How To Become A Senior Tooling Engineer: What It Is and Career Path

What is a senior tooling engineer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

A senior tooling engineer specializes in designing, developing, and maintaining tools and machinery for manufacturing operations. The role involves analyzing requirements, creating design concepts, and overseeing the fabrication process for tooling components. Senior tooling engineers also troubleshoot issues and provide technical support to production teams. They are responsible for ensuring that tools are reliable, safe, and compliant with regulations. This role requires a strong technical background, problem-solving skills, and experience with CAD/CAM software.

ScoreSenior Tooling EngineerUS Average

Salary

8.1

Avg. Salary $119,629

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.5

Growth rate 10%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.8

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.17%

Asian 9.64%

Black or African American 4.95%

Hispanic or Latino 12.18%

Unknown 3.98%

White 69.08%

Gender

female 1.53%

male 98.47%

Age - 41

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 - 41

Stress level

7.5

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.3

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

5.1

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

What are the pros and cons of being a senior tooling engineer?

Pros

Opportunity to work on complex and challenging projects
Chance to mentor and lead a team of engineers
Opportunities for career advancement and growth within the company
Satisfaction of seeing a project through from conception to completion
Ability to work independently and with autonomy

Cons

Long hours and high pressure situations
High stress levels due to importance of projects
Possible exposure to hazardous materials or environments
The potential for conflict or disagreement with colleagues or management
Potential for limited job opportunities outside of the company or industry.

Key steps to become a senior tooling engineer

Explore senior tooling engineer education requirements

Most common senior tooling engineer degrees

Bachelor's

55.4 %

Associate

19.7 %

Master's

12.1 %

Start to develop specific senior tooling engineer skills

Skills	Percentages
Solidworks	11.09%
CAD	9.99%
Debugging	6.23%
Java	5.66%
Project Management	5.64%

Complete relevant senior tooling engineer training and internships

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

Research senior tooling engineer duties and responsibilities

Manage multiple crews for installation, implementation and service of RF and telecommunications systems throughout Florida.
Install Jenkins and perform troubleshooting during installation to implement the CI process for the java application builds.
Design composite bond jigs, and master models for various aircraft structures.
Direct all initiatives relate to CNC department and overhaul the entire CNC part manufacturing process.

Get senior tooling engineer experience

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

Prepare your senior tooling engineer resume

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

Choose from 10+ customizable senior tooling engineer resume templates

Build a professional senior tooling engineer 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 senior tooling engineer resume.

Apply for senior tooling engineer jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a senior tooling engineer 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 senior tooling engineers rate their job?

-/5

5 stars

4 stars

3 stars

2 stars

1 star

Senior tooling engineer reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on May 2020

Pros

The diversity of tasks, interaction with all stakeholders, continuous learning process, communication. Allows great progression in many technical skills

Cons

Stakeholders missing deadlines

A zippia user wrote a review on Aug 2019