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Engineering | Mechanical Design Engineer

Mechanical Design Engineer

What Does a Professional in this Career Do?

A Mechanical Design Engineer designs and develops mechanical tools as part of the product development cycle.

Job Outlook

There were 398 Mechanical Design Engineer job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 14295 in the United States.

In combination with other careers in the Mechanical Engineer industry, which includes the Mechanical Design Engineer career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2015:

Salary

Many new Mechanical Design Engineer 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 $100,935.

State

The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $94,355.

Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Mechanical Design Engineer postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $77,972.

Education and Experience

Posted Mechanical Design Engineer 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 LevelPercentage
Associate's Degree0%
Bachelor's Degree62.81%
Master's Degree19.07%
Doctoral Degree5.34%
Other4.05%

Posted Mechanical Design Engineer 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 ExperiencePercentage
0 to 2 years20.97%
3 to 5 years51.12%
6 to 8 years13.55%
9+ years14.37%

Skills

Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Mechanical Design Engineer 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 (31.92%)
  • Problem Solving (21%)
  • Innovation (13.8%)
  • Management (12.88%)
  • Writing (12.8%)
  • Leadership (12.26%)
  • Detail Oriented (12.05%)
  • Microsoft Office (11.64%)
  • Research (10.88%)
  • Operations (10.7%)

Defining Skills

A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.

  • Mechanical Design (59.34%)
  • Computer-Aided Design (30.57%)
  • AutoCAD (25.78%)
  • 3D Modeling (23.55%)
  • SolidWorks (CAD) (27.93%)
  • Mechanical Engineering (45.07%)

Necessary Skills

A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.

  • Bill Of Materials (11.19%)
  • Electrical Engineering (9.87%)
  • Automation (9.46%)
  • Autodesk Revit (11.33%)
  • Welding (5.32%)
  • Construction (7.99%)
  • Fabrication (8.63%)
  • Engineering Design Process (14.89%)
  • Engineering Drawings (7.54%)
  • HVAC (8.32%)
  • Mechanical Systems (12.88%)
  • Sheet Metal (9.34%)
  • Machinery (4.08%)
  • Project Management (22.78%)
  • Machining (10.52%)
  • Manufacturing Processes (11.99%)
  • New Product Development (14.35%)
  • Prototyping (8.3%)
  • Product Design (7.96%)
  • Tooling (14.61%)
  • PTC Creo (CAD Suite) (10.38%)

Distinguishing Skills

A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.

  • Tooling Design (5.93%)
  • Autodesk Inventor (3.94%)
  • PTC Creo Parametric (4.83%)
  • Product Data Management (5.49%)
  • Machinery Design (5.63%)
  • Tolerance Analysis (6.65%)
  • Solid Edge (0.99%)

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.

  • Mechanical Design (87.11%)
  • Static Timing Analysis (4.57%)
  • Tolerance Analysis (9.76%)
  • Physical Design (12.51%)

Alternative Job Titles

Sometimes employers post jobs with Mechanical Design Engineer skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:

  • Mechanical Designer
  • Tooling Engineer
  • Physical Design Engineer
  • Lead Mechanical Design Engineer
  • Staff Mechanical Design Engineer
  • Mechanical Engineer/Designer
  • Principal Mechanical Engineer
  • Design Engineer
  • Technical 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.

Common Employers

Here are the employers that have posted the most Mechanical Design Engineer jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.

United States

  • Actalent (1239)
  • GE Aerospace (318)
  • Intel (317)
  • Jobot (271)
  • Apple (218)
  • Honeywell International (213)
  • Raytheon Technologies (190)
  • Tesla (189)
  • Blue Origin (168)
  • Volt (165)

North Carolina

  • Actalent (51)
  • Raytheon Technologies (38)
  • Siemens (24)
  • GE Aerospace (14)
  • Siemens Energy (8)
  • Jobot (8)
  • Arinc International Of Canada Ulc (7)
  • Insight Global (7)
  • eXp (7)
  • Randstad (6)

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!