Our Stories

At Irving Shipbuilding, we are celebrating women in engineering and growing careers in an exciting industry.

22% of engineering graduates at Irving Shipbuilding are women. This representation is nearly double the national average. Our women in engineering are building the ships for the Royal Canadian Navy on our Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ship (AOPS) and Canadian Surface Combatant (CSC) programs. They are providing innovative engineering solutions and advice across our organization from Strategy and Governance to Platform Systems and they are in roles from Engineering Co-op Student to Senior Director.

Ceilidh Auclair is at the beginning of her engineering career, working on the CSC Program in the Systems Engineering department as a Junior Engineer. Irving Shipbuilding will build 15 CSC ships. The ships are designed to serve many missions - from humanitarian to combat and will be equipped with state-of-the-art technology.

Ceilidh attended Acadia University, where she earned a Certificate in Applied Science before attending Dalhousie University and completing her Bachelor of Environmental Engineering. In her role, she provides environmental engineering support to the Product Safety & Environmental and Certification teams.

“Our aim is to ensure safe, fully equipped and environmentally compliant vessels for those who bravely serve in the Navy,” says Ceilidh.

Ceilidh is passionate about her field and says the best part of her job is learning the intricacies of the environmental standards and regulations and how they can be applied throughout the various phases of the project. “My role is particularly interesting as it covers the whole ship and I work with multiple teams. This is a generational opportunity, and the company is really supportive of building our skills as shipbuilders,” she says.

Ceilidh works closely with Lyndsay Haynes, Maritime Environmental Engineer on her team and admires her greatly as an informal mentor and colleague. “She is the definition of efficient, and a very good influence and role model for everyone around her. Her wealth of knowledge on environmental topics is vast, and she is a great person to be learning from” Ceilidh says.

Ceilidh finds engineering to be a rewarding career where you can make meaningful change while constantly learning. “It is a diverse profession. Depending on your interests, there is an area that suits you,” she says. “Keep yourself focused on your goals of where you want to be in 5, 10, and 15 years. Determination and resilience are key, especially in a competitive field like engineering.”

Meet some of our other amazing woman engineers!

Sunhee Park is a Project Engineer on the AOPS Functional Engineering team. She is a graduate of Jeonbuk National University (Jeonju city, South Korea) with a Bachelor’s Degree in Architectural Design.

Eunice Charles is a Systems Engineer supporting the Canadian Surface Combatant program. She has a Bachelor of Science in Information Systems and a Master of Systems Engineering from the University of Greenwich (United Kingdom).

Alexandra MacDonald is a Business Analyst in our JDI IT division. She is a graduate of St. Francis Xavier University and Dalhousie University with a Bachelor of Industrial Engineering.

Ade Adedigba is a Human Systems Integration Engineer on the Systems Engineering team supporting the Canadian Surface Combatant program. She has a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering from Dalhousie University.

Ashley Rich is a Business Analyst in our JDI IT division. She is a graduate of St. Francis Xavier University and Dalhousie University with a Bachelor of Industrial Engineering.

Laura MacQuarrie is a Continuous Improvement Engineer for our Strategy and Governance team. She graduated from University of New Brunswick with a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering, with a focus in Energy Conversion.

Interested in joining our team of engineers? We’re hiring! https://careers.jdirving.com/