Working in the Arctic: 4 reasons to make a career move North of 60
November 21, 2025
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Join our teams in Canada’s North. Interested? Here are four reasons why you should consider taking your career on a northern adventure.
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In northern Canada, even the smallest projects can have the biggest impact. When you take your career north, you don’t just build projects—you build communities.
Are you looking to grow your career? Just know that bigger doesn’t necessarily mean better. A thriving career doesn’t have to come with crowded commutes and concrete skylines. Sometimes, the biggest opportunities are found off the beaten path. Careers can grow in unexpected places. In Canada’s North, you’ll find not just a job but a chance to shape communities and futures.
In small, northern Canadian communities, our teams are making a major impact―one project at a time. From airports and wastewater treatment facilities to sports arenas and pool complexes, we are committed to delivering projects that improve the lives and well-being of the northern community.
Now, our teams in the Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut are recruiting new members. Interested? Here are four reasons why you should consider taking your career on a northern adventure.
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Architect Josh Armstrong: “I grew up in Iqaluit―Nunavut’s only city and the most remote capital city in Canada. The average winter temperature here is around -22° C (-30° F).”
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1. You will quickly gain career-boosting experience
From environmental scientists to geotechnical engineers, our practitioners working in the North enjoy a wealth of opportunities to learn, gain meaningful experience, and grow their careers. Why? Because in remote northern Canadian communities our team members get ample time both in the field and office to work on all aspects of a design project.
The important thing to know about working in the North is that our teams are small and our clients want focused, local attention. Everyone in our offices needs to be able to execute the various roles needed to take a project from start to finish. As a result, we take on a wide variety of tasks in our community-based projects.
It may be a small team but our engineers are still able get global experience. Although we’re in small remote communities, we’ve become very good at accessing our Company’s global resources. This gives us the ability to build on our collective knowledge and be effective in the region.
2. You will be embraced by a tight—and resilient—community
Northern Canada offers a rewarding lifestyle filled with natural beauty, cultural heritage, and connection. For those of us who call northern Canada home, life here is defined by deep community ties, resilience, and connection—to the land, to one another, and to a shared sense of purpose.
Each of us works in a different part of Stantec and lives in a different area across the North. From architecture in Iqaluit, Nunavut, and infrastructure in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, to environmental planning and services in Whitehorse, Yukon, our experiences may differ, but our passion for building strong northern communities is the same.
" }From architects to aquatic biologists, Stantec staff talk about the benefits of working in the Northwest Territories, in one of our most northern offices.
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No matter where our paths began, we’ve each found the same truth, the North has a way of bringing people together. These are our experiences:
Josh: I grew up in Iqaluit―Nunavut’s only city and the most remote capital city in Canada. The average winter temperature here is around -22° C (-30° F). For much of the year, the city is mostly accessible only by plane. Despite the geographic remoteness of the region, I have never felt isolated.
I’m the son of an artist and government administrator with close ties to the predominately Inuit community. So, whenever I’m walking down the street, I feel like I know everyone I see. In Inuit communities, a sense of welcoming and togetherness is an important and tangible part of life.
When I left Iqaluit to attend high school and University in Ottawa, my heart remained in the North. I always felt like the north was home—and I always knew I would come back eventually. It was almost as if I was tethered to the community. So, upon finishing my degree in 2003 (Bachelor of Architectural Studies), I returned home and joined Stantec.
Arlen: Like Josh, I’ve found that working on projects in the Canadian Arctic helps build strong relationships and brings industry professionals together. It feels like a small community.
I grew up in a small prairie town where everyone knew everyone. Moving to the Arctic, with its vast distances between communities, I did not expect to find such close connections. However, as my career developed here, I realized that relationships across communities and territories were, in fact, significant. Being part of and collaborating with groups has been one of the most exciting parts of my career. It’s rewarding to see our projects bring positive impacts to otherwise isolated communities.
" }We are proud to have a strong presence in Canada’s north—successful projects can make a dramatic difference in the lives of family, friends, and the community.
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Christiane: Like Arlen and Josh, I have found that life in the North offers a sense of connection that’s hard to find elsewhere. I first came to the Yukon in 2012, leaving Vancouver in search of a quieter place with a lower cost of living—and I haven’t looked back since.
