CAD Designer

Job Title: Mechanical Designer

Industry: Manufacturing

Location: Wilmington, NC

Shift: Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm, onsite. Occasional overtime of 10 to 20 hours per week during peak project periods

Client Overview

A global materials science manufacturer with a large optical fiber and cable operation in southeastern North Carolina. This role sits inside the product development group, supporting the design of the production equipment that actually builds the product. You would be working alongside a small engineering team on real equipment going into live manufacturing lines.

Top 3 Skills

• Mechanical CAD design and drafting for production equipment, including 3D modeling and 2D detailing
• Building and maintaining drawing packages, build packages, machine part lists, and equipment specifications
• Interpreting electrical schematics and translating engineering solutions into equipment design requirements
  
  

What You'll Do

• Create mechanical equipment designs and layouts in CAD, following the client's internal machine drafting standards
• Produce and maintain detailed drawing packages, build packages, machine part lists, illustrations, and equipment specifications
• Redesign mechanical components to cut installation costs, clear equipment interferences, and correct design deficiencies
• Execute design changes that resolve equipment or process problems while keeping functional and performance requirements intact
• Provide detailed sketches and marked up drawings as project needs shift
• Coordinate across departments to keep designs on schedule
• Travel occasionally to vendor sites to gather equipment information, and to manufacturing sites within North Carolina
  
  

What We Need From You

• AAS in Mechanical Engineering Technology, or a BS in Mechanical Engineering Technology or Mechanical Engineering
• 3 to 5 years of professional mechanical design experience, ideally in an industrial or manufacturing setting
• Working proficiency in mechanical CAD software for both modeling and detailing
• Ability to read electrical schematics and convert them into equipment design requirements
• Familiarity with manufacturing processes such as machining and fabrication, so designs are practical to build
  
  

Preferred / Bonus

• AutoCAD and Autodesk Inventor specifically
• Experience designing equipment for a plant environment rather than consumer or product design
• Hands on use of precision measurement tools such as calipers and micrometers
• Bachelor's degree where the minimum is an associate's
• Prior experience working directly with fabrication or machine shop vendors
  
  

Buzzwords

CAD, drafting, drafter, draftsman, design, designer, detailing, detailer, modeling, drawings, blueprints, layouts, schematics, specifications, mechanical, packages, parts

Top 3 LinkedIn Job Titles

• Mechanical Designer
• CAD Designer
• Mechanical Drafter
  
  

Internal Market Recap

Pay Positioning

• $23.57/hr sits in the lower third of the Wilmington market for this role. Cached market research on file for this exact location (2026-08-12) puts CAD and mechanical drafting technician roles at roughly $22 to $32/hr, with a directly comparable posting at $22.96 to $32.14/hr. That range was benchmarked against a revision only drafting role. This req asks for 3 to 5 years, original design work, schematic interpretation, and 25% travel, all of which should price above that midpoint, not below it.
• Magnit's own stated range on the posting is $20.51 to $37.36/hr, so $23.57 lands near the bottom of the client's own published band.
• Rate discrepancy to resolve before submitting: the Fieldglass rate grid shows ST Pay Rate 56.41 and Bill Rate 56.41 at 0.000% markup. That is a stale template rate, not a real number. The req description itself states Max Bill Rate $33.57. Confirm with Daniela Hernandez (coordinator) that $33.57 is the live bill rate and that $23.57 is the approved candidate facing ceiling before anything goes out.
• If you struggle to find qualified people at this rate, here is what to consider loosening, least essential first: drop the precision measurement tool experience entirely, since it is already Desired and is trivially learnable; move the machining and fabrication familiarity requirement from What We Need From You to Preferred, since a strong CAD designer picks that up on the job; soften the 3 to 5 year floor to 2 plus years with a strong portfolio; accept a Mechanical Engineering Technology certificate plus demonstrated design work in place of the AAS. Last resort only, and only one of them: the electrical schematic interpretation bullet in Top 3 Skills. Keep the CAD proficiency bullet untouched no matter what, since that is the whole job.
  
