Build machines that sense, move and decide. Mostly code, some hardware, and no separate licence box for it.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Good for a wall or a guidance counsellor.
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What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Licensed or 5 years in
$95,000
Engineer-in-training
$70,000
Senior or lead
$150,000
Job Bank has no robotics category; these figures follow mechanical engineers, and computer engineers run about 15% higher. Software-heavy robotics roles pay like software jobs, and the top end goes higher at companies with US customers. Hardware-only roles pay closer to mechanical engineering.
$65,000 to $80,000
New grad, engineer-in-training (EIT) or robotics developer
Waterloo mechatronics co-op students often earn $25 to $35 an hour by their last work term, sometimes in the US.
$120,000 to $150,000+
Lead engineer, 8 to 12 years in
Perception, motion planning and machine learning skills push toward the top. Stock options at a startup can add a lot, or nothing.
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
Robotics is not its own licence, it is the same accredited engineering degree as any other branch, so the cost matches. The low end is a four year degree at a cheaper university, the EIT (Engineer in Training) years and the licence fees at the end. The high end is a higher fee program plus the professional practice exam, the P.Eng (Professional Engineer) application and parts for your own projects. Yearly dues of roughly 300 to 500 dollars continue for your whole career, and nearly all the robotics specific learning is free online.
Robotics runs on the same accredited degree as any engineer, so the costs match. Most of the extra learning is free online.
Health and dental
Stock options
At startups. Worth something only if the company is.
Hybrid schedules
For software-heavy roles.
Pension
At automakers, universities and government labs.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
Degree, supervised experience, exam, licence. The licence is optional in practice for many robotics jobs.
High school
Grades 11 and 12
Advanced Functions, Calculus, Physics and Chemistry are required for admission. Mechatronics programs want marks in the 90s.
Accredited engineering degree
4 to 5 years with co-op
Mechatronics at Waterloo, McMaster, Ontario Tech or Simon Fraser, or robotics engineering at Sherbrooke. Mechanical, electrical or computer engineering with a robotics option works just as well.
Engineer-in-training
About 4 years
Register as an engineer-in-training (EIT) with your provincial regulator. Robotics is not a separate discipline, so your experience counts under mechanical, electrical or software.
Professional practice exam
During your EIT years
A law and ethics exam, written during your first years of work.
P.Eng (professional engineer) licence
After 4 years
Many robotics jobs never require it, but you need it to call yourself an engineer.
Calculus and Advanced Functions
Required.
Physics
Required.
Computer science
Python or C++ before university is a real advantage.
Technology or shop
Build things. Robotics is hands and code.
Only licensed professional engineers can use the title. But no province has a robotics discipline, so you earn your P.Eng (professional engineer) through the mechanical, electrical or software work you do as an engineer-in-training (EIT). Many robotics jobs, especially software ones, never require it, which is why the title robotics developer exists. Regulators: Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO), APEGA (Alberta's regulator), Engineers and Geoscientists BC (EGBC). Ontario closed its engineer-in-training program to new applicants in 2023: there you work, log your 4 years of experience and then apply.
Ontario
Waterloo, McMaster and Ontario Tech (mechatronics), Toronto (mechanical or computer engineering with a robotics minor).
Quebec
Sherbrooke (robotics engineering), Polytechnique Montréal, McGill.
BC
Simon Fraser (mechatronic systems, Surrey campus), UBC (University of British Columbia) mechanical with a mechatronics option.
Alberta
Alberta and Calgary, mechanical with a mechatronics option.
Things you don't need, but that help.
ROS (Robot Operating System)
The open-source software most research and warehouse robots run on. Learn it before you graduate.
Machine learning and computer vision
Robots that see and learn pay the most.
PLC (programmable logic controller) and industrial automation
Factory robots, and the ticket into auto plants.
Master's in robotics
Toronto, Waterloo and McGill have strong labs. Needed for research jobs, not for industry.
FIRST Robotics (a high school robotics competition)
Employers and universities notice it.
A portfolio of robots you built
Code on GitHub, videos of them moving.
Co-op at a robotics company
Kitchener-Waterloo, Montreal and Vancouver have clusters of them.
Soldering and 3D printing
Cheap skills that make you useful on day one.
A modern robot is mostly code. Perception, motion planning, control loops and testing take more hours than machining parts. Many robotics engineers end up with a software developer's job description and pay, and some move fully into software. If you hate programming, robotics is not for you.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
At a robotics company: stand-up meeting at 9, then a morning debugging why a warehouse robot stops at one doorway. Pull the sensor logs, tweak the navigation code, run it in simulation, then test on the real robot in the lab. Afternoon: review a teammate's code, meet a mechanical engineer about a new gripper, write up test results. Some weeks include a trip to a customer's factory to install and tune.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Canadarm2 and the Dextre robot hand, built in Brampton, Ontario, keep the International Space Station running. They are on the back of the $5 note. Canadarm3 is being built for the Gateway station that will orbit the moon.
Clearpath Robotics was started in 2009 by four University of Waterloo engineering graduates building research robots. It grew into one of the biggest makers of self-driving warehouse robots and was bought by Rockwell Automation in 2023.
Kinova, near Montreal, builds lightweight robotic arms that mount on wheelchairs and sit in research labs around the world. Robotiq, in Lévis, makes the grippers on thousands of factory robots.
The word robot comes from a Czech word for forced labour, from a 1920 play. The first industrial robot arm went to work in 1961, unloading hot metal parts at a General Motors plant.
Last checked September 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.