How to hire a lead mechanical design engineer

How to hire a lead mechanical design engineer, step by step

Here's a step-by-step lead mechanical design engineer hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a lead mechanical design engineer job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new lead mechanical design engineer
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a lead mechanical design engineer do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   The lead mechanical design engineer hiring process starts by determining what type of worker you actually need. Certain roles might require a full-time employee, whereas part-time workers or contractors can do others.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   A lead mechanical design engineer's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, lead mechanical design engineers from different industries or fields will have radically different experiences and will bring different viewpoints to the role. You also need to consider the candidate's previous level of experience to make sure they'll be comfortable with the job's level of seniority.

   Here's a comparison of lead mechanical design engineer salaries for various roles:

   Type of Lead Mechanical Design Engineer	Description	Hourly rate
   Lead Mechanical Design Engineer	Mechanical engineering is one of the broadest engineering disciplines. Mechanical engineers design, develop, build, and test mechanical and thermal sensors and devices, including tools, engines, and machines.	$28-45
   Staff Engineer	Staff engineers are responsible for designing, developing, and inspecting various products, equipment, or structures. These professionals may perform varied duties depending on their specialization that includes overseeing the design and construction of buildings, bridges, sewer systems, and other infrastructure, estimating the financial costs of construction projects, and ensuring compliance with health and safety laws and regulations... Show more	$33-80
   Chief Engineer	A chief engineer is responsible for monitoring the engineering department's overall operations, ensuring performance efficiency, and everyone's strict compliance with the safety standards and regulatory procedures. Chief engineers manage the distribution of the tasks to the team, communicate with the clients and management for instructions and specifications, monitor expenses and forecast sales reports, analyze and approve designs, negotiate contracts, and process disputes... Show more	$31-85

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • CAD
   • Mechanical Design
   • Creo
   • Solidworks
   • Ansys
   • Mechanical Systems
   • FEA
   • Engineering Design
   • System Design
   • GD
   • Prototype
   • Mechanical Components
   • Product Design
   • BOM

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Manage prototyping, orchestrate 1st-article approval process with suppliers such as IBM, and resolve mechanical and heat-sink thermal issues.
   • Lead hardware/system engineer, lead a team to develop Ethernet interface board to ATM/IP interface board (IP routing control).
   • Provide mechanical design and sustaining engineering expertise to troubleshoot manufacturing defect trends and achieve a more robust and producible product.
   • Validate design by tolerance analysis, relate regulations and standards, FEA and thermal test, dynamic vibration test.
   • Create plumbing narratives for plumbing designs.
   • Perform verification and hardware testing of the complex FPGA designs.

   More lead mechanical design engineer duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your lead mechanical design engineer job description is a great way to entice the best and brightest candidates. A lead mechanical design engineer salary can vary based on several factors:

   • Location. For example, lead mechanical design engineers' average salary in kansas is 37% less than in virginia.
   • Seniority. Entry-level lead mechanical design engineers earn 38% less than senior-level lead mechanical design engineers.
   • Certifications. A lead mechanical design engineer with a few certifications under their belt will likely demand a higher salary.
   • Company. Working for a prestigious company or an exciting start-up can make a huge difference in a lead mechanical design engineer's salary.

   Average lead mechanical design engineer salary

   $75,506yearly

   $36.30 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level lead mechanical design engineer salary

   $59,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 5, 2025

   Average lead mechanical design engineer salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$101,137	$49
   2	District of Columbia	$87,935	$42
   3	Colorado	$85,831	$41
   4	South Carolina	$84,380	$41
   5	Alabama	$83,216	$40
   6	Arizona	$81,003	$39
   7	North Carolina	$77,904	$37
   8	Texas	$76,828	$37
   9	Missouri	$75,226	$36
   10	Florida	$70,200	$34

   Average lead mechanical design engineer salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Amazon	$132,364	$63.64	510
   2	Hyperloop Transportation Technologies	$111,952	$53.82
   3	Medical Billing	$101,352	$48.73
   4	Wabtec Corporation	$100,364	$48.25	17
   5	BorgWarner	$96,709	$46.49	11
   6	Jabil	$90,545	$43.53	28
   7	Oracle	$89,198	$42.88	502
   8	Goodwin Recruiting	$85,056	$40.89	4
   9	Eaton	$80,938	$38.91	150
   10	CLUSTER Community Services	$80,514	$38.71
   11	Honeywell	$79,867	$38.40	115
   12	Atom Power	$78,650	$37.81
   13	PDS Tech	$78,525	$37.75	11
   14	General Electric	$78,128	$37.56	144
   15	Hire Velocity	$77,874	$37.44
   16	ZT Systems	$77,493	$37.26	15
   17	Kelly Services	$77,218	$37.12	28
   18	GE Healthcare Camden Group	$76,768	$36.91
   19	Boeing	$74,759	$35.94	304
   20	Lt Engineering	$74,196	$35.67

4. Writing a lead mechanical design engineer job description

   A lead mechanical design engineer job description should include a summary of the role, required skills, and a list of responsibilities. It's also good to include a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager. Below, you can find an example of a lead mechanical design engineer job description:

   Lead mechanical design engineer job description example

   COVID\-19 continues to significantly impact our employees, families and communities\. With employee health and safety as our top priority, and as a federal contractor, Lockheed Martin is taking action to address the increased risk and uncertainty COVID\-19 variants pose in the workplace and ensuring we meet our commitments to national security\.
   
