University of Waterloo
Engineering 5 (E5), 6th Floor
Phone: 519-888-4567 ext.32600
Staff and Faculty Directory
Contact the Department of Systems Design Engineering
Our graduates choose a diverse range of career paths. Many pursue business, medicine, law, or the high-tech life. Whatever path is chosen, the systems design engineering undergraduate program provides a solid technical background necessary to succeed. A growing number of graduates start their own business [learn more about alumni entrepreneurs].
Since a variety of options are offered to students in their upper years, they have the opportunity to explore many different fields. As a result, some graduates find themselves pursuing a career in a field they hadn't planned to be in, while others continue down the path chosen on day one.
Examples of Graduate Jobs
The following is just a sample of current jobs held by our graduates from the undergraduate program.
Nexl Network Systems, Peabody, MA
Project Manager. Nexl Systems is one of the fastest growing Information Technology Solution Providers in the US.
Deloitte, Touche and Tohmatsu
Consultant in corporate responsibility and sustainability service. This company provides audit, consulting, financial advisory, risk management and tax services to selected clients
Desire to Learn, Kitchener, Ontario
Started the company while still in university. Recently placed 12th in the Deloitte Fast 50 Award which recognized the fastest growing companies in Canada over a five-year growth period.
Freelance Consultant
In the Informaiton services area - a mixture of development, program management and design.
Rubbermaid Canada, Mississauga, Ontario
Director of Operations, is responsible for all Canadian manufacturing and company-owned distribution operations.
Alco Ventures, Langley, BC.
Operations Manager for an international manufacturing firm.
Heartwood Studios, San Francisco Bay Area Headquarters
Chief Operating Officer. This studio is a leading 3D animation and visual effects studio that provides digital storytelling. Heartwood received the 2007 San Francisco East Bay Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the new media category, placed 13th in the list of the "50 Fastest Growing Private Companies" in the East Bay Business Times and received 2007 Recognition from California State assemblyman as one of the finest entrepreneurial companies in the San Francisco Bay Area.
National Instruments, Austin, Texas
Digital Hardware Designer Engineer, design a PCI computer board for digital I/O
Ericsson Research Canada, Montreal, Quebec
Vice President of a Product Development Unit, responsible for the development of several products in their CDMA-standardized (Code Division Multiple Access) wireless systems solution. CDMA is a cellular telephony standard for which Ericsson Research Canada builds products to run CDMA based cellular networks.
American Express, Markham, Ontario
Manager of Commercial Card Product Development team, this team manages the full end-to-end product development cycle from business concept to development to launch to market success.
Siemens, Boca Raton, Florida
Product Line Management, responsible for defining requirements for upcoming versions of our Element Management Systems, answering customer RFPs, generating marketing and inside sales materials, customer presentations
Trillium Teamolgies, Detroit, Michigan
Tasks are to consult with DaimlerChrysler with their 'Automatic Product Identification and Controls' group where I currently am heading a 7-person team migrating vehicle tracking from automation devices on the plant floor to the plant centralized workcells. Other tasks are field engineering for upcoming installations and maintaining many Information Systems for manufacturing systems at all DaimlerChrysler North America plants.
Inco Limited, Sudbury, Ontario
I'm the project manager for the nickel and copper refineries. I manage capital and operating projects.
Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board
Grade 6 Elementary school teacher, promotes technology by organizing school science fair; active member of the organizational teams for the city of Barrie Science Fair and the Simcoe County Science Fair
Imaging Research, Inc., St. Catharines, Ontario
Programmer for image analysis software to be used by life sciences and pharmaceutical companies. Duties of programming included writing code, testing and debugging, and writing documentation
Cognos Inc., Ottawa, Ontario
Managing and directing a multi-disciplinary team working on user-interface design and product development.
The World Bank, New York, New York
Consultant in the area of gender and development; engages in work and analysis on environmental issues in developing countries.
McKinsey & Company, Toronto, Ontario
Business Analyst: framing business problems and creating and using methods of analysis to evaluate strategic options to address problems (creating financial models, conducting informational interviews, mg client meetings, preparing communications and orals, team problem solving).
Connor Clark & Lunn Financial Group
Design and develop computer systems and is a co-technical lead on most of their major projects
Phoenix S&T Inc. Maryland
Engineering co-ordinator responsible for product development and testing efforts
Motorola Canada
Director of Product Management for cellular phone business. Responsibilities include end-to-end management of product portfolio in Canada.
Professor, Ryerson University
She teach ergonomics and safety courses in the School of Occupational and Public Health. Research would broadly be characterized as macroergonomics. With student research assistants, she is studying inspection and investigation in the amusement ride sector, building a database of ergonomic-CAD renderings of common accident scenarios for future research, doing health and safety surveys of working students, and researching the cognitive style/temperament of safety specialists, and statistical analysis of the health of deaf Canadians and will look at OHS implications of deaf workers
Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark
Masters student - Science in Environmental Management
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Ph.D. student - Electrical and Computer Engineering
Research in the area of secure/survivable distributed storage systems
University of Waterloo
Assistant Professor in Philosophy, cross appointed to Systems Design Engineering
Involved in teaching and research in neurobiological systems
Sandvine Inc., Waterloo, ON
Design and write software for communications equipment.
Project leader for a piece of equipment, responsible for estimating schedules, deciding which features the product should have, designing the system and helping implement it.
Honeywell - Airframe Systems division, Toronto, Ontario
Coordinate the design of Environmental Control Systems for military aircrafts
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA
Design and conduct research program to study optical variability in the ocean, based on satellite ocean colour data and in situ optical measurements; write proposals to raise funding for the research program, publish papers, and attend scientific meetings and workshops.
Sunnybrook and Women's Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, Ontario
Research Physicist; combining state-of-the-art virtual reality with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI); Develops neuropsychological experiments to be performed in virtual environments. Other tasks include the analysis of brain activation and the design of MR-compatible input/output devices.