The objective of this work is to investigate the use of metallurgical gradients (MG) in the design of structural components made of ductile cast iron (DCI). MG have been realized in this study by locally varying the pearlite fraction of the matrix. Exemplarily, the allowable cyclic load for a drive shaft as well as the allowable static displacement are calculated. The performed calculations are based on static and cyclic strength data of four different DCI with amounts of pearlite ranging from 0% to 96.8%. To show the advantage of the purposeful usage of local MG, ten different configurations are examined by numerical simulation studies of a generic drive shaft comprising a circumferential notch. Four configurations are calculated assuming homogenous material throughout the entire component. In the other six configurations the surface region of the notch root has an increased amount of pearlite. For each configuration the allowable multiaxial cyclic load by combinations of torsion and bending was calculated and subsequently the allowable static bending displacement. The results show that the targeted realization of MG results in a significant increase in the multiaxial fatigue strength of the shaft as well as in a slight improvement of the allowable static bending displacement.