EXPOSED
The core of this job — translating a CAD model into toolpaths, picking feeds and speeds, generating and post-processing G-code — is exactly the pattern work CAM vendors are already automating with feature recognition, tool libraries, and automated roughing/finishing strategies. What resists is the part that happens at the machine: fixturing and workholding decisions, dry runs and first-article proveout, reading chatter and tool wear, and rescuing a program when the setup doesn't match the model. There is no license here and no signature requirement, so the only durable moat is shop-floor judgment that the programmer personally owns.
Mixed — a routine tier and a judgment tier. Feature recognition in Mastercam/Fusion already generates roughing and finishing passes from a solid model and pulls speeds from a tool library, so the programming half of the job is largely pattern-matching — the 8 rather than a 4 reflects the proveout half: deciding how a thin-wall part will be held across three ops, dialing back a pass because the spindle is loading up, and editing G-code at the control when the fixture sits 0.015 off nominal.
Some physical or field component. You are at the machine for setup sheets, tool presetting, touching off work offsets, single-blocking the first article and listening for chatter — but it's a climate-controlled shop with the part clamped in a known fixture, not field work, which is why this lands at 10 and not with the millwrights and riggers.
No licence, no signature requirement. No license, no stamp, no certification anyone checks — an AS9100 or ISO audit trail names the shop and the inspector, and when a program crashes a spindle the exposure is scrap and downtime absorbed by the employer, not a personal legal claim against you.
Anonymous artifact production. Output is a program file and a setup sheet judged by whether the part passes CMM inspection; the machinists and engineers you work with daily give you some standing, but a customer buying the part never learns your name and the work transfers to another programmer without renegotiation.
Meaningful discretion. You own real calls — op sequencing to control distortion, where to leave stock for finish, whether to trust a 3-plus-2 approach over full 5-axis on a tight-tolerance feature — but they land inside a print with stated tolerances and a first-article inspection that catches you before anything ships, capping this below the ambiguous-stakes band.
Model Makers, Metal and Plastic EXPOSED
Tool and Die Makers EXPOSED
Has AI actually changed your work?