Building drafter vs design architect

The differences between building drafters and design architects can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 6-12 months to become a building drafter, becoming a design architect takes usually requires 2-4 years. Additionally, a design architect has an average salary of $89,139, which is higher than the $53,715 average annual salary of a building drafter.

The top three skills for a building drafter include autocad, and . The most important skills for a design architect are revit, architectural design, and project management.

Building drafter vs design architect overview

	Building Drafter	Design Architect
Yearly salary	$53,715	$89,139
Hourly rate	$25.82	$42.86
Growth rate	-3%	3%
Number of jobs	6,879	111,505
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Associate Degree, 33%	Bachelor's Degree, 67%
Average age	45	45
Years of experience	12	4

Building drafter vs design architect salary

Building drafters and design architects have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Building Drafter	Design Architect
Average salary	$53,715	$89,139
Salary range	Between $36,000 And $79,000	Between $52,000 And $151,000
Highest paying City	-	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	-	Massachusetts
Best paying company	-	Meta
Best paying industry	-	Construction

Differences between building drafter and design architect education

There are a few differences between a building drafter and a design architect in terms of educational background:

	Building Drafter	Design Architect
Most common degree	Associate Degree, 33%	Bachelor's Degree, 67%
Most common major	Drafting And Design	Architecture
Most common college	University of Michigan - Ann Arbor	Cornell University

Building drafter vs design architect demographics

Here are the differences between building drafters' and design architects' demographics:

	Building Drafter	Design Architect
Average age	45	45
Gender ratio	Male, 95.7% Female, 4.3%	Male, 74.7% Female, 25.3%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 3.1% Unknown, 5.2% Hispanic or Latino, 11.7% Asian, 7.0% White, 72.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%	Black or African American, 2.3% Unknown, 4.0% Hispanic or Latino, 12.1% Asian, 16.4% White, 64.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3%
LGBT Percentage	6%	15%

Differences between building drafter and design architect duties and responsibilities

Building drafter example responsibilities.

Learned and utilize AutoCAD by practicing several drawing types from restaurants to hotels.
Render complete assemblies of conveyor systems to customer's specifications using SolidWorks.
Utilize extensive skills in CADD technology, complement by construction industry expertise to provide tailor designs meeting customer needs.

Design architect example responsibilities.

Manage technical architects for development and support of existing and new terminal platforms to support Walmart mobile and batch application infrastructure.
Prepare layouts, drawings and 3D visualization.
Sketch and design of require facilities as per contract.
Master drawing with Revit and train team members on Revit.
Prepare presentation materials (BIM), 3D render images (walk through) animation.
Operate in individual role, scope of tasks including project pre-design/design, and construction documents using Revit.

Building drafter vs design architect skills

Common building drafter skills

Autocad, 100%

Common design architect skills

Revit, 16%
Architectural Design, 6%
Project Management, 5%
Sketch, 5%
Design Development, 4%
C #, 4%