Contract mechanical designer vs senior mechanical designer

The differences between contract mechanical designers and senior mechanical designers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 4-6 years to become both a contract mechanical designer and a senior mechanical designer. Additionally, a senior mechanical designer has an average salary of $103,765, which is higher than the $69,294 average annual salary of a contract mechanical designer.

The top three skills for a contract mechanical designer include R, BOM and auto cad. The most important skills for a senior mechanical designer are CAD, mechanical design, and GD.

Contract mechanical designer vs senior mechanical designer overview

	Contract Mechanical Designer	Senior Mechanical Designer
Yearly salary	$69,294	$103,765
Hourly rate	$33.31	$49.89
Growth rate	2%	2%
Number of jobs	72,152	71,958
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Associate Degree, 49%	Bachelor's Degree, 48%
Average age	41	41
Years of experience	6	6

Contract mechanical designer vs senior mechanical designer salary

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

	Contract Mechanical Designer	Senior Mechanical Designer
Average salary	$69,294	$103,765
Salary range	Between $52,000 And $91,000	Between $81,000 And $131,000
Highest paying City	-	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	-	California
Best paying company	-	Google
Best paying industry	-	Automotive

Differences between contract mechanical designer and senior mechanical designer education

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

	Contract Mechanical Designer	Senior Mechanical Designer
Most common degree	Associate Degree, 49%	Bachelor's Degree, 48%
Most common major	Drafting And Design	Mechanical Engineering
Most common college	Carnegie Mellon University	Carnegie Mellon University

Contract mechanical designer vs senior mechanical designer demographics

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

	Contract Mechanical Designer	Senior Mechanical Designer
Average age	41	41
Gender ratio	Male, 92.6% Female, 7.4%	Male, 94.1% Female, 5.9%
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, 4.6% Hispanic or Latino, 9.3% Asian, 11.4% White, 71.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1%
LGBT Percentage	5%	5%

Differences between contract mechanical designer and senior mechanical 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.

Senior mechanical designer example responsibilities.

Lead FPGA development of key digital communication component used in successful demonstration of spacecraft radio link.
Create and modify very large assemblies in Creo which are used to create drawings for top level spacecraft assemblies.
Generate fabrication and assembly drawings for fabrication of commercial/Industrial water heaters and boilers base on ISO 9000 and AWA standards.
Perform complex interference fit checks, motion studies, and tolerance stack-up analysis on large assemblies using Pro/E - Creo software.
Verify all design factors including performance, tolerances, fitting, materials, surface finish and BOM for components and systems.
Improve dynamic response of microscope using ANSYS vibration simulation.

Contract mechanical designer vs senior mechanical designer skills

Common contract mechanical designer skills

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

Common senior mechanical designer skills

CAD, 12%
Mechanical Design, 11%
GD, 5%
Creo, 5%
Autocad, 4%
FEA, 4%

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Contract Mechanical Designer
Contract Mechanical Designer vs Senior Mechanical Designer

Updated January 8, 2025

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