CNC Machinist resume examples by experience level

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A CNC machinist resume is a one page document that lists machines, controls, materials and tolerances, in that order of importance to the person reading it.

Shop foremen do not read machinist resumes for narrative. They read them the way they read a capability sheet from a supplier: what can this run, on what control, in what material, to what tolerance, and does it need a setup man standing next to it. Every line that does not answer one of those five questions is filler, and a one page file that answers all five beats a two page file that answers none.

Resume guide for a CNC machinist resume

This guide and the corresponding CNC machinist resume example will cover:

• How to write a CNC machinist resume, section by section
• How to list machines, controls and axis counts so a foreman can price you
• Three adaptable summaries: operator, setup machinist and programmer
• Setup versus operation, and why the distinction decides the wage
• What the job market looks like and what you can expect to earn

How to write a CNC machinist resume

Six blocks: contact header, summary, machines and controls, experience, inspection and quality, and education with credentials. One page. Two only if you program, run five-axis work, and have a tooling record worth listing.

The machine list goes high, usually directly under the summary. It is the part of the page a foreman reads first, and burying it inside job bullets is the single most common way a qualified machinist gets passed over.

Run the finished file through the free Rezoom ATS resume checker before you send it. Large manufacturers and every aerospace supplier parse applications into a system before a foreman ever sees one.

Choosing the best resume format for a CNC machinist resume

Reverse chronological, one page, single column. A skills-based format is tempting here because the machine list is the point, but it fails for a specific reason: shops read tenure as evidence that you held tolerance under production pressure, and a format that hides dates reads as a format hiding job-hopping.

Put the machine and control block above the experience anyway. That gets you the capability-sheet benefit without losing the timeline.

Include your contact information

Put the shift you want and your willingness to travel for install or first-off work in the header if either is unusual. Second and third shift openings are a large share of what shops are actually trying to fill, and a resume that says "available second shift" answers a question the foreman was going to ask on the phone.

Make use of a summary

Four lines: what you set up and run, the controls, the materials and tolerance band, and one number that describes throughput, scrap or setup time.

CNC machine operator with three years running proven programs on Haas VF-2 and VF-4SS 3-axis mills under Haas control, in 6061 and 7075 aluminum, 304 stainless and 4140. Hold tolerances to plus or minus 0.001 inch on production parts, perform in-process inspection with micrometers, bore gauges and height gauge, and read GD&T to ASME Y14.5. Hold NIMS Machining Level I credentials in Measurement, Materials and Safety and CNC Milling Operator, and run offsets, tool changes and insert wear decisions without supervision.

CNC machinist with eight years of setup and operation on Mazak QT-250 and Integrex mill-turn under Mazatrol, Okuma OSP lathes and Haas 3-axis mills, in Inconel 718, 17-4 PH stainless, titanium 6Al-4V and aluminum. Hold plus or minus 0.0005 inch on close work with routine positional callouts to 0.002 inch, and perform first article inspection to SAE AS9102 in an AS9100D shop. Took average setup time on a family of 14 turned parts from 2.4 hours to 1.3 by rebuilding the workholding and the tool library.

CNC programmer and lead machinist with 16 years in aerospace and medical machining, programming 5-axis simultaneous work in Mastercam and Esprit for Okuma MU-5000V and DMG Mori machines under OSP and Siemens 840D. Program, prove out and document jobs in Inconel, titanium and PEEK to plus or minus 0.0002 inch on critical features, with CMM programming in PC-DMIS. Lead a cell of six machinists across two shifts and own the first article package in an AS9100D and ISO 9001:2015 shop.

Right vs wrong: the same CNC machinist summary, twice

The right column can be quoted against a job on the board next week. The left column cannot, and the foreman reading it is quoting jobs.

Outline your experience

Employer, city, dates, title and shift. Then bullets that name a part family, a material, a tolerance and a volume. A machinist bullet without a number in it is a job description, not a record.

CNC Machinist, Setup and Operation, Grand River Precision, Grand Rapids, MI, March 2018 to Present. Second shift.
Set up and prove out 9 to 12 jobs a week on Mazak QT-250 and Integrex i-200 mill-turn under Mazatrol, Okuma OSP lathes and Haas 3-axis mills, in Inconel 718, 17-4 PH stainless, titanium 6Al-4V and aluminum.
Hold plus or minus 0.0005 inch on close diameters and 0.002 inch positional on hole patterns, verified on a Zeiss Contura CMM with PC-DMIS and on the surface plate.
Took average setup time on a family of 14 turned parts from 2.4 hours to 1.3 by rebuilding the workholding and standardizing the tool library across three machines.
Run first article inspection to SAE AS9102 in an AS9100D shop, including ballooned prints and the Form 3 characteristic results.
Train two operators a year on offsets, insert wear and in-process gauging, and write the setup sheets they work from.

List the machines, the materials and the tolerances you actually hold

This is the block that decides interviews, and it is the one most machinist resumes leave as a vague skills list. Give it four lines, because a foreman is matching it against a specific machine that is sitting idle.

