How To Become A Project And Design Lead: What It Is and Career Path

What is a project and design lead and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a project and design lead. For example, did you know that they make an average of $42.94 an hour? That's $89,305 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 2% and produce 6,400 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreProject And Design LeadUS Average

Salary

7.0

Avg. Salary $89,305

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 15.90%

Black or African American 3.27%

Hispanic or Latino 8.72%

Unknown 4.56%

White 67.45%

Gender

female 22.94%

male 77.06%

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 project and design lead

Explore project and design lead education requirements

Most common project and design lead degrees

Bachelor's

70.8 %

Associate

13.0 %

Master's

11.2 %

Start to develop specific project and design lead skills

Skills	Percentages
CAD	12.16%
Construction Drawings	7.60%
Solidworks	6.49%
Design Concepts	5.47%
R	4.72%

Complete relevant project and design lead training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-2 years on post-employment, on-the-job training. New project and design leads 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 project and design lead based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real project and design lead resumes.

Research project and design lead duties and responsibilities

Deliver high-level n-tier architecture design, managing project expectations and timetables throughout all phases of development process.
Identify key areas for FPGA design improvement while isolating testing gaps in VHDL.
Request enhancements to the PLM product.
Work with composite materials, molds and SolidWorks.

Get project and design lead experience

Generally, it takes 4-6 years to become a project and design lead. The most common roles before becoming a project and design lead include designer, lead designer team lead and internship.

Prepare your project and design lead resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your project and design lead 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 project and design lead resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable project and design lead resume templates

Build a professional project and design lead 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 project and design lead resume.