Work out what things are made of, why they break, and what to build them from next.
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Programs in the fields this career usually comes through. Each has its own page: what it takes to get in, the courses you need and what it costs.
The median pay is about $100,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $69,000 at the lower end to about $138,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
4 to 8 years after high school, on the usual route.
$37,000 to $70,000 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
Yes. It is a regulated job, so you need a licence or registration before you can work.
Moderate demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.
Or read the whole thing here
What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Median
$100,000
Lower end
$69,000
Upper end
$138,000
Job Bank's national median is $48.08 an hour, about $100,000 a year at 40 hours a week. The lower end ($33.17) and upper end ($66.35) are the bottom and top of the wage range for everyone in the group. New graduates start as an EIT (engineer-in-training) in a plant or a test lab.
$58.86 an hour
The median in Alberta, about $122,000 a year
Ontario is next at $53.14 and Quebec's median is $49.71. Co-op terms during your degree are paid, and steel, mining and aerospace employers hire a lot of their own former co-op students.
Roughly, all in
$37,000 to $70,000
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
Both ends are the four year engineering degree multiplied out, about 9,000 a year at the cheap end and about 17,000 a year at the expensive end. On top of that sit the professional practice exam and the licence application, which together come to under 1,000. The professional engineer licence is not granted until roughly four years of supervised work after graduation (24 months in Quebec), and the dues of 300 to 500 a year start then. Paid co-op work terms cover a useful share of tuition for students who get them, but most graduates still finish with some debt.
Fees differ by province, so check your own regulator. Co-op pay covers a useful share of tuition, but most graduates still finish with some student debt.
Pension or a matched savings plan
Large manufacturers and utilities usually offer one.
Health and dental from day one
Shift premiums
If you support a mill or plant that runs around the clock.
Paid professional fees and training
Most employers cover your licence fees and conference costs.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
A four year degree, then about four years of supervised work (24 months in Quebec) before you are fully licensed.
High school
Grades 11 and 12
Calculus, Advanced Functions, Physics and Chemistry. Chemistry matters more here than in most engineering fields.
Accredited engineering degree
4 to 5 years with co-op
Materials engineering, materials science and engineering, or metallurgical engineering. Many schools run a common first year and let you pick in second year.
Engineer-in-training
About 4 years (2 in Quebec)
Register with your provincial regulator, work under a licensed engineer and log your experience.
Professional practice exam
During your training years
A law and ethics exam. Most people write it in their first or second year of work.
P.Eng (professional engineer) licence
After about 4 years of experience (2 in Quebec)
Now you can sign off on engineering work and take legal responsibility for it.
Chemistry
Required, and you will use it more than most engineers do.
Calculus and Advanced Functions
Required.
Physics
Required. Stress, strain and heat are the daily language.
Shop or technology class
Handling metal and plastic yourself makes the theory stick.
Only a licensed professional engineer can practise engineering or use the title in Canada. Each province has its own regulator, such as Professional Engineers Ontario, APEGA (the Alberta regulator), and Engineers and Geoscientists BC (British Columbia). You need an accredited degree, about four years of supervised experience (24 months in Quebec) and a law and ethics exam. A licence moves between provinces with a straightforward application. Anyone may call themselves a materials scientist, but only a licensed engineer can sign engineering work.
The field is small, so there are fewer programs than in civil or mechanical engineering.
Ontario
McMaster in Hamilton, Toronto, Queen's.
West
University of British Columbia, Alberta.
Quebec
Université Laval, McGill University.
Another route
A mechanical or chemical engineering degree plus a materials focused master's also gets you there.
Quebec students reach university after a 2 year CEGEP (public college) diploma, so the degree takes about 4 years, and the licence comes from the OIQ (Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec, the Quebec order of engineers) through its own program and exam.
Finish Secondary V
Age 16 or 17
Take Secondary V math in the Technical and Scientific or the Science sequence, plus Secondary V chemistry and physics. All three are required for the Science DEC (Diploma of College Studies).
Science DEC at a CEGEP
2 years
The 2 year Science program (200.B1). In English at Dawson and the other English colleges. Engineering schools look for its calculus, physics and chemistry courses and your R score (the Quebec college ranking mark).
Bachelor's in materials engineering
About 4 years
About 4 years for CEGEP graduates, with paid work terms built in. In French, materials and metallurgical engineering at Université Laval. In English, the co-op Materials Engineering program at McGill.
Become a CPI (candidate to the engineering profession)
Before or right after graduating
Apply to the order once you have 60 university credits or your degree, $180. Joining the program costs $520 plus tax, half price within 6 months of graduating.
24 months of supervised work, then the exam
At least 2 years, at most 5
Work under an engineer you declare to the order. Paid internships done after 60 credits can count. Add 25 to 30 hours of online training ($345) and a multiple choice exam ($285, 60% to pass).
Show French, get the permit
End of the program
A Quebec high school diploma counts, even from an English school. Otherwise you pass the 3 hour exam, at no cost, of the Office québécois de la langue française (the Quebec French language office). Then the order issues your permit.
Université Laval, in French
Génie des matériaux et de la métallurgie (materials and metallurgical engineering), 120 credits, with three paid 4 month internships. You choose biomaterials or materials and metallurgy.
McGill University, in English
Students are admitted only to the co-op program: one 4 month and one 8 month work term, in fields such as aerospace, automotive, biomaterials and natural resources.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Welding engineering
Canada needs people who can qualify welding procedures for pipelines, pressure vessels and shipyards.
Corrosion specialist certification
Offered by industry associations. Oil, gas and water utilities ask for it.
Non-destructive testing knowledge
Ultrasound, X-ray and dye tests that find cracks without cutting a part open.
A master's or doctorate
The usual entry to research labs, battery companies and university work.
A summer job in a plant
Even general labour teaches you how real production works.
Lab skills
Electron microscopes, hardness testers and tensile machines are standard tools.
Python or MATLAB (an engineering maths program)
Materials work involves a lot of data and modelling.
Clear writing
Most of your output is a report someone else has to act on.
When a part breaks, someone has to find out why. Materials engineers cut the broken piece open, look at the fracture under a microscope and work out whether it was a bad alloy, a bad weld, fatigue, corrosion or simple misuse. That work feeds insurance claims, lawsuits and safety investigations, so it is steady. It also means writing reports you may have to defend in court.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Morning in the office reviewing test results from yesterday's samples and answering questions from production. Late morning in the lab with a technician, checking hardness and looking at a polished sample under a microscope. Afternoon on the plant floor in boots and safety glasses, watching a heat treatment run and arguing about why a batch came out brittle. End of the day writing the report that says what to change.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
ArcelorMittal Dofasco in Hamilton is replacing coal-based steelmaking with an electric arc furnace fed by directly reduced iron, a $1.765 billion project the federal government backed with $400 million. It is meant to cut up to 3 million tonnes of emissions a year by 2030.
McGill admits materials engineering students only to its co-op program, with one 4 month and one 8 month paid work term in fields such as aerospace, automotive and natural resources.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Engineers first, then the rest of the field. See every career in engineering.
Last checked October 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.
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