‘Work in Ottawa’ is a talent program from Ottawa’s economic development organization ‘Invest Ottawa’.

As a city-funded program, we promote Ottawa’s tech employers and job opportunities to attract top talent looking to work in Canada’s capital city. As part of this initiative, we partner with Ottawa-based tech employers who can leverage several services within our program, including access to our job board and jobseekers in our talent pool.

After you apply directly to a role, the hiring manager will review your profile. If selected for an interview, they will contact you directly.  If you are in our talent pool, your profile may be automatically suggested for matching roles, and hiring managers can search for your resume based on your skills and experience.

If you apply for a role directly on the Work in Ottawa site, only the employer listed in the job description can view your profile. However, if you join our talent pool, several Ottawa-based tech employers will have access to your profile. While we strive to maintain your privacy, we cannot guarantee that your current employer will not see your profile if they are a part of our network. You can remove your profile from the talent pool at any time.

We use Co-pilot integrations to screen resumes, recommend job seekers for certain job opportunities, and to automate certain communication processes. If you have any questions about our use of AI, please reach out to our team at [email protected]

We are partnered with several Ottawa tech employers who have access to the profiles in our talent pool. Please note that we cannot guarantee that your current employer in Ottawa won’t see your profile if you join the talent pool.

A security clearance is a tiered status required for individuals working in Canadian government roles or organizations handling sensitive national security information. The process of obtaining a clearance requires a background check which examines information like your criminal record and credit history to ensure you demonstrate suitability to access and protect classified information. For roles requiring a clearance, an employer will often help guide you through the process and status must be obtained before starting a role. Note: Some employers have their own security clearance processes. (EG. RCMP, CBSA, DND).

If you are looking for a job with Ottawa-based tech companies, our program can be paramount to your search. You can leverage the Work in Ottawa program in a few ways:

• Apply for Jobs – Check out our job boards to explore jobs posted by some of the employers partnered with us. You can leverage these platforms to apply to jobs directly. After you have submitted your application, the employer’s hiring team will review and respond with the next steps if successful.
• Join our talent pool – In addition to applying for jobs, you can join our talent pool. It only takes a couple of minutes to submit your profile and by doing so, your profile will become discoverable to the tech employers in our network. Hiring managers will be able to browse through any of the candidates in our talent pool to contact them with relevant job opportunities, sometimes even before their job is posted!  We leverage a GDPR-compliant system, which allows you to have full control over the data stored and to be able to update or remove your profile from our system at any time.

Note: While we strive to maintain your privacy, we cannot guarantee that your current employer will not see your profile if they are a part of our network. You can remove your profile from the talent pool at any time

• Join our mailing list – Not ready to make the move to Ottawa or apply to jobs yet? Sign up for our monthly talent newsletter to stay in the know on all things Ottawa. We share monthly tech sector news, job opportunities and career resources to set you up for success!

The city has an incredible tech ecosystem with North America’s highest tech talent density, tied with the SF Bay Area. As a sector, there has been an increase in job growth of 51.7% over the last 5 years (CBRE, 2024). This is an exciting time to look at Ottawa to take the next step in your career.

If you want to learn more about our tech sector, visit our Tech Scene page.

Ottawa is a unique location for tech talent because our city not only offers top-tier opportunities in some of the prominent tech companies but also a fulfilling lifestyle with the city’s amenities and a touch of nature. Ottawa is acclaimed to be the best Canadian city if you seek a work-life balance (KISI, 2022).

Our city is also one of the finest places in Canada to raise a family with parks, greeneries, rivers, museums, and world-class festivals year-round. Identified as one of the top 3 Canadian cities with the highest quality of living (Mercer, 2023)., be sure to give Ottawa a try! We also have a top-quality education system with renowned post-secondary institutions such as the University of Ottawa, Carleton University, La Cité, and Algonquin College.

To learn what it is like to live in Ottawa, please visit our City Life page.