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Senior architectural designer vs draftsman/designer

The differences between senior architectural designers and draftsman/designers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 6-12 months to become both a senior architectural designer and a draftsman/designer. Additionally, a senior architectural designer has an average salary of $74,891, which is higher than the $52,529 average annual salary of a draftsman/designer.

The top three skills for a senior architectural designer include revit, autocad and design concepts. The most important skills for a draftsman/designer are design layouts, solidworks, and shop drawings.

Senior architectural designer vs draftsman/designer overview

Senior Architectural DesignerDraftsman/Designer
Yearly salary$74,891$52,529
Hourly rate$36.01$25.25
Growth rate-3%-3%
Number of jobs53,72447,341
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 60%Associate Degree, 51%
Average age4545
Years of experience1212

Senior architectural designer vs draftsman/designer salary

Senior architectural designers and draftsman/designers have different pay scales, as shown below.

Senior Architectural DesignerDraftsman/Designer
Average salary$74,891$52,529
Salary rangeBetween $55,000 And $101,000Between $30,000 And $89,000
Highest paying CitySan Francisco, CAWashington, DC
Highest paying stateNew JerseyNew Jersey
Best paying companyWestern DigitalTalentBurst
Best paying industryMediaTechnology

Differences between senior architectural designer and draftsman/designer education

There are a few differences between a senior architectural designer and a draftsman/designer in terms of educational background:

Senior Architectural DesignerDraftsman/Designer
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 60%Associate Degree, 51%
Most common majorArchitectureDrafting And Design
Most common collegeCarnegie Mellon UniversityCarnegie Mellon University

Senior architectural designer vs draftsman/designer demographics

Here are the differences between senior architectural designers' and draftsman/designers' demographics:

Senior Architectural DesignerDraftsman/Designer
Average age4545
Gender ratioMale, 73.9% Female, 26.1%Male, 92.2% Female, 7.8%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 3.1% Unknown, 5.2% Hispanic or Latino, 11.7% Asian, 7.0% White, 72.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%Black or African American, 3.1% Unknown, 5.2% Hispanic or Latino, 11.7% Asian, 7.0% White, 72.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%
LGBT Percentage6%6%

Differences between senior architectural designer and draftsman/designer duties and responsibilities

Senior architectural designer example responsibilities.

  • Lead the development of BIM modeling content for the architecture team as a direct report to the executive and lead architects.
  • Provide leadership and training to REVIT BIM team.
  • Create full construction set for permitting including electrical layout and HVAC (coordination with MEP and structural engineers).
  • Produce project renderings and animations in Revit for marketing purposes.
  • Design light fixtures to customer and principal specifications, utilizing sheet metal and aluminum extrusion methods using SolidWorks.
  • Design, develop and prepare documents for commercial/corporate building projects, condominiums, educational and recreational facilities.

Draftsman/designer example responsibilities.

  • Manage and supervise other draftsmen.
  • Assist with structural steel detailing, machine design, CNC graphics and ceramics machine design projects.
  • Detail preliminary design drawings to create BOM's, production use shop layouts, and specific details.
  • Travele to various work sites to dimension and sketch details of the projects.
  • Develop and maintain current Revit templates for consistency and overall visual quality of projects.
  • Design and draft building components from red lines create by MEP engineers with revit software.
  • Show more

Senior architectural designer vs draftsman/designer skills

Common senior architectural designer skills
  • Revit, 24%
  • Autocad, 15%
  • Design Concepts, 9%
  • BIM, 6%
  • Design Development, 6%
  • Visualization, 6%
Common draftsman/designer skills
  • Design Layouts, 16%
  • Solidworks, 10%
  • Shop Drawings, 5%
  • R, 4%
  • HVAC, 4%
  • Customer Specifications, 3%

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