CAD Designer Salary, Skills & Requirements (2026)
Advertised pay, starting pay, skills and experience from 3,380 US job postings by 1,334 employers. Data as of October 2026.
What US employers post for CAD designers: advertised pay, the skills and experience they ask for, and the job titles they use, from 3,380 open job postings (October 2026).
- The median advertised pay for CAD designers in US job postings is $84,000 a year (691 postings from 319 employers, October 2026).
- The middle half of those postings offer $68,000 to $102,000.
- The skills that most set CAD designer postings apart are autocad, revit, navisworks.
- Postings that state a minimum ask for a median of 3 years of experience.
CAD Designer job postings in the US, October 2026
- $84,000
- Median advertised pay (691 postings)
- $68,000–$102,000
- Middle 50% of postings
- 3,380
- US job postings from 1,334 employers
- 3 years
- Median experience asked
How much does a CAD designer make?
The median advertised pay is $84,000 a year, from 691 US job postings by 319 employers that state pay. One in ten postings offers $126,000 or more.
Advertised pay in 691 US CAD designer job postings: median $84,000 a year, middle half $68,000 to $102,000.
- Median: $84,000
- 25th percentile: $68,000
- 75th percentile: $102,000
The figures as a table
| Annual pay | Share of postings |
|---|---|
| $30K–$40K | 0.6% |
| $40K–$50K | 3.6% |
| $50K–$60K | 9.2% |
| $60K–$70K | 14.3% |
| $70K–$80K | 14.7% |
| $80K–$90K | 16.1% |
| $90K–$100K | 10.8% |
| $100K–$110K | 11.8% |
| $110K–$120K | 6.4% |
| $120K–$130K | 3.9% |
| $130K–$140K | 3.1% |
| $140K–$150K | 2.5% |
| $150K–$160K | 0.9% |
| $160K–$170K | 1.3% |
Midpoint of each posting's pay range, hourly pay × 2,080 hours; at most 20 postings per employer; US, October 2026.
| Median | Middle 50% | Postings | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Postings that state an annual salary | $90,000 | $75K–$109K | 458 |
| All pay postings, annualised | $84,000 | $68K–$102K | 691 |
What is the starting salary for a CAD designer?
Figure withheld: fewer than 250 US postings list pay. How we decide.
CAD designer levels and pay
Levels as they appear in job titles, ordered by the median experience asked.
| Level in title | Share of postings | Median experience asked | Median pay |
|---|---|---|---|
| No level in title | 88.4% | 3 years | $83,000 |
| Senior | 7.5% | 5 years | – |
Highest-paying CAD designer jobs
Specializations with at least 250 postings that state pay.
| Specialization | Median pay | Postings with pay | Employers |
|---|---|---|---|
| CAD Designer | $71,000 | 309 | 202 |
Skills employers ask for in CAD designer job postings
| Skill | Share of postings |
|---|---|
| Communication | 45% |
| Autocad | 44% |
| Revit | 27% |
| Attention to detail | 27% |
| Problem-solving | 19% |
| Excel | 19% |
| Microsoft Office | 17% |
| Organizational skills | 17% |
| Navisworks | 15% |
| Word | 12% |
Skills named in the posting text; at most 20 postings per employer; US, October 2026. Methodology.
Skills that set CAD designers apart
- Autocad44.8× as often as in all postings · 44%
- Revit66.8× as often as in all postings · 27%
- Navisworks205.8× as often as in all postings · 15%
- Bim98.9× as often as in all postings · 6%
- Civil 3d52.5× as often as in all postings · 6%
- Bluebeam24.4× as often as in all postings · 8%
- Cad software40.1× as often as in all postings · 6%
- Solidworks20.6× as often as in all postings · 7%
- Microstation38.8× as often as in all postings · 6%
Skills named in at least 5% of these postings and at least 3 times as often as in job postings overall.
Have a CAD designer job posting in front of you? See which of its skills your resume is missing.
What does a CAD designer do?
Employers post these jobs as Drafter, CAD Designer, CAD Technician, CAD Drafter, BIM Coordinator and other titles. The largest specializations are CAD Designer (48%), BIM Coordinator (17%), Piping Designer (8%), Civil Designer (9%), VDC Manager (8%), Revit Technician (under 1%).
The closest official occupation is Architectural and Civil Drafters (17-3011.00). Its most important tasks:
- Produce drawings, using computer-assisted drafting systems (CAD) or drafting machines, or by hand, using compasses, dividers, protractors, triangles, and other drafting devices.
