HOW TO GET THERE
Typical pathway
A typical path starts in secondary school with strong courses in math, chemistry, physics, and sometimes biology and computer science. Many students then enter a university chemical engineering program, or a closely related engineering program where available, and complete cooperative education, internships, or summer work terms if offered. After graduation, early jobs often involve supporting process design, testing equipment, quality control, or plant operations under the supervision of experienced engineers. Some employers or provinces may prefer or require registration with a provincial engineering regulator, and some roles lead into plant, research, or process improvement work.
THE WORK
What you may do
Legacy duties
- Conduct economic and technical feasibility studies in areas related to chemical, petroleum, pulp and paper, food or other processing industries
- Conduct research into the development or improvement of chemical engineering processes, reactions and materials
- Evaluate chemical process technology and equipment and determine production specifications
- Design and test chemical processing and associated plants and equipment
- Oversee the construction, modification, operation and maintenance of pilot plants, processing units or processing plants
- Establish and conduct quality control programs, operating procedures and control strategies to ensure consistency and adherence to standards for raw materials, products and waste products or emissions
- Prepare contract documents and evaluate tenders for the process aspects of industrial construction
- Supervise technicians, technologists and other engineers
- May work in an administrative capacity, for example, in the development of guidelines and specifications for the handling of dangerous chemicals, environmental protection, or standards for foods, materials and consumer goods.
- Chemical engineers may specialize in the products and processes of a particular industry such as pulp and paper manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, petroleum refining, energy processing, plastics, metal extraction and refining, or adhesives and coatings production. They may also specialize in areas that are in various industries such as process control, pollution control or fermentation processes.
SKILLS TO BUILD
Skills used in this Career
Financial ManagementMaking presentationsProject ManagementProposal writingTeam project workCommittee work on industry ethics