Senior CAD Designer

Blue Nile•New York, NY

22h•$28 - $34

About The Position

Blue Nile is part of Signet Jewelers, a purpose-driven company who believes love inspires love and whose mission it is to enable all people to Celebrate Life and Express Love. Signet Jewelers is also a "Great Place to Work-Certified™" company. Innovation and brilliance - two things that set us apart At Blue Nile, the Senior CAD Designer leads the creation of custom ring designs and matching band configurations, drives CAD deliverables for product development initiatives, and provides technical design support for new project launches. This role requires deep expertise in fine jewelry construction, a strong eye for design continuity, and the ability to translate creative briefs into production-ready CAD models with minimal supervision. The successful candidate will demonstrate a proactive approach to issue resolution and a customer-first orientation.

Requirements

Excellent spatial reasoning and aesthetic sensitivity for design consistency across custom and standard collections.
Strong project management skills — able to prioritize and track multiple concurrent design assignments across custom, PD, and modification workstreams.
Clear communicator with the ability to translate creative direction into precise technical action and articulate design decisions to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Collaborative mindset with the ability to work closely with product development, production, QC, and client-facing teams.
Comfortable operating as a senior contributor in a high-volume production environment where design quality and delivery speed are both expected.
Minimum 5 years of CAD design experience specific to fine jewelry.
Expert-level proficiency in Rhino 8 — required.
Proficiency in Matrix Gold — required.
Deep knowledge of complex jewelry construction including precious and non-precious metal properties.
Mastery of creating solid, workable polysurface files; experienced with modifying and repairing mesh objects.
Demonstrated portfolio of custom ring and matching band designs.
Strong understanding of production techniques — file splitting, casting preparation, and manufacturing constraints.
Adaptability to the company's existing platform is required.

Nice To Haves

Four-year BA or BS degree in Jewelry Design, Industrial Design, Fine Arts, or a related field preferred. Extensive hands-on experience with a strong portfolio may be considered in lieu of formal education.
Experience with jewelry-specific or fine manufacturing ERP systems is strongly preferred.
Experience with 3D Coat, ZBrush, or comparable sculpting software is an asset.
Experience with rapid prototyping / 3D printing is an asset.

Responsibilities

Design custom rings from concept through to final production-ready CAD model, interpreting client briefs, sketches, and reference imagery with accuracy.
Develop matching band designs that maintain aesthetic and structural continuity with engagement rings and primary pieces — including sizing compatibility, profile alignment, and stone setting coordination.
Build stone settings (prong, pave, channel, bezel, and combinations) with proper tolerances and structural integrity for manufacturing.
Design functional components including hinges, clasps, linkages, and connections as required by project scope.
Partner with the Product Development team to execute CAD models for new collections, prototypes, and special production runs.
Review design briefs and provide early-stage technical input on constructability, stone sourcing constraints, and production feasibility.
Deliver complete, split production models ready for casting, finishing, and assembly workflows.
Provide input on project timelines and flag risks related to complexity or scope changes.
Modify existing CAD files for design updates, stone size changes, metal variations, and customer-requested customizations.
Review and repair legacy files received from external designers or vendors to ensure they meet internal production standards.
Maintain version control and documentation of all modified files.
Review Vendor CAD files for technical viability and provide feedback to strategic partners.
Support and mentor junior CAD staff on software techniques, jewelry construction principles, and production standards.
Contribute to the development and documentation of CAD best practices and file standards.
Expert-level proficiency across the Microsoft 365 suite — including Outlook for managing design briefs, client communications, and vendor feedback; Excel for building and maintaining project tracking tools, design revision logs, and workload dashboards; Word for creating technical specifications, design briefs, and procedural documentation; and Teams for real-time collaboration with PD, production, and management teams.
Leverage SharePoint and OneDrive to maintain a structured, version-controlled digital library of all CAD files, design references, approved models, and project documentation — ensuring accessibility and continuity across the team.
Ability to build Excel-based tools to support design pipeline management, including job status tracking, revision histories, and project milestone reporting for senior leadership.
Proficient in using ERP or production management software to manage the full lifecycle of CAD job orders — from initial design brief intake through model delivery, approval, and handoff to production.
Ability to create, assign, and update job orders within the ERP system, linking CAD deliverables to the correct job references and ensuring that production teams have accurate, up-to-date information on file readiness and design specifications.
Use the ERP system to monitor job flow across concurrent projects — tracking design stage, revision status, casting readiness, and approval milestones — and proactively communicate delays or scope changes to supervisors and the production floor.
Coordinate with the production team through the ERP to sequence CAD deliverables around casting house schedules, tooling requirements, and floor workload capacity, minimizing bottlenecks in the production pipeline.
Able to generate ERP-based reports on CAD output, project throughput, revision frequency, and design reuse to support Manufacturing Excellence reporting and continuous improvement initiatives.