An offshore drafter from Offshored costs A$2,400 to A$3,400 per month, all-inclusive, and produces your documentation full time in Revit, AutoCAD, Archicad or Civil 3D, to your office standards, in Australian business hours.
One dedicated architectural, civil and structural, or building services drafter for your practice, recruited and managed by Offshored. Your architects and engineers keep the design decisions and sign every issue; the modelling, documentation and revisions come off their desks.
In most Australian architecture and engineering practices the people who can win and design the work are also the people documenting it at night. An offshore drafter takes the production work: the person works inside your software, templates and drawing standards, and your registered architect or chartered engineer reviews and signs everything that leaves the office.
A typical day starts with the mark-ups from the day before. The drafter updates the model or drawing set, develops the plans, sections, elevations and details for the current stage, and keeps the drawing register and revisions straight. For architectural practices that means development application and construction certificate sets, working drawings and schedules. For civil and structural consultants it means general arrangement, reinforcement and steelwork drawings, road, drainage and earthworks plans, and long sections. For building services consultants and contractors it means mechanical, electrical, hydraulic and fire services layouts and shop drawings.
Drawing to Australian standards and the National Construction Code is a matter of your office standards, templates and review. The drafter learns them during onboarding and follows them exactly, and responsibility for the design and for compliance stays with your registered or chartered professionals. Offshored places drafters, not certifiers.
Practices that also need quantities and pricing pair a drafter with an offshore estimator, and landscape architects and interior designers are listed on the roles page.
Start with the first column and add the second as trust builds. Your team member follows your procedures and your approval limits, documented during onboarding.
Your software, your licences. The drafter works inside your CAD and BIM licences, templates and project folders, through a VPN or your cloud platform, so models, drawings and intellectual property stay in your business. Tell us before recruitment starts if the role needs a company supplied workstation.
An offshore drafter from Offshored costs A$2,400 to A$3,400 per month. That is one flat, all-inclusive fee per full-time team member, invoiced monthly in advance, in the technical and specialist band on our pricing page.
| Item | Offshore drafter |
|---|---|
| Monthly fee | A$2,400 to A$3,400 per month |
| Where in the band | Lower end for a drafter producing 2D documentation from mark-ups; upper end for a senior Revit or Civil 3D drafter who models, coordinates and checks the work of others |
| What is included | Everything: recruitment and vetting, employment in the Philippines by Australian Pathways OPC, salary, Philippine income tax and statutory contributions (SSS, PhilHealth and Pag-IBIG), 13th month pay, paid leave, HMO health insurance, payroll, timekeeping, HR and performance management, office space and equipment for office based team members, and replacement at our cost if the person leaves |
| What is not included | Your CAD, BIM and rendering software licences |
| Fees | No recruitment, placement or setup fees. One monthly invoice from Offshored Pty Ltd, an Australian company |
An offshore estimator for take-offs, quotes and tenders is also A$2,400 to A$3,400 per month and has its own page. Every band is on the pricing page and the reasoning behind the numbers is in the 2026 cost guide.
An offshore drafter from Offshored costs A$2,400 to A$3,400 per month, all-inclusive, which is A$28,800 to A$40,800 a year. A draftsperson in Sydney is advertised at A$85,000 to A$105,000 a year (Seek, September 2026), about A$95,200 to A$117,600 with 12% superannuation.
This is the pattern most clients settle into after the first month. Your team member follows your procedures and approval limits, and you can change the mix at any time.
Salary figures are Seek's average advertised full-time salary range for Draftsperson jobs in Sydney, refreshed 1 September 2026; Seek notes that some advertised salaries include superannuation. The superannuation guarantee has been 12% since 1 July 2025. The 2026 cost guide adds payroll tax, leave, recruitment and equipment to the local side of the comparison. Offshored's figure is the approved band on the pricing page. Before you share system access, read how we protect your data.
What Offshored looks for when shortlisting an offshore drafter for an Australian business:
You interview the shortlisted candidates yourself, set a drawing test if you wish, and make the final decision, so the person you hire meets your standard, not just ours.
Your offshore drafter works a full eight-hour day, Monday to Friday, at the times you set in your Australian time zone. Manila is two hours behind Sydney for most of the year, so the overlap is complete: they are online when you are, from your first coffee to close of business.
| Your office | Manila is behind by | Your 9am to 5pm day in Manila time |
|---|---|---|
| Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Hobart | 2 hours (3 hours in daylight saving, October to April) | 7:00am to 3:00pm (6:00am to 2:00pm in daylight saving) |
| Brisbane and Queensland | 2 hours, all year | 7:00am to 3:00pm |
| Adelaide | 1.5 hours (2.5 hours in daylight saving) | 7:30am to 3:30pm (6:30am to 2:30pm in daylight saving) |
| Darwin | 1.5 hours, all year | 7:30am to 3:30pm |
| Perth | No difference, same time as Manila | 9:00am to 5:00pm |
Team members work Australian public holidays unless the day is also a Philippine holiday, and Offshored gives you two business days' notice of any Philippine holiday that affects your team member's schedule. Every shift is logged on our timekeeping platform. See the FAQ on the Sydney to Manila time difference.
Yes, under your review. Drafters placed by Offshored are degree-qualified and work from your templates, office standards and mark-ups, and they learn the Australian Standards and National Construction Code references your practice uses during onboarding. Design responsibility and sign-off stay with your registered architect or chartered engineer, exactly as they do for a drafter in your own office.
Whatever your practice runs. Australian architecture practices mostly run Revit, AutoCAD or Archicad, civil consultants run Civil 3D or 12d Model, and building services drafters work in Revit and AutoCAD. The drafter works in your licences and project folders, so your models and drawings never leave your systems.
A$2,400 to A$3,400 a month through Offshored, all inclusive. That covers a full-time, dedicated drafter employed in the Philippines by Australian Pathways OPC, with recruitment, payroll, statutory contributions, HMO health cover and day-to-day HR included. There are no recruitment or setup fees and no lock-in; the arrangement runs month to month on 30 days' notice.
Typically one to two weeks from your first call with Offshored. Shortlisting takes three to four days, then you interview the shortlisted drafters and choose the person yourself. Because the Philippine employing entity, payroll and onboarding are already in place, your drafter can start as soon as the paperwork is signed, so have a software licence, your drawing templates and standards, and a sample project ready for day one.
You do. Every drafter recruited by Offshored signs an employment contract with Australian Pathways OPC that includes an intellectual property assignment clause, so the work product belongs to the client, and a confidentiality clause that continues after employment ends. The drafter works in your CAD or BIM environment with the access you grant, and all logins are removed on their last day.
Offshored replaces the drafter at our cost, with no re-recruitment fee. During the six month probation Offshored formally asks for your feedback at the end of month one, month three and month six, so a poor fit is picked up early. There is no lock-in contract either: you pay month to month and can end the arrangement with 30 days' notice and no exit fee.
Pick a time and William Smith, Offshored's co-founder, phones you. We scope the role, give you the monthly cost band and tell you honestly whether offshore staff will work for your business. No lock-in, no obligation.
Book a 20-minute call Call +61 485 039 163Prefer to type? Message us on WhatsApp or send the enquiry form. We reply within one business hour, 8am to 6pm AEST, Monday to Friday.