Contract mechanical designer vs designer

The differences between contract mechanical designers and designers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 4-6 years to become a contract mechanical designer, becoming a designer takes usually requires 6-12 months. Additionally, a contract mechanical designer has an average salary of $69,294, which is higher than the $66,347 average annual salary of a designer.

The top three skills for a contract mechanical designer include R, BOM and auto cad. The most important skills for a designer are sketch, customer service, and graphic design.

Contract mechanical designer vs designer overview

	Contract Mechanical Designer	Designer
Yearly salary	$69,294	$66,347
Hourly rate	$33.31	$31.90
Growth rate	2%	3%
Number of jobs	72,152	52,433
Job satisfaction	-	5
Most common degree	Associate Degree, 49%	Bachelor's Degree, 61%
Average age	41	38
Years of experience	6	12

Contract mechanical designer vs designer salary

Contract mechanical designers and designers have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Contract Mechanical Designer	Designer
Average salary	$69,294	$66,347
Salary range	Between $52,000 And $91,000	Between $45,000 And $97,000
Highest paying City	-	Seattle, WA
Highest paying state	-	Washington
Best paying company	-	Meta
Best paying industry	-	Technology

Differences between contract mechanical designer and designer education

There are a few differences between a contract mechanical designer and a designer in terms of educational background:

	Contract Mechanical Designer	Designer
Most common degree	Associate Degree, 49%	Bachelor's Degree, 61%
Most common major	Drafting And Design	Graphic Design
Most common college	Carnegie Mellon University	University of Pennsylvania

Contract mechanical designer vs designer demographics

Here are the differences between contract mechanical designers' and designers' demographics:

	Contract Mechanical Designer	Designer
Average age	41	38
Gender ratio	Male, 92.6% Female, 7.4%	Male, 56.9% Female, 43.1%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 3.5% Unknown, 4.6% Hispanic or Latino, 9.8% Asian, 10.2% White, 71.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1%	Black or African American, 3.4% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 10.6% Asian, 10.4% White, 70.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4%
LGBT Percentage	5%	13%

Differences between contract mechanical designer and designer duties and responsibilities

Contract mechanical designer example responsibilities.

Work with JPL / NASA packaging and fabrication engineering leads (on-site).
Correspond with various vendors to select proper HVAC equipment.
Develop detail drawings, mechanize animations, bill of materials, ECO, and ECR's.
Generate ECO to update part specification in accordance with manufacturing requirements.
Create designs and documentation to facilitate manufacture of products including drawings, BOM and material specifications.
Design and automate electro-mechanical machinery to customer specifications.

Designer example responsibilities.

Lead & design all creative content stemming from apparel design to web identity.
Manage various PCB designs utilizing state of the art DFM techniques and comply with company standards.
Utilize CSS, DHTML, HTML, and JavaScript for cross browser, cross platform compatibility and consistency.
Develop different kinds of functions globally, locally for the development of forms using JavaScript, CSS.
Transform customer specifications into usable SolidWorks 3D models and assemblies from which all manufacturing are derived.
Process ECR's and ECO's using Windchill.

Contract mechanical designer vs designer skills

Common contract mechanical designer skills

R, 9%
BOM, 8%
Auto CAD, 7%
Mechanical Design, 6%
Layout Drawings, 6%
Product Development, 5%

Common designer skills

Sketch, 10%
Customer Service, 7%
Graphic Design, 6%
CSS, 5%
HTML, 4%
PowerPoint, 4%

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Contract Mechanical Designer
Contract Mechanical Designer vs Designer

Updated January 8, 2025

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