How To Become A Piping/Mechanical Designer: What It Is and Career Path

What is a piping/mechanical designer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

A piping/mechanical designer is a specialist in piping design. A piping designer coordinates construction professionals and is responsible for designing and sometimes installing building pipes. A piping/mechanical designer designs a blueprint that contains designs and other constructing information. As expected, the designer must be able to design, present, or interpret a model. The ability to understand the needs of other people and effectively create those needs in a form model is a must for a piping designer. They must also have a wealth of knowledge regarding laws regulating how the pipe is laid out in the local or state.

Some piping designers are self-taught. However, you must know how to use scientific software like Nemtley and Viziflow. More than knowledge, you should have a degree to support your job pursuits. A piping designer earns an average of $48.71 per hour.

ScorePiping/Mechanical DesignerUS Average

Salary

4.2

Avg. Salary $53,445

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.4

Growth rate 2%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.4

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.11%

Asian 10.28%

Black or African American 3.43%

Hispanic or Latino 9.45%

Unknown 4.61%

White 72.12%

Gender

female 7.85%

male 92.15%

Age - 39

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 39

Stress level

7.4

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.6

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

5.1

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a piping/mechanical designer

Explore piping/mechanical designer education requirements

Most common piping/mechanical designer degrees

Associate

59.8 %

Bachelor's

22.2 %

High School Diploma

7.9 %

Start to develop specific piping/mechanical designer skills

Skills	Percentages
Autocad	18.42%
Isometric Drawings	8.45%
CAD	7.66%
Plumbing	4.20%
Construction Drawings	3.75%

Complete relevant piping/mechanical designer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-2 years on post-employment, on-the-job training. New piping/mechanical designers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a piping/mechanical designer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real piping/mechanical designer resumes.

Research piping/mechanical designer duties and responsibilities

Work with JPL / NASA packaging and fabrication engineering leads (on-site).
Modele equipment and piping using 3D (InterGraph PDS) software, produce 2D construction drawings using AutoCAD.
Produce detailed drawings for fabrication shop, using ANSI Y14.5 standards.
Design AutoCAD 3D temp stack-up to test new type of grinder in real world conditions.

Prepare your piping/mechanical designer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your piping/mechanical designer resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a piping/mechanical designer resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable piping/mechanical designer resume templates

Build a professional piping/mechanical designer resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your piping/mechanical designer resume.

Apply for piping/mechanical designer jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a piping/mechanical designer job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do piping/mechanical designers rate their job?

-/5

5 stars

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2 stars

1 star

Piping/mechanical designer reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Jul 2019

Pros

I liked working in oil and gas at Chevron in Pascagoula, MS. I worked there right after finishing college. I drew flow sheets in isometric inserting valves. I'm wanting another pipe draftsman/designer job.