Optimum stepped shaft designs are obtained through an application of Pontryagin’s Minimum Principle. Optimum designs are obtained for a given critical speed of specified order. Indexes of Performance to be minimized include mass and rotating inertia. A general problem formulation illustrates how constraints on stress, deflections, and geometric design are taken in account. Numerical solutions are obtained to nonlinear multi-point-boundary-value-problems. A Newton-Raphson algorithm was developed to determine step locations precisely in order to facilitate the convergence of the shooting method used to solve the boundary value problem. Numerical solutions are determined with an assumed critical speed; a Rayleigh quotient calculation is used to verify that the optimum design possesses the assumed value.