SolidWorks designer salary in 2025 is not a line in any U.S. wage table. SolidWorks is a mechanical modeling program. The occupations around it are mechanical drafters and mechanical engineers. In May 2025 mechanical drafters had a median of $71,550 and a mean of $75,060. Mechanical engineers had a median of $104,110. Most designer postings that lead with SolidWorks describe a job between those two medians, and the space between them has not been surveyed on its own.
Inventor and NX belong in the same paragraph. They are the other programs machine and product teams use to build parts, assemblies, and drawings. Changing the logo on the requisition does not change the occupation code. A page that prints three different national averages for the three brands is printing three guesses.
When the SolidWorks job is drafting
Mechanical drafters prepare layouts of machinery, tools, and devices, with dimensions and fastening methods, and sometimes the molds. That is the SolidWorks job when someone else owns the design and the deliverable is a manufacturable drawing. The handbook counted about 42,100 mechanical drafters in 2025. The median hourly wage in the wage release was $34.40.
This median is above architectural and civil drafters at $66,150 and below electrical and electronics drafters at $76,870. A product company that benchmarks SolidWorks pay against architectural AutoCAD pay is using the wrong specialty. Mechanical drafter salary 2025 is the occupation page. Mechanical designer salary 2025 is what to open when the posting expects design choices and still will not call the person an engineer.
Employment of mechanical drafters is projected to decline 6 percent from 2025 to 2035. SolidWorks and tools like it are part of the reason. One person finishes more of the geometry, and engineers keep more of it. The skill stays in demand on individual requisitions while the occupation count drifts down. Those are different facts.
When the SolidWorks job is engineering
| Mechanical engineers, May 2025 median | Wage |
|---|---|
| All industries | $104,110 |
| Scientific research and development services | $132,040 |
| Computer and electronic product manufacturing | $106,870 |
| Transportation equipment manufacturing | $105,560 |
| Architectural and engineering services | $103,440 |
| Machinery manufacturing | $98,620 |
The lowest 10 percent of mechanical engineers earned less than $73,990, which is only a step above the drafter median. The highest 10 percent earned more than $164,340. A junior engineer in SolidWorks can be paid like a strong drafter. A senior engineer in a research group is in a different survey cell entirely. Machinery manufacturing is the number to remember for a plant that designs its own equipment. It is still an engineer median.
Typical education for the engineer occupation is a bachelor degree. Typical education for drafters is an associate degree. A SolidWorks designer posting that requires a bachelor of mechanical engineering has told you which row to use, whatever the title says. Design engineer salary 2025 starts from that row.
CAM is the nearby wage that is not a raise
Plenty of SolidWorks users also generate toolpaths, in SolidWorks itself or in a CAM package beside it. Computer numerically controlled tool programmers had a May 2025 median of $68,120. That is just under the mechanical drafter median. Adding CAM to a SolidWorks resume does not, in the official data, move you toward the engineer median. It moves you toward a production programming occupation that pays like drafting. CAM programmer salary 2025 keeps the two jobs separate. Someone who only models, and never posts a program, should not use the programmer wage at all.
What private averages usually do
A private SolidWorks average often lands somewhere around the gap, sometimes up near engineer pay, and then shows a narrow range. The range is narrow because the model wants a single job. Employers do not use the title that cleanly. One SolidWorks designer details sheet metal. Another owns the product architecture. Averaging them is how a middle number gets treated as a fact.
If you need a sentence for a negotiation, use two facts and a judgment. Mechanical drafters were at $71,550 in the middle. Mechanical engineers were at $104,110 in the middle. State which daily work the offer matches, and which industry cell applies if the offer is engineering. Stop there. A third number would be yours, not the survey's.
A useful test is who gets called when the part fails. If the SolidWorks designer is the person who opens the model, checks the drawing, and waits for an engineer to decide, the drafter median is the public comparison. If that same person is expected to choose the material, defend the factor of safety, and sign the calculation, the engineer median is the comparison even when the business card still says designer. Shops blur this on purpose because a designer title is easier to post than a licensed engineer requisition. The May 2025 tables do not blur it. Keeping the two medians in the same sentence is the whole point of a SolidWorks salary answer that is trying to stay honest.
Sources
- Occupational Outlook Handbook, Drafters. Mechanical drafter median and outlook.
- Occupational Outlook Handbook, Mechanical Engineers. May 2025 median, tenths, and industry medians.
- Occupational Outlook Handbook, Metal and Plastic Machine Workers. CNC programmer median.
- Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. Mechanical drafter mean.