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

What is a senior structural designer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

This job involves designing structures like bridges, dams, parks, ships, buildings, tunnels, telecommunications structures, marine construction, wastewater treatment facilities, and other similar buildings. People working as senior structural designers often have to design, review documents, and analyze structural designs. Also, as a person working in this capacity, you will manage, review and coordinate projects while developing and supervising the construction of new buildings. You will work together with engineers and architects to create sketches and designs and create budget estimates for the designed structures.

You can apply for this job if all you have is a high school degree or college degree. However, a good senior structural designer must have problem-solving skills and writing skills for documentation. Senior structure designers are knowledgeable and vast in math skills and in the analysis of various structure plans. Your pay will be about $65 an hour, which makes about $134,424 per year.

ScoreSenior Structural DesignerUS Average

Salary

7.5

Avg. Salary $96,422

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

5.4

Growth rate 6%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

7.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.30%

Asian 10.86%

Black or African American 4.24%

Hispanic or Latino 11.38%

Unknown 4.47%

White 68.75%

Gender

female 7.66%

male 92.34%

Age - 43

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 - 43

Stress level

5.4

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.0

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

5.7

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a senior structural designer

Explore senior structural designer education requirements

Most common senior structural designer degrees

Associate

48.0 %

Bachelor's

36.1 %

Diploma

4.6 %

Start to develop specific senior structural designer skills

Skills	Percentages
Autocad	16.92%
Revit	8.27%
Structural Design	8.05%
Navisworks	4.81%
BIM	4.52%

Complete relevant senior structural designer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New senior structural 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 structural designer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real senior structural designer resumes.

Research senior structural designer duties and responsibilities

Manage BIM process on specific projects and team members throughout preconstruction and construction.
Review and coordinate 3D projects with NavisWorks.
Utilize CADWorx to create 3D models and 2D constructions drawings.
Perform detailed field surveys inside plant, refinery and offshore facilities.

Get senior structural designer experience

Generally, it takes 2-4 years to become a senior structural designer. The most common roles before becoming a senior structural designer include structural designer, senior designer team lead and draftsman.

Prepare your senior structural designer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your senior structural designer resume.

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