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

What is a senior mechanical designer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Marco Schoen Ph.D.

Senior mechanical designers are responsible for generating mechanical designs for their organization or firm and developing mechanical concepts that follow the project requirements. As a senior mechanical designer, you are to assist the engineering manager in training and instructing other mechanical engineers to develop design skills. In addition, you have to ensure design material is correct and cost-effective tooling procedures. You are also to ensure that there's adherence to regulations and guidelines. Designing systems for diverse commercial buildings and medical treatment areas is also one of your responsibilities.

To become a senior mechanical designer, there are several education requirements. You must have at least a bachelor's degree in either mechanical engineering, mechanical engineering technology, drafting and design, or other related fields. This job is a very lucrative one as you should earn an average of $99,127 annually. That's a whopping sum of $47.66 per hour.

What general advice would you give to a senior mechanical designer?

Marco Schoen Ph.D.

Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Director of the Measurement and Control Engineering Research Center (MCERC), Idaho State University

Stay current. Engineering evolves continuously; new tools, new technologies, and new areas where engineers can contribute, learn, and work. When graduating, students have the feeling they are set for their careers. However, this is not true; they might be set to start their careers. To be consistently successful in their pages, they need to stay informed and updated.

ScoreSenior Mechanical DesignerUS Average

Salary

7.7

Avg. Salary $103,765

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 11.37%

Black or African American 3.39%

Hispanic or Latino 9.26%

Unknown 4.59%

White 71.28%

Gender

female 5.90%

male 94.10%

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 senior mechanical designer

Explore senior mechanical designer education requirements

Most common senior mechanical designer degrees

Bachelor's

48.2 %

Associate

35.7 %

Master's

8.4 %

Start to develop specific senior mechanical designer skills

Skills	Percentages
CAD	11.88%
Mechanical Design	10.65%
GD	4.85%
Creo	4.65%
Autocad	4.34%

Complete relevant senior mechanical designer training and internships

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

Research senior mechanical designer duties and responsibilities

Lead FPGA development of key digital communication component used in successful demonstration of spacecraft radio link.
Create and modify very large assemblies in Creo which are used to create drawings for top level spacecraft assemblies.
Generate fabrication and assembly drawings for fabrication of commercial/Industrial water heaters and boilers base on ISO 9000 and AWA standards.
Perform complex interference fit checks, motion studies, and tolerance stack-up analysis on large assemblies using Pro/E - Creo software.

Get senior mechanical designer experience

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

Prepare your senior mechanical designer resume

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

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