Mold designer vs lead design engineer

The differences between mold designers and lead design engineers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 4-6 years to become both a mold designer and a lead design engineer. Additionally, a lead design engineer has an average salary of $108,490, which is higher than the $70,906 average annual salary of a mold designer.

The top three skills for a mold designer include mold design, plastic injection molds and NX. The most important skills for a lead design engineer are CAD, project management, and lead design.

Mold designer vs lead design engineer overview

	Mold Designer	Lead Design Engineer
Yearly salary	$70,906	$108,490
Hourly rate	$34.09	$52.16
Growth rate	2%	2%
Number of jobs	50,597	118,073
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Associate Degree, 48%	Bachelor's Degree, 73%
Average age	41	41
Years of experience	6	6

Mold designer vs lead design engineer salary

Mold designers and lead design engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Mold Designer	Lead Design Engineer
Average salary	$70,906	$108,490
Salary range	Between $47,000 And $105,000	Between $82,000 And $143,000
Highest paying City	-	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	-	California
Best paying company	-	Meta
Best paying industry	-	Agriculture

Differences between mold designer and lead design engineer education

There are a few differences between a mold designer and a lead design engineer in terms of educational background:

	Mold Designer	Lead Design Engineer
Most common degree	Associate Degree, 48%	Bachelor's Degree, 73%
Most common major	Drafting And Design	Mechanical Engineering
Most common college	Carnegie Mellon University	Michigan Technological University

Mold designer vs lead design engineer demographics

Here are the differences between mold designers' and lead design engineers' demographics:

	Mold Designer	Lead Design Engineer
Average age	41	41
Gender ratio	Male, 93.4% Female, 6.6%	Male, 90.9% Female, 9.1%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 3.4% Unknown, 4.6% Hispanic or Latino, 9.2% Asian, 10.4% White, 72.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1%	Black or African American, 3.3% Unknown, 4.6% Hispanic or Latino, 8.9% Asian, 15.5% White, 67.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1%
LGBT Percentage	5%	5%

Differences between mold designer and lead design engineer duties and responsibilities

Mold designer example responsibilities.

Manage documentation of existing projects, perform ECN resolutions.
Design and automate electro-mechanical machinery to customer specifications.
Design and automate electro-mechanical machinery to customer specifications.

Lead design engineer example responsibilities.

Design the micro self-test libraries and achieve several projects s/w on the UL list.
Manage automation projects including purchasing, scheduling fabrication and assembly, debugging, and delivery to customer.
Introduce company to new rapid design and prototyping processes to include SLA and durable prototypes.
Provide assistance and technical support to regulatory department for UL, CE and CSA approval testing.
Lead a project for the FEA analysis-design of compressor wheel near net shape forging with common die sets.
Build and develop testing prototypes for reliability and FAA certification- dynamic and static testing (FMEA, FEA, DFMA).

Mold designer vs lead design engineer skills

Common mold designer skills

Mold Design, 16%
Plastic Injection Molds, 15%
NX, 7%
Aided Design, 6%
Autocad, 5%
CNC Machines, 5%

Common lead design engineer skills

CAD, 9%
Project Management, 7%
Lead Design, 5%
FEA, 4%
UL, 4%
System Design, 4%