-awareness, strive to realize their potential, seek mutually beneficial relationships, and contribute creatively.
Focusing on hiring individuals who are contribution motivated, rather than having specific experience or background, opens roles to a more diverse candidate pool. When hiring or promoting within DarkVision, managers are challenged to remove unnecessary external barriers that may prevent DarkVision from finding the best candidate for the role. These barriers might be requiring a degree, or degree in a specific field, experience with a specific technical tool that can be taught on the job, or experience in a similar industry. Students and new graduates may not have the experience some employers require but often come with fresh perspectives, strong motivation, and a desire to innovate and revolutionize the status quo.
How do UBC co-op students contribute to your organization?
DarkVision has had great success hiring new graduates and with university co-op placements. Several senior and director level technical roles are now filled by employees who were originally hired as new graduates. We have a lot of confidence that our employees can make good decisions, and we extend this to our co-ops too.
Rather than fluff, doing a co-op at DarkVision means that you'll get to work on projects and initiatives that have material value and further the development of our tech. Past students have contributed to such projects as:
- Hands-on prototyping by leveraging tools such as CNC mills, laser cutters and 3D printers.
- Designing and testing of new components for high temperature (150 degree C+) and high-pressure (15,000+ psi) environments.
- Developing new ultrasound modes and automations with our Research and Machine Learning team.
- Building micron precision robotic platforms for automating ultrasound imaging tests.
What advice do you have for students interested in working at your organization?
We know that, as a student, it’s unlikely that you'll have a lot (if any) practical work experience under your belt. In the absence of this, show us how you've taken the theory that you've learned and are applying it in creative ways. We also appreciate your efforts to be creative and stand out. Simple ways to do this are to express interest early, connect with someone at the company, ask great questions, and tell us how you can contribute to what we're building.
If you’re part of a student engineering team, DarkVision's $60k Challenge is an excellent opportunity to stand out. This unique competition awards $60,000 in no-strings-attached cash prizes to participating teams. Launched in 2025, the event has allowed us to connect with many talented students, and we look forward to bringing it back in the future.