   To uphold safety for all employees, we will continue to request vaccination status for all Lockheed Martin employees including new hires\. All current and newly hired employees are required to follow onsite safety measures based upon the COVID\-19 Community Level at the specific work location\.
   
   **Description:** **The coolest jobs on this planet... or any other... are with Lockheed Martin Space\.**
   
   At the dawn of a new space age, Lockheed Martin is a pioneer, partner, innovator and builder\. Our amazing people are on a mission to make a difference in the world and every day we use our outstanding skills and experiences to create, craft and build solutions to some of the worlds' hardest engineering problems\. Our culture supports employees to dream big, perform with excellence and create incredible products\. We provide the resources, encouragement and focus and if you have the passion, we want to build a better tomorrow with you\!
   
   We are looking for a hardworking Mechanical Engineer to become a technical leader for the Military Space Advanced Program Development team\.
   
   As the **Docking Port Deputy Mechanical Lead** for Space Security Advanced Programs, you will analyze, design, and prototype solutions for small satellite docking ports\. Space Security AP is on the leading edge of research and development for future space security systems, satellites, and payloads\. The team works with multiple customers to conduct studies and advance designs from initial concept to Milestone A or B working with other teams in Military Space to transition those systems into production\.
   
   You will work closely with customers and program leaders to provide the best, unified solutions that meet overall performance, cost and schedule needs\! You will perform critical functions, including:
   • Designing and prototyping docking ports
   
   • Performing stress and dynamics analysis
   
   • Communicating design and analysis data to spacecraft engineering team and LM program leadership
   
   • Decomposing and deriving subsystem requirements to unit level requirements
   
   • Working interactively with diverse engineering disciplines in a fast\-paced environment to rapidly deliver innovative solutions for proposals, IRADs, and customer funded projects
   
   Learn more about Lockheed Martin's comprehensive benefits package\.
   
   **Basic Qualifications:**
   
   • Prior experience or knowledge or structural engineering and/or structural dynamics
   
   • Familiarity with designing payloads to integrate/interface with host spacecraft
   
   • Knowledge of or experience with requirements development
   
   • Experience in mechanical engineering principles
   
   • Experience with NX, CREO, IDEAS, Solid Works, or equivalent
   
   • Ability to obtain TS/SCI with Poly; US citizenship is required
   
   **Desired Skills:**
   
   • Experience with this Space Security, Space Protection Programs, Special Programs, or another relevant program
   
   • Experience working in the development phase of a Space program, preferably for the US Government
   
   • Proficiency with one or more of the following engineering tools: ADAMS, NX Siemens, NASTRAN, ABAQUS, Mechanica, Composite Pro, CREO, Solid Works, IDEAS
   
   • Prior experience with creating and maintaining Mechanical ICDs
   
   • Design for test / design for manufacturing experience
   
   • Familiarity with additive manufacturing
   
   • Previous mechanism design experience
   
   • Preparation and presentation of milestone design review packages
   
   • Ability to work in a fast\-paced, synergetic team environment
   
   • Phase\-A and pre\-Phase\-A program experience
   
   • Active TS/SCI with Poly
   
   **BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:**
   
   job\.Qualifications
   
   **Lockheed Martin is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer\. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, protected veteran status, or disability status\.**
   
   Join us at Lockheed Martin, where your mission is ours\. Our customers tackle the hardest missions\. Those that demand extraordinary amounts of courage, resilience and precision\. They're dangerous\. Critical\. Sometimes they even provide an opportunity to change the world and save lives\. Those are the missions we care about\.
   
   As a leading technology innovation company, Lockheed Martin's vast team works with partners around the world to bring proven performance to our customers' toughest challenges\. Lockheed Martin has employees based in many states throughout the U\.S\., and Internationally, with business locations in many nations and territories\.
   
   **EXPERIENCE LEVEL:**
   
   Experienced Professional

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   To find lead mechanical design engineers for your business, try out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important talent pools for any company is its current employees.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and your current work to ask if they know any lead mechanical design engineers they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit entry-level lead mechanical design engineers with the right educational background.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter have more than 3.5 billion users, and they're a great place for company branding and reaching potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your lead mechanical design engineer job on Zippia to find and recruit lead mechanical design engineer candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Recruiting lead mechanical design engineers requires you to bring your A-game to the interview process. The first interview should introduce the company and the role to the candidate as much as they present their background experience and reasons for applying for the job. During later interviews, you can go into more detail about the technical details of the job and ask behavioral questions to gauge how they'd fit into your current company culture.

   It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents. You can move on to the technical interview if a candidate is good enough for the next step.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new lead mechanical design engineer

   Once you've found the lead mechanical design engineer candidate you'd like to hire, it's time to write an offer letter. This should include an explicit job offer that includes the salary and the details of any other perks. Qualified candidates might be looking at multiple positions, so your offer must be competitive if you like the candidate. Also, be prepared for a negotiation stage, as candidates may way want to tweak the details of your initial offer. Once you've settled on these details, you can draft a contract to formalize your agreement.

   It's also important to follow up with applicants who do not get the job with an email letting them know that the position is filled.

   To prepare for the new employee's start date, you can create an onboarding schedule and complete any necessary paperwork, such as employee action forms and onboarding documents like I-9 forms, benefits enrollment, and federal and state tax forms. Human Resources should also ensure that a new employee file is created.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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