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Multinational engineering company Siemens is expanding its presence in Saskatoon, adding office space and hiring over 100 new workers over the next two years.
The expansion will add 10,000 square feet to the company’s research and development hub at Innovation Saskatchewan’s research and technology park right next door to the University of Saskatchewan and will support its electronic design automation (EDA) operations, which is the software that designs electronic chips that power devices such as smartphones and vehicles.
The head of Siemens Canada says the expansion will help the industry keep up with rapid developments in artificial intelligence, which continues to boom.
“It’s allowing chip manufacturers to design, test and verify chip design in the virtual world before they even build it and that dramatically reduces the time to market.”
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Siemens will now occupy 45,000 square feet in the city, with the expansion to bring its total number of workers from 300 to 400.
The company says the new positions will mainly consist of software developers and customer application experts and will be looking to graduates of the University of Saskatchewan’s engineering, computer science, physics and math programs to fill the roles.
“It’s really an opportunity for people who are from Saskatchewan, who grew up in Saskatchewan, to not go and leave to work at another place, but they can have very rewarding careers right here in Saskatchewan,” said Amit Gupta, Siemens EDA senior vice-president, adding that around 80 per cent of the company’s hires are graduates from the University of Saskatchewan.
Gupta knows first-hand what it takes to scale a business in Saskatchewan, having founded chip design software company Solido in 2005, which was later acquired by Siemens in 2017. At the time, he says the company had around 50 employees, calling the rapid growth his “made-in-Saskatchewan” story.
“When Siemens acquired us, they didn’t just absorb our technology and move us to a traditional tech hub; they recognized that our success was deeply rooted in the ecosystem that we built right here, and they doubled down on Saskatchewan,” Gupta said at a press conference and ribbon-cutting in Siemens’ office Wednesday.
“This is a major achievement for the team in this very room. The work that they do every day impacts the future of technology that we’re all experiencing.”
As Saskatchewan continues to grapple with retention issues across industries, with students and workers leaving after their education or training, Premier Scott Moe says the expansion will help address the issue.
“We’ll continue to work alongside Siemens EDA and the rest of the industry and the University of Saskatchewan, U of R, Sask. Polytechnic, on how we can continue to ensure that we have a trained career workforce for the future in this industry,” said Moe.
The announcement also comes over a month after Ottawa released its national strategy on AI, centred around scaling and securing the sector, with six “pillars” of focus.
While Saskatchewan does not have its own AI strategy, Moe is also not committing to one yet. However, he says the topic is likely to be discussed at next week’s first ministers meeting in Charlottetown.
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