Career Explorer Engineering and architecture
Changing shape
Mechanical drafters
Prepare detailed working diagrams of machinery and mechanical devices, including dimensions, fastening methods, and other engineering information.
Among the careers AI is changing fastest: more resilient than 10% of the 831 careers we score. AI exposure is moderate (the Bureau of Labor Statistics rates it high), and US jobs are projected to change by -6.0% by 2035, expected to shrink. The work leans on creative vision.
AI can do many of the tasks, and hiring is expected to grow slower than average or to shrink. The job is likely to change, so build the human parts of it.
- Median pay (2025)
- $71,550
- Job growth to 2035
- -6.0%
- Openings a year
- 2,900
- People doing it (2025)
- 42,100
- Usual route in
- Associate's degree
Where people already use AI for this work
- Create visual designs or displays
- Evaluate designs, specifications, or other technical data
- Evaluate the quality or accuracy of data
From Microsoft Research, Working with AI (2025).
Work AI rarely helps with
- Design electrical or electronic systems or equipment
- Supervise personnel activities
What the work looks like
- Produce three-dimensional models, using computer-aided design (CAD) software.
- Develop detailed design drawings and specifications for mechanical equipment, dies, tools, and controls, using computer-assisted drafting (CAD) equipment.
- Check dimensions of materials to be used and assign numbers to the materials.
- Design scale or full-size blueprints of specialty items, such as furniture and automobile body or chassis components.
- Lay out and draw schematic, orthographic, or angle views to depict functional relationships of components, assemblies, systems, and machines.
From O*NET 31.0, US Department of Labor.
What the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects
- Fewer of these jobs, as software makes design processes more efficient and allows drafters to produce designs for rapid prototype development.
Careers using similar strengths, with a stronger outlook
- Lighting techniciansHuman edge, steady, Index 13, -4.8%
- Civil engineering technologists and techniciansChanging shape, Index 17, +3.2%
- Cartographers and photogrammetristsGrows with AI, Index 32, +7.4%
- Life, physical, and social science technicians, all otherGrows with AI, Index 37, +4.4%
Also known as: Design Drafter, Die Designer, Drafter, Mechanical Designer, CAD Designer (Computer Aided Design Designer), CAD Operator (Computer Aided Design Operator), CAM Specialist (Computer Aided Manufacturing Specialist), Drafting Technician (Drafting Tech).
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Sources: US Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections 2025 to 2035; O*NET 31.0; Microsoft Research (2025); Anthropic Economic Index (2026); Eloundou and colleagues (Science, 2024); Felten, Raj and Seamans (2023). How we score. Updated 12 October 2026.