Industrial Designer
What Does a Professional in this Career Do?
An Industrial Designer designs products for companies and creates design ideas for products that are functional and visually appealing. Creates designs for product packaging or exhibits, or contributes graphic design work for industrial design projects. Creates new product designs or works to improve existing products, including consumer or industrial products.
Job Outlook
There were 178 Industrial Designer job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 5731 in the United States.
In combination with other careers in the Industrial Designer industry, which includes the Industrial Designer career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2015:
Salary
Many new Industrial Designer jobs have salaries estimated to be in the following ranges, based on the requirements and responsibilities listed in job postings from the past year.
National
The average estimated salary in the United States for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $68,260.
State
The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $60,134.
Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Industrial Designer postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $47,878.
Education and Experience
Posted Industrial Designer jobs typically require the following level of education. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list education requirements.
| Education Level | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Associate's Degree | 7.78% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 40.9% |
| Master's Degree | 10.68% |
| Doctoral Degree | 4.21% |
| Other | 7.66% |
Posted Industrial Designer jobs typically require the following number of years of experience. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.
| Years of Experience | Percentage |
|---|---|
| 0 to 2 years | 21.73% |
| 3 to 5 years | 40.9% |
| 6 to 8 years | 10.83% |
| 9+ years | 26.54% |
Skills
Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Industrial Designer positions expect applicants to have as well as the most common skills that distinguish individuals from their peers. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is also listed.
Baseline Skills
A skill that is required across a broad range of occupations, including this one.
- Communication (50.11%)
- Sales (23.64%)
- Self-Motivation (22.16%)
- Research (20.78%)
- Prioritization (20.28%)
- Honesty (16.38%)
- Goal-Oriented (16.33%)
- Innovation (15.77%)
- Detail Oriented (15.53%)
- Leadership (15.01%)
Defining Skills
A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.
- Industrial Design (31.7%)
- Product Design (22.69%)
Necessary Skills
A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.
- Marketing (12.44%)
- Price Markdowns (19.53%)
- SolidWorks (CAD) (11.81%)
- Design Research (6.16%)
- Order Fulfillment (19.64%)
- Sketching (9.26%)
- Project Management (14.47%)
- Manufacturing Processes (7.46%)
- AutoCAD (13.97%)
- 3D Modeling (16.09%)
- Prototyping (17.56%)
- Adobe Illustrator (11.55%)
- New Product Development (23.33%)
- Product Knowledge (20.87%)
- Construction (16.18%)
- Merchandising (22.49%)
- Selling Techniques (20.16%)
- User Experience (UX) (7.79%)
- Adobe Photoshop (12.95%)
- Computer-Aided Design (22.17%)
- Design Thinking (5.06%)
Distinguishing Skills
A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.
- Luxion KeyShot (8.54%)
Salary Boosting Skills
A professional who wishes to excel in this career path may consider developing the following highly valued skills. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is listed.
- Luxion KeyShot (100%)
Alternative Job Titles
Sometimes employers post jobs with Industrial Designer skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:
- Industrial Design Intern
- BIM Modeler
- Design Researcher
- Design-Build Project Manager
- Mechanical Piping Designer
- Product Design Lead
- Lighting Designer
- Product Development Assistant
- Designer
Similar Occupations
If you are interested in exploring occupations with similar skills, you may want to research the following job titles. Note that we only list occupations that have at least one corresponding NC State Online and Distance Education program.
- Product Design Engineer
- Product Designer
- Manufacturing Process Engineer
- Product Development Engineer
- Mechanical Product Design Engineer
Common Employers
Here are the employers that have posted the most Industrial Designer jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.
United States
- Nordstrom (901)
- CDM Smith (411)
- Sterling Engineering (175)
- Ford (152)
- Plastipak (77)
- Meta (49)
- Zurich Insurance (40)
- GPAC (26)
- Windstream (26)
- Tacala (24)
North Carolina
- CDM Smith (14)
- Nordstrom (12)
- North Carolina State University (11)
- Actalent (6)
- Collabera (5)
- Lowe's (4)
- Appalachian State University (4)
- Stefanini (4)
- Ford (3)
- Lenovo (3)
NC State Programs Relevant to this Career
If you are interested in preparing for a career in this field, the following NC State Online and Distance Education programs offer a great place to start!
All wages, job posting statistics, employment trend projections, and information about skill desirability on this page represents historical data and does not guarantee future conditions. Data is provided by and downloaded regularly from Lightcast. For more information about how Lightcast gathers data and what it represents, see Lightcast Data: Basic Overview on Lightcast's Knowledge Base website.