- Analyze building codes, by-laws, space and site requirements, and other technical documents and reports to determine their effect on architectural designs.
- Draw rough and detailed scale plans for foundations, buildings, and structures, based on preliminary concepts, sketches, engineering calculations, specification sheets, and other data.
- Coordinate structural, electrical, and mechanical designs and determine a method of presentation to graphically represent building plans.
- Explain drawings to production or construction teams and provide adjustments as necessary.
Source: O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (CC BY 4.0).
How much experience do you need to be a CAD designer?
Among 1,850 postings that state a minimum, the median is 3 years. 3% say 0 years and 16% ask for 1 year or less.
Minimum experience asked in 1,850 US CAD designer job postings: median 3 years, and 16% ask for 1 year or less.
The figures as a table
| Minimum experience asked | Share of postings |
|---|---|
| 0 yr | 4% |
| 1 yr | 12% |
| 2 yrs | 26% |
| 3-4 yrs | 24% |
| 5-7 yrs | 23% |
| 8-9 yrs | 3% |
| 10+ yrs | 7% |
Postings that state a minimum (required or preferred); at most 20 postings per employer; US, October 2026.
We do not show a degree figure: in our checks, degree requirements in posting text were found too rarely to publish one. Why.
Full-time 98%, Part-time 2% of the 320 postings that state working hours.
Other names for a CAD designer: job titles employers use
| Job title | Employers using it |
|---|---|
| Drafter | 174 (13.0%) |
| CAD Designer | 126 (9.4%) |
| CAD Technician | 109 (8.2%) |
| CAD Drafter | 76 (5.7%) |
| BIM Coordinator | 69 (5.2%) |
| Civil Designer | 54 (4.0%) |
| BIM Manager | 50 (3.8%) |
| Design Technician | 44 (3.3%) |
| VDC Manager | 40 (3.0%) |
| Draftsman | 38 (2.9%) |
| Piping Designer | 36 (2.7%) |
| Design Drafter | 36 (2.7%) |
| Plumbing Designer | 35 (2.6%) |
| BIM Technician | 34 (2.5%) |
| VDC Engineer | 30 (2.2%) |
| CAD Operator | 26 (1.9%) |
| CAD Manager | 23 (1.7%) |
| BIM Specialist | 22 (1.7%) |
| Mechanical Drafter | 22 (1.7%) |
| BIM Modeler | 22 (1.7%) |
Titles read in our audit and used by at least 3 employers.
CAD designer job titles compared
The titles people search for most, from the US job postings that use each exact title (October 2026).
| Job title | Open postings | Employers | Median pay | Median experience | Skills named most |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drafter | 273 | 174 | – | – | autocad, communication, attention to detail |
| CAD Technician | 160 | 109 | – | – | autocad, communication, attention to detail |
| BIM Coordinator | 104 | 69 | – | – | – |
CAD Designer compared with similar careers
| Career | Median pay | Median experience | Postings | Shares N of top 25 skills |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CAD Designer | $84K | 3 years | 3,380 | – |
| Architect | $110K | 6 years | 1,804 | 14 |
| Structural Engineer | $115K | 5 years | 3,900 | 19 |
| Civil Engineer | $105K | 5 years | 11,987 | 18 |
| Interior Designer | $80K | 3 years | 3,409 | 15 |
Similar careers
| Career | Shares N of the top 25 skills | Median pay |
|---|---|---|
| Architect | 14 | $110K |
| Structural Engineer | 19 | $115K |
| Civil Engineer | 18 | $105K |
| Interior Designer | 15 | $80K |
| Mechanical Engineer | 16 | $122K |
| Landscape Architect | 13 | – |
Applying for CAD designer jobs?
- CAD designer resume examples: one-page examples for these roles
- Match your resume to a job: paste a posting and see the skills your resume is missing
- Check your resume: see how an applicant tracking system reads it
- Find CAD designer jobs: search open postings
Frequently asked questions
How much does a CAD designer make?
Source and method
Open US job postings collected from employers' applicant tracking systems, de-duplicated, counted only when their job title was read in our audit. Shares count at most 20 postings per employer, and franchise locations of one brand count as one employer. Pay uses hourly and annual figures only; a figure is shown when leaving out the largest employer moves it by 10% or less. Every figure states its number of postings. Methodology and measured accuracy.
Accuracy check: we read 18 randomly chosen postings counted on this page in full; 18 of them were this career or a closely related one (October 2026).
Download the figures on this page (CSV): every number above with its count of postings. Aggregate figures are licensed CC BY 4.0; cite the page when you reuse them.