CAD jobs in 2026 — demand, top roles hiring, and related skills
As of 2026-09-28, CAD appears in 502 job postings indexed by Skillenai over the past 90 days — Architect has the most postings mentioning CAD, with demand down 13% vs the prior 4 weeks.
Last updated · 90d ending 2026-09-28
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Frequently asked questions about CAD
+Is CAD in demand in 2026?
Yes. CAD appears in 502 job postings indexed by Skillenai over the 90 days ending 2026-09-28, with demand down 13% vs the prior 4 weeks. Architect accounts for the most postings mentioning CAD (5.0% of all postings mentioning CAD).
+What jobs require CAD?
According to the Skillenai jobs index over the 90 days ending 2026-09-28, among roles with at least 20 postings, the highest shares mentioning CAD are Mechanical Engineer (61.5% of that role’s postings mention CAD), Propulsion Engineer (42.9% of that role’s postings mention CAD), Industrial Engineer (19.0% of that role’s postings mention CAD).
+What skills are commonly paired with CAD?
Across job postings indexed by Skillenai (90 days ending 2026-09-28), CAD most often appears alongside Python, SolidWorks, PLM, MATLAB, NX.
+Where is CAD most in demand?
As of 2026-09-28, the metro areas posting the most jobs requiring CAD are Costa Mesa, Long Beach, San Francisco, New York City, Hawthorne, according to the Skillenai jobs index.
+How can I keep up with new CAD content and jobs?
Skillenai indexes news, blog posts, and research papers mentioning CAD alongside the jobs index. You can subscribe to a daily email digest of new CAD content from your Skillenai account.
Weekly job postings requiring CAD — last 90 days
Salary distribution
Box = 25th–75th percentile · tick = median · whisker = 10th–90th · USD, annualized
Roles most likely to require CAD
Among roles with at least 20 postings in the same period.
| Role | Postings mentioning skill | % of role postings mentioning skill |
|---|---|---|
| Mechanical Engineer | 24 | 61.5% |
| Propulsion Engineer | 9 | 42.9% |
| Industrial Engineer | 4 | 19.0% |
| Manufacturing Engineer | 4 | 13.8% |
| Thermal Engineer | 3 | 13.6% |
| Mechanical Systems Engineer | 4 | 11.4% |
| Mechanical Engineering Manager | 3 | 7.7% |
| Operations Engineer | 6 | 7.6% |
| Embedded Systems Engineer | 3 | 7.3% |
| Software Integration Engineer | 3 | 7.0% |
Roles with the most CAD postings
| Role | Postings mentioning skill | Share of skill postings |
|---|---|---|
| Architect | 25 | 5.0% |
| Technical Program Manager | 25 | 5.0% |
| Mechanical Engineer | 24 | 4.8% |
| Software Engineer | 21 | 4.2% |
| Test Engineer | 21 | 4.2% |
| Systems Engineer | 13 | 2.6% |
| Engineering Manager | 11 | 2.2% |
| Product Designer | 11 | 2.2% |
| Product Manager | 11 | 2.2% |
| Automation Engineer | 10 | 2.0% |
Top metros hiring for CAD
| Name | Postings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Costa Mesa | 39 | 7.8% |
| Long Beach | 19 | 3.8% |
| San Francisco | 18 | 3.6% |
| New York City | 13 | 2.6% |
| Hawthorne | 9 | 1.8% |
| San Jose | 9 | 1.8% |
| Los Angeles | 8 | 1.6% |
| Waltham | 8 | 1.6% |
| Denver | 7 | 1.4% |
Skills commonly paired with CAD
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How this was computed
Counts derive from the Skillenai jobs index over the 90 days ending 2026-09-28. Skills are resolved against the Skillenai canonical taxonomy, so the same entity is counted whether a posting writes 'Python', 'Python 3', or 'python'. Role prevalence divides postings mentioning CAD by all postings for each role in the same window, ranking roles with at least 20 postings. Role distribution divides each role’s CAD postings by all CAD postings, including postings without a role. Shares need not sum to 100% for the displayed roles. Pages refresh weekly (or daily for the top-50 most-requested skills).
- source
- Skillenai jobs index, deduplicated daily
- entity_id
- aea896dfe877f8c6
- data_as_of
- 2026-09-28
- window_days
- 90
The demand, skills, and geo numbers on this page come from the same Skillenai labor market index that powers our API. Use it for compensation benchmarking, hiring-competition analysis, and skill-adoption tracking.
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