Four Edmonton-area employers made Forbes' 2026 ranking of Canada's best employers for company culture.
One of them finished in the national top 10.
Stantec placed 7th in Canada. It is the highest-ranked employer in the Edmonton region and one of only two Alberta organizations in the top 10.
Three of the four have openings on the Culture Alberta job board right now, and so do eight more Edmonton-area employers that Forbes named on its broader Best Employers list earlier this year.
See who's hiring in Edmonton →
The four Edmonton-area employers on the culture list
Stantec — 7th overall. About 130 open roles in Edmonton →
ATB Financial — 56th. More than 20 open roles in the Edmonton area →
Freson Bros. — 95th, headquartered in Stony Plain. Openings on Freson's own careers page →
University of Alberta — 149th. 81 open roles in Edmonton →
Thirteen Alberta employers made the ranking in total. The other nine are listed in Calgary.
Job totals were current on September 24, 2026, and will change as positions are filled and new ones are posted.
Stantec climbed 57 spots
No Edmonton-area employer moved further up the ranking than Stantec.
The engineering, architecture and environmental consulting firm placed 64th on Forbes' inaugural company culture ranking in 2025. This year it came in 7th.
Stantec is an Edmonton company. It was founded in the city in 1954 as D.R. Stanley Associates and is still headquartered here. Forbes puts its workforce at roughly 32,000 people worldwide.
Its Edmonton openings are the largest block of engineering work on our board. Current postings include civil and geotechnical engineers, engineers-in-training, environmental planners, CAD and civil technologists, project managers for roadway and water work, and power-system specialists. It is also hiring co-op students for 2027 work terms.
Forbes does not publish a company-by-company explanation for movement in the ranking. The results are based on employee survey responses, so a jump of that size doesn't necessarily trace to one change.
Browse Stantec's Alberta openings →
ATB Financial moved up three
ATB placed 56th, three spots higher than its 59th-place finish in 2025.
The Edmonton-headquartered financial institution has branches and agencies across Alberta, and its openings reflect that.
Current Edmonton-area postings include client service representatives and everyday banking advisors at branches in Sherwood Park, St. Albert and south Edmonton, alongside head-office roles in capital markets, commercial real estate, digital banking, investment operations and strategy. It is also hiring a CPA articling student.
Freson Bros. is the surprise on the list
At 95th, the Stony Plain grocer climbed 48 spots from 143rd in 2025. It outranked the University of Alberta and every Calgary employer on the list except Bethany Care Society, Shell Canada, Suncor, ENMAX and Bennett Jones.
Freson Bros. is a family-owned Alberta grocery chain founded in 1955. It is the kind of employer that rarely appears alongside national engineering firms and banks on a ranking like this.
It also made Forbes' broader Canada's Best Employers ranking in January, at 152nd.
Freson's openings are not on our board. Its hiring system does not allow automated listing, so apply through freson.com/careers.
The University of Alberta slipped
The U of A placed 149th, down from 28th in 2025. That is the largest drop among the four Edmonton-area employers.
As with Stantec's climb, Forbes doesn't explain individual moves, and a survey-based ranking can swing from year to year.
The university is still the largest post-secondary employer on our job board, with 81 current Edmonton openings across academic, research, administrative, trades and operational roles.
Browse University of Alberta jobs →
Alberta has two employers in the national top 10
Stantec at 7th is one.
The other is Bethany Care Society, the Calgary-based continuing care non-profit, which placed 5th.
Our coverage of the Calgary employers on the list is here.
Eight more Edmonton employers Forbes ranked this year
Forbes publishes a separate, broader ranking of Canada's Best Employers each January. It is built differently, with employees also rating pay, flexibility, training and leadership, and many more Edmonton-area organizations made it.
These are hiring on the Culture Alberta job board now:
WCB Alberta — 33rd on the January list, the highest-ranked Edmonton employer on it. Current openings include IT, delivery management and medical and psychology consulting roles. See WCB Alberta openings →
EPCOR — 137th. The city-owned water and electricity utility has 13 Edmonton openings, from distribution-planning and stormwater engineers to communications, regulatory and health-and-safety roles. See EPCOR openings →
Strathcona County — 186th, based in Sherwood Park. 11 current openings. See Strathcona County openings →
PCL Construction — 200th. The employee-owned, Edmonton-headquartered contractor has 22 Edmonton openings, including estimators, schedulers and project roles beyond the trades. See PCL openings →
EPCOR and PCL were also highlighted in Mediacorp's Canada's Top Employers for Young People, cited for early-career support programs, internal courses and student loan assistance.
Other Edmonton-area employers on the January list include AutoCanada (228th), Black Gold Regional Schools in Nisku (239th), Armtec (265th), Alberta Blue Cross (268th), Covenant Health (279th) and DCM Group in Sherwood Park (280th). Their openings are posted on their own careers pages.
Who else is hiring in Edmonton
Beyond the Forbes lists, these are the largest Edmonton employers on the board right now:
Government of Alberta — 85 Edmonton openings, most with a published salary band. Our coverage is here.
City of Edmonton — 51 openings. See them →
MacEwan University — 25 openings. See them →
NAIT — 20 openings. See them →
ATCO — 15 Edmonton openings. See them →
NorQuest College — 9 openings. See them →
How Forbes built the culture ranking
Forbes produced the list with market research firm Statista.
More than 37,000 Canadian-based employees at companies with at least 500 people in Canada were surveyed anonymously.
They were asked whether they would recommend their employer, and to rate their workplace on recognizing good performance, supporting work-life balance, valuing input across the organization, encouraging collaboration, providing avenues to advance, and on fairness, inclusivity and opportunity.
Respondents were also asked about previous employers from the past two years, and about companies they knew through industry experience or through friends and family. Data from the past three years of surveys was incorporated, with heavier weight on recent responses.
The 200 organizations with the highest scores made the list. This is the second year Forbes has published it.
The methodology is worth keeping in mind. It measures how surveyed employees feel about their workplaces. It doesn't independently compare salaries, benefits, job security, turnover or long-term advancement.
Treat it as a starting point, not a verdict on what it's like to work on a particular team.
More than 1,400 Alberta jobs are on the board
The Culture Alberta job board carries roles from more than 50 employers.
Jobs can be filtered by city, category, employment type, union status, posting date, and whether the employer publishes a salary range.
The board covers Edmonton, Calgary, Red Deer, Lethbridge, Grande Prairie, Fort McMurray and Medicine Hat.
Every listing links directly to the employer's own application page. No account is required to browse or apply. A free account lets you save positions and track applications.
Browse Alberta jobs at culturealberta.com/jobs →
Sources
Forbes Canada's Best Employers for Company Culture 2026 and 2025, produced with Statista
Forbes Canada's Best Employers 2026 Edmonton-area rankings as reported by Daily Hive
Employment totals and job descriptions from the Culture Alberta job board, checked September 24, 2026
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