Machines: Mazak QT-250 and Integrex i-200 mill-turn (Mazatrol), Okuma LB3000 (OSP), Haas VF-2 and VF-4SS 3-axis mills (Haas control), Doosan DNM 4500 with 4th axis (Fanuc 31i), Citizen L20 Swiss (Fanuc). Familiar with Siemens 840D on 5-axis, not yet a primary control.
Materials: Inconel 718, titanium 6Al-4V, 17-4 PH and 304 stainless, 4140 and 4340, 6061 and 7075 aluminum, brass, Delrin and PEEK.
Tolerance and print: plus or minus 0.0005 inch on close diameters, 0.002 inch positional on hole patterns, 32 Ra surface finish on bearing journals. Read GD&T to ASME Y14.5, including datum structures, true position and profile callouts.
CAM and programming: Mastercam 3-axis and 4-axis, Fusion 360 for fixtures and simple parts, Esprit for turning. Edit at the control on Mazatrol and Fanuc.

Four lines, four different questions. The machine line says what you can walk up to. The material line says whether you have fought work hardening and chip control, or only cut aluminum. The tolerance line says what class of work you belong to. The CAM line says whether the shop has to give you a programmer.

Say what you have not run. "Familiar with Siemens 840D, not yet a primary control" is the sentence that stops an interview going wrong in the first ten minutes, and shops read it as honesty rather than weakness.

Build a snapshot of your key skills and inspection equipment

Twelve to sixteen entries in three groups. Keep the inspection group separate, because it is the shortest route to convincing a quality manager that you can run unattended.

Machining: Setup and proveout, Workholding and fixture design, Speeds and feeds optimization, Tool life management, Offsets and insert wear, Deburring and finishing, Swiss and bar feed work
Programming and CAM: Mastercam, Esprit, Fusion 360, Conversational programming in Mazatrol, G-code editing at the control, Post processor troubleshooting
Inspection and quality: Zeiss CMM with PC-DMIS, Micrometers, bore gauges and gauge pins, Height gauge and surface plate, Optical comparator, Surface roughness tester, First article inspection to SAE AS9102, SPC charting, GD&T to ASME Y14.5

List your education and NIMS credentials

Apprenticeship or program first, then credentials with the issuing body and the specific credential names. Generic "NIMS certified" is worth much less than the list.

Machine Tool Technology Certificate, Grand Rapids Community College, Grand Rapids, MI, 2017
Registered Apprenticeship, Machinist, Grand River Precision, completed 2021, 8,000 hours with related technical instruction
NIMS credentials: Measurement, Materials and Safety; Job Planning, Benchwork and Layout; CNC Milling Operator; CNC Turning Operator; CNC Milling Programming Setup and Operations; Turning Operations Chucking Skills II
Additional: Mastercam Mill Level 3 training (2023). Forklift and overhead crane certified. OSHA 10 General Industry (2024).

Choose the right layout and design

Single column, one page, plain type at 11 point, no photograph, no skill rating bars. Manufacturing applicant systems are frequently older than the ones in office hiring, and a two-column template with graphics arrives as a wall of run-together text.

CNC machinist job market and outlook

A large occupation that is flat overall, with very heavy replacement demand and a sharp split between the two halves of it.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, May 2025 wage data and 2025-35 employment projections.

About 30,400 openings a year against a combined workforce of 344,900 is the number worth holding on to. Almost all of it comes from replacement rather than growth, which is why shops hire on demonstrated capability rather than on years, and why a precise machine list beats a long tenure on a vague one.

Where the jobs sit:

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, May 2025.

What salary you can expect as a CNC machinist

The median annual wage for machinists was $58,750 in May 2025, with the lowest 10 percent under $39,200 and the highest 10 percent above $80,010. Tool and die makers had a median of $64,050, ranging from under $44,680 to more than $92,680 (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, May 2025).

Industry moves it more than most machinists expect. Transportation equipment manufacturing paid a machinist median of $61,920 against $54,910 in fabricated metal product manufacturing, which employs the largest share of the occupation at 35 percent (BLS, May 2025). For tool and die makers the same industry paid $78,200 (BLS, May 2025).

Inside any one shop, the things that move your number are the ones a resume can carry: whether you set up as well as run, whether you program or only edit, the tolerance class you are trusted with, whether you can sign your own first article, and whether you can be left alone on second or third shift. Each of those is a sentence, and each sentence is worth more than another line of duties.

Key takeaways for a CNC machinist resume

1. Put the machine, control and axis list directly under the summary, not inside job bullets.
2. Name the control alongside the builder; "Haas" alone tells a foreman nothing.
3. Give a real tolerance band and the features you hold it on.
4. Separate setup and proveout from operation; that distinction is where the wage sits.
5. Name inspection equipment, including the CMM and its software, and say if you run first article.
6. Spell out each NIMS credential rather than writing "NIMS certified".
7. Keep it to one page, single column, and say which shift you want.

Build your CNC machinist resume in 15 minutes.

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Pair it with a matching CNC machinist cover letter.