  

Competitive Landscape

• GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy (Wilmington)
• GE Aerospace (Wilmington)
• INVISTA, Cape Fear site
• Duke Energy, Brunswick Nuclear Plant (Southport)
• Alcami Corporation
• Thermo Fisher Scientific / PPD (Wilmington)
• Interroll (conveyor and material handling equipment manufacturer)
• McKim & Creed
• Colliers Engineering & Design
• Corning's own optical fiber and cable sites elsewhere in NC (Hickory, Newton, Concord)
• National peers a candidate might also be weighing: CommScope, Prysmian, Amphenol
  
  

Selling Points & Watch-Outs

• Real design ownership, not just cleanup. You originate equipment designs and layouts rather than revising someone else's drawings, which is a genuine step up from most contract drafting work in this market.
• Stable, well known global manufacturer with multiple NC sites, so there is a visible path if the assignment goes well. Corning runs a lot of contingent labor through this program.
• Rate is the friction point. At $23.57 this is priced like a drafting technician role while asking for designer level scope. Expect pushback from anyone currently at $28 plus, and screen for that early rather than late.
• The 25% travel is real and mostly in state, to fiber and cable plants. Not a dealbreaker for most, but confirm it up front so nobody accepts and then balks.
• Overtime of 10 to 20 hours a week during peak periods is stated in the req, not implied. For an hourly contractor that is upside on the paycheck, so lead with it when the base rate lands flat.
• Onsite five days a week in Wilmington. Wilmington is its own isolated coastal market with no other metro inside an hour, so the pool is local or relocating, not commutable from Raleigh or Charlotte.
  
  

Candidate Profile

Someone with 3 to 5 years in mechanical design or drafting, most likely currently sitting at a local manufacturer, an engineering services firm, or a machine builder. Two year Mechanical Engineering Technology degree is the common path here, not a four year ME. They live in AutoCAD and Inventor daily, are comfortable on a plant floor rather than only at a desk, and can read an electrical schematic well enough to design around it. Realistically this catches people who are underpaid at a small local shop, contractors between assignments, or a strong drafting technician ready to move into design work.

Sourcing Channels

• LinkedIn Recruiter using the string below, scoped to the lean Wilmington coverage list first, then broad
• Target GE Vernova Hitachi and GE Aerospace directly. Both are large Wilmington engineering employers with exactly this skill set and a lot of contract turnover
• Local engineering services firms (McKim & Creed, Colliers) for people wanting to move from services into manufacturing
• Cape Fear Community College Mechanical Engineering Technology alumni network, which is the local feeder program for this exact title
• Indeed and Dice for active seekers, but expect the passive LinkedIn pool to be stronger at this rate given the local pay spread
• Prior Corning Wilmington submittals in Ceipal from the CAD Technician req (CRNGJP00029998) in August, since that pool is the same skill set and already screened for this site
  
  

LinkedIn Location Coverage

Cached and used as is from the Client Locations record for Wilmington, NC (recHyifjSFFAU7E4v), last verified 2026-08-12. No re-research run per Step 6.

Wilmington has no other major NC metro within 60 minutes. Raleigh is roughly 2 hours, Charlotte 3.5 to 4.25 hours, and Myrtle Beach about 1.5 hours, all outside the window. It functions as its own standalone coastal metro anchor, so coverage is built from the surrounding Brunswick, Pender, New Hanover, and Onslow county towns rather than from a neighboring metro.

Location Type Est. drive time from Wilmington, NC LinkedIn recognition confidence Wilmington, NC Metro Area 0 min (anchor) High Leland, NC Suburb ~10-15 min High Wrightsville Beach, NC Suburb ~20-25 min Medium Carolina Beach, NC Suburb ~25-30 min Medium Hampstead, NC Suburb ~30-35 min Medium Southport, NC City ~35-40 min Medium Burgaw, NC City ~35-40 min Medium Oak Island, NC Suburb ~40-45 min Medium Shallotte, NC City ~50-55 min Medium Jacksonville, NC Metro Area ~60-70 min (borderline) High

Best metro area option

• Wilmington, NC
  
  

Best city/suburb options

• Leland, NC
• Jacksonville, NC
  
  

Broad LinkedIn location coverage list

• Wilmington, NC
• Leland, NC
• Wrightsville Beach, NC
• Carolina Beach, NC
• Hampstead, NC
• Southport, NC
• Oak Island, NC
• Burgaw, NC
• Jacksonville, NC
• Shallotte, NC
  
  

Lean LinkedIn location coverage list

• Wilmington, NC
• Leland, NC
• Jacksonville, NC
  
  

Boolean Search String

(CAD OR drafting OR drafter) AND (modeling OR model OR detailing OR detailer OR drawings OR drawing OR blueprints OR schematic OR schematics OR layout OR layouts OR "part list" OR "parts list" OR BOM OR specifications) AND (mechanical OR equipment OR machine OR machinery OR manufacturing OR industrial OR fabrication OR machining OR tooling OR weldment OR assembly OR assemblies)