The people who implement, support, train and sell CAD have to hold their own in a room full of engineers and then help close the business. That combination is rare, and it is what we recruit for.
Computer-Aided Design is where product intent becomes geometry. The platforms are mature, the user bases are large, and the talent market splits into two populations that rarely overlap: engineers who use the software, and the specialists who implement, support, train and sell it.
Birch Hill recruits the second group, plus the engineering leadership that owns design tooling decisions. We work across the reseller channel, the software vendors and the manufacturers running CAD at scale.
CAD rarely stands alone. Most of the roles we fill sit at the boundary between the modelling tool and the data management system behind it, which is why we recruit across both.
Parametric modelling for complex assemblies, typically paired with Windchill PDMLink for revision and release control.
Integrated design, simulation and manufacturing, usually alongside Teamcenter in automotive and aerospace environments.
The aerospace and automotive standard for surface-heavy and large-assembly design, commonly with ENOVIA or 3DEXPERIENCE.
The broadest mid-market install base, with SOLIDWORKS PDM, and the deepest reseller channel of any CAD platform.
An applications engineer must hold technical credibility with a room of sceptical engineers and then help close business. Strong engineers often lack the commercial instinct; strong salespeople get found out in the demonstration. The population holding both is small and well known to the people already employing them.
Most CAD applications and technical sales experience is accumulated inside the VAR channel. Manufacturers recruiting internally often do not know that channel exists, and so advertise into a market that contains almost none of the people they want.
Plenty of candidates can model in a given platform. Far fewer can define modelling standards, implement model-based definition, or impose GD&T discipline across a team. If that is the actual requirement, the specification needs to say so, or you will interview the wrong shortlist.
The person who owns templates, libraries, licensing and upgrades is protecting the productivity of every engineer in the building. Specifications that treat it as junior support work attract junior support candidates.
Most CAD applications and technical sales experience accumulates inside the VAR network. We know that channel by company and by territory, which is where these candidates actually are.
The test for a customer-facing CAD role is whether someone holds a room of sceptical engineers. We probe for that specifically, because it is the thing that fails at final interview when nobody checked earlier.
If the scope, compensation or location will not attract the person you described, you hear it during the intake call rather than after a quarter of silence.
Candidates get honest market context and are never submitted anywhere without consent. That is why specialists who are not looking still return our calls.
A design engineer uses the software to produce product. An applications engineer helps other organisations use the software well: demonstrations, implementation, training, standards and escalation. They are different careers. The most common CAD hiring mistake we see is advertising one and interviewing candidates from the other.
Depends on the job. Channel candidates bring breadth, customer-facing polish and exposure to many environments. Manufacturing candidates bring depth in one environment and credibility with engineers who have lived the same constraints. For implementation and enablement roles the channel usually wins. For internal standards ownership, manufacturing experience often wins.
Yes. The SOLIDWORKS channel is the largest reseller network in CAD and we recruit applications engineers, technical sales and territory management across it, alongside the Creo, NX and CATIA ecosystems.
Frequently, and it is one of the better career paths in this market. Someone who has administered PDM and understands release and revision discipline already holds much of the conceptual groundwork for PLM. The gap is enterprise process and integration scope, which is learnable for the right person.
It exists, and it is rarer than job specifications assume. Design and manufacturing programming are distinct disciplines with distinct mental models. If you genuinely need both, expect a longer search and a higher package. If you need one with literacy in the other, say that, and the search opens up considerably.
Our focus is direct, permanent placement. We are not a contract staffing or hourly production staffing business.
Every search is run directly by Tim Lohse. No hand-offs, no junior sourcers, no resume dumps. If the role is scoped in a way that will not attract the CAD talent you need, we will say so before you spend three months finding out.
Replacing someone, or exploring a role you have not announced. Handled discreetly from first call.
Start a Confidential SearchAn open role you need filled with someone who contributes from day one.
Hire Digital Thread TalentA search that has stalled, or one other firms have returned nothing usable on.
Discuss a Hard-to-Fill RoleMarket intelligence, compensation reality and scoping. No obligation.
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