Automotive News Canada - April 2017 - v2 - 28

* APRIL 2017

AUTOMAKERS ARE QUITE LITERALLY LOOKING FOR THOUSANDS OF ENGINEERS,

CANADA TALENT
By PERRY LEFKO

investing and partnering with companies has created a perfect storm for
high-tech hiring.
In recent weeks, companies such as
THESE ARE GOOD TIMES TO BE AN
Magna International and Ford Motor
engineer in Canada.
Co. have announced plans to increase
The automotive industry is booming with job opportunities in high-tech their employment force, particularly
in engineering. Magna,
fields, not all of which
Canada's leading autoare limited to persons
motive parts supplier,
specifically trained to
said March 30 it will
work in it.
invest $5 million in the
"You don't [need]
Vector Institute, a new
an automotive engiindependent artificial
neering degree," said
intelligence research
Ross McKenzie, manfacility in Toronto.
aging director of the
Magna spokeswoman
University of Waterloo
Tracy Fuerst could not
Centre for Automotive
provide specific numResearch in Waterloo,
bers for how many jobs
Ont. "You can also
the company will crebe more of a specialate in Canada this year,
ist, in mechatronics or
but said it currentsoftware engineering
ly employs more than
for example, and find
155,000 people globalstrong career opportuly, an increase of 8,000
nities in the automotive
from 2016 and up 30,000
sector."
ROSS McKENZIE
from 2015. "We expect
Competition for
to continue to do so,"
qualified graduates
Managing director of the
is mounting, howevUniversity of Waterloo Centre Fuerst said.
"We've invested $1
er, and shortages are
for Automotive Research
billion Canadian in the
"inevitable," warn
last three years in Canada and the prosome education experts. General
jection is probably about another $680
Motors of Canada President Steve
Carlisle, said he has searched U.S. uni- million Canadian will be invested in
versities for some of the 1,000 engineers that GM's downtown-Toronto
innovation centre will require.
The combination of Canadian-based
automakers and suppliers focusing
on future autonomous vehicles, and
the federal and Ontario governments
TORONTO CORRESPONDENT

You can also be
more of a specialist,
in mechatronics
or software
engineering . . . and
find strong career
opportunities in the
automotive sector.

CALLING ALL ENGINEERS

* Supplier Linamar plans to add 300 technology and innovation jobs this year and has been hiring in Canada "pretty
steadily" for the last five to six years. Spending in artificial-intelligence research
and expertise is "a growing trend," a spokesperson said.
* Ford is hiring 400 engineers from BlackBerry Ltd.; 300 positions
will be in Ottawa; 100 will go to the United States. "A classic case
of buying out [existing] talent," said McMaster U's Ishwar Puri.
* Magna International is putting $5 million into the Vector
Institute studying artificial intelligence and in 2017 and 2018 will
spend $680 million, much of it in high-technology efforts.
* General Motors says it will hire up to 1,000 engineers from 2017-'22
for the development of new connected, autonomous and shared vehicles and mobility systems.
this year and next," Magna CEO Don
Walker told Bloomberg news service
recently.
Dean of the Faculty of Engineering
at McMaster University, Ishwar Puri,
said "very competent" Canadian engineers have migrated to other countries, particularly the United States,
due to a traditional shortage of jobs in
Canada.
Last year, GM Canada announced
plans to employ up to 1,000 engineers
starting in 2017 through 2022 for the
development of new connected, autonomous and shared vehicles and mobility systems.
Linamar Corp. CEO Linda
Hasenfratz said her company has been
building its technology and innovation
departments "pretty steadily" over the

last five to six years, at a rate of about
300 new positions per year, excluding acquisitions. She said investing
in artificial intelligence research and
expertise is concurrent with a growing
trend in the automotive industry that
creates more jobs overall.
McKenzie said the University of
Waterloo, McMaster University and
the University of Toronto have graduates in mechanical, electrical, computer and mechatronics (technology
combining electronics and mechanical
engineering) qualified to work in the
automotive industry.
These graduates are in addition
to automotive engineering graduates
entering the workforce from Oshawa's
University of Ontario Institute of
Technology (UOIT) and the University
of Windsor.
Puri is not surprised manufacturers are investing in manpower. He
cited GM's initiative last year as a
classic example.
"If it's successful ... this kind of

A three-year work in progress, the "Autonomoose" Lincoln MKZ
is the result of efforts by researchers at the University of Waterloo
Centre for Automotive Research, attempting to make the car fully
automated by the end of 2018.

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