Whitehorse has been home for 12 years now, and I can’t imagine living anywhere else. I love the balance of having everything I need while being surrounded by a stunning natural landscape and a strong, close-knit community. Whether it’s enduring the long, dark winters or making the most of endless summer days, there’s a shared bond among those who choose to live “up here.”
Working on northern infrastructure and mining projects has given me a real sense of pride, especially being part of the Dempster Fibre Line project—a 778-kilometre fibre optic line connecting Dawson City, Yukon, to Inuvik, Northwest Territories. It’s rewarding to know our work directly supports local communities and strengthens connections across the North.
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From pools to community centers, our practitioners working in Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada enjoy a wealth of opportunity to learn, experience, and grow their careers.
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3. You will make a huge impact working on cool projects
We are proud to have a strong presence in Canada’s North—successful projects can make a dramatic difference in the lives of family, friends, and the community. The North is a key player in the global economy, and we are proud to have a role in these critical projects.
In our professions, we can usually live anywhere and work on projects around the world. But there are some engineering and design challenges in the North that push us further. These can include extreme subzero temperatures, little daylight, and the need for robust community and Indigenous engagement. To be effective in the region, you need to take on those challenges here—you can’t just do it from anywhere.
We’ve been involved in key Canadian Arctic projects that have improved and supported for Arctic residents. Like what? Here are three of the many exciting community projects that our teams have worked on:
- Grays Bay Port and Road will link the Canadian Arctic together with the Slave Geological Province Corridor. It will provide road access from southern Canada and bring economic benefits to northern communities. We are building once-in-a-lifetime infrastructure. It’s thrilling to work on projects that will connect remote communities without relying on winter roads, sealift, or flights. These projects will bring economic benefits to the Canadian Arctic and make essential goods and resources more easily accessible.
- The Iqaluit Airport Improvement Project was the first successful public-private partnership (P3) airport project in North America and a giant accomplishment for our teams. The airport saw more than 120,000 passengers yearly, and the numbers kept increasing. This created the need for added safety and security zones and renovated taxiways. We provided the updated technology, improved access, and included cultural and community additions for this critical travel hub in the Nunavut capital. This project was so important because it serves the whole eastern Arctic region—and everyone has to travel by plane, so the airport is an important destination. Plus, our work was featured on HISTORY’s Project Impossible series.
- Mackenzie Valley Highway is a project that will establish a critical transportation corridor into Canada’s Arctic, connecting three communities—Wrigley, Tulita, and Norman Wells—by replacing a 320-kilometre winter road with an all-season road. K’alo-Stantec—one of our Indigenous joint ventures and a majority Indigenous-owned company—has been selected by the Government of the Northwest Territories Department of Infrastructure to continue advancing the design, completing the environment assessment, and secure necessary regulatory authorizations for the proposed Mackenize Valley Highway.
Seeing the first-hand results of our work is extremely rewarding, Stepping into a building or helping with an environmental study that you’ve helped design or map out is gratifying. You instantly connect to the people and the community through these shared spaces, and this connection enriches both your work and your personal experience in the community.
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You instantly connect to the people and the community through these shared spaces, and this connection enriches both your work and your personal experience in the community.
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4. You will experience a unique northern lifestyle
From pools and ice rinks to impressive airports, our impact and influence on the northern communities is obvious. But so is the community’s influence on us and our families—we love it here.
On the weekends, you can usually find some of us enjoying the buildings that we have helped design, whether it’s at the ice rink with our kids or at the community pool. We’re also big nature enthusiasts, so living up here is a great fit for us. When we’re not working, you’ll find us outside—alpine hiking, exploring trails, snowmobiling, boating, or hunting out in the wild. It’s incredible to head 15 minutes in any direction and find yourself in the middle of a vast, Arctic tundra. This is actual, real wilderness that many people won’t ever be able to experience in their lifetime.
The opportunity is yours
Opportunities to work in the north are out there, you just have to seize them. Whether you work up here for a month, a year, or a lifetime, the experiences you have will not only make you a better engineer or architect—they will make you a better, more fulfilled person.
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