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Zachary Gould (BEng’23) walks into work each day not knowing what challenge he’ll face next, but that’s exactly what he loves about the job. As part of the Mechanical Engineering team at Irving Oil’s refinery in Saint John, New Brunswick, he leads repair and upgrade projects on high-pressure, highly specialized equipment.

“When a project comes to me, they’ve got a pretty decent idea of what they’re looking for,” he explains. “And then it’s my job to figure out the specific details of what that design is going to be.”

Zachary is involved in every stage of a project, from technical planning and supplier coordination to fabrication and on-site execution. The work is demanding, with tight deadlines and evolving requirements, but for him, that’s part of the appeal.

“The best part of the job might be the most challenging part,” he explains. “We have so many unique challenges going on every single day. It’s hard, but it’s also really fun trying to figure out those problems and come to those solutions.”

While this is Zachary’s first full-time role since graduating from Dalhousie University’s engineering program in 2023, his connection to Irving Oil started well before that.

From uncertainty to opportunity

Growing up in New Brunswick, Zachary was no stranger to the Irving name, a fixture in the province’s economy. Headquartered in Saint John, N.B., the international energy company operates across Eastern Canada, the United States, and Europe.

Still, Zachary never pictured himself working in an engineering capacity at Canada’s largest refinery. In fact, when he started university, engineering wasn’t even on his radar.

“I only applied to two schools and did it last minute because I didn’t really know what I wanted to do,” he recalls.

He enrolled at Dalhousie University in the Integrated Science program, which gave him the flexibility to explore engineering while also working toward a science degree. The experience led him to switch into mechanical engineering after his first year.

“I definitely picked the right program for me,” he says. “I really love mechanics and machine design, and I was also really interested in fluid dynamics and those kinds of things.”

Outside the coursework, he also loved the people and the sense of community at Dal Engineering.

“My experience at Dalhousie was just awesome, mainly because of the people I met and the groups I ended up spending time with,” he says. “It’s kind of neat that the engineering campus is its own little community.”

My experience at Dalhousie was just awesome, mainly because of the people I met and the groups I ended up spending time with...

A scholarship that changed everything

In his third year, Zachary received the Irving Oil Scholarship, a turning point in both his academic and professional journey. Along with financial support, the scholarship provided a co-op placement at the company’s refinery in Saint John.

”So I packed my bags and moved back to New Brunswick,” he says.

Of all his co-op experiences, this one stood out as the most technically demanding. Working alongside the same mechanical engineering team he’s now a part of full time, Zachary was quickly immersed in the fast-paced, detail-heavy environment of the refinery. He realized that mechanical engineers often act as generalists, supporting multiple disciplines and stepping in wherever needed.

“They just work on such a wide variety of things and there's so many details to all the different projects,” he explains.

What stood out to him most about the co-op was how much responsibility he was given.
“The nice thing about the co-op at Irving Oil is they treat you like part of the team.”

That experience gave Zachary the opportunity to prove himself. Just weeks before his co-op ended, he was offered a full-time position on the mechanical engineering team upon graduation.

A career full of opportunities and growth

Since starting full time, Zachary has embraced the variety and challenges his role offers.

“I love the job, and I like that there’s a lot of different opportunities, not only in the job that I’m at now, but I’ve gotten to go and work with other teams,” he says. He adds that he also appreciates the wide range of paths available to mechanical engineers within the company.

“There are opportunities everywhere and it’s not discouraged to go and try out a new position.”

While he isn’t sure where his career will lead, Zachary knows the path he’s on wouldn’t have been possible without the support and opportunities Irving Oil offers to engineering students at Dalhousie.

”I'm extremely grateful that I got the scholarship which led to the co-op position, which led to the job here. It was really like dominoes falling into each other. And had I not gotten the scholarship, I may not have moved back to New Brunswick and I probably would have never considered working in the oil and gas industry,” he says.

“The fact that I got the scholarship contingent with a co-op position was just a great opportunity to not only show Irving what my skills were, but it got to show me what the opportunities were that are out there. That’s probably what I'm most grateful for in terms of getting that scholarship.”