Software Developers

A subset of this occupation's profile is available. Data collection is currently underway to populate other parts of the profile.

Research, design, and develop computer and network software or specialized utility programs. Analyze user needs and develop software solutions, applying principles and techniques of computer science, engineering, and mathematical analysis. Update software or enhance existing software capabilities. May work with computer hardware engineers to integrate hardware and software systems, and develop specifications and performance requirements. May maintain databases within an application area, working individually or coordinating database development as part of a team.

Sample of reported job titles: Application Developer, Application Integration Engineer, Developer, Infrastructure Engineer, Network Engineer, Software Architect, Software Developer, Software Development Engineer, Software Engineer, Systems Engineer

Occupation-Specific Information

Tasks

  • Analyze information to determine, recommend, and plan installation of a new system or modification of an existing system.
  • Analyze user needs and software requirements to determine feasibility of design within time and cost constraints.
  • Confer with data processing or project managers to obtain information on limitations or capabilities for data processing projects.
  • Confer with systems analysts, engineers, programmers and others to design systems and to obtain information on project limitations and capabilities, performance requirements and interfaces.
  • Consult with customers or other departments on project status, proposals, or technical issues, such as software system design or maintenance.
  • Coordinate installation of software system.
  • Design, develop and modify software systems, using scientific analysis and mathematical models to predict and measure outcomes and consequences of design.
  • Determine system performance standards.
  • Develop or direct software system testing or validation procedures, programming, or documentation.
  • Modify existing software to correct errors, adapt it to new hardware, or upgrade interfaces and improve performance.
  • Monitor functioning of equipment to ensure system operates in conformance with specifications.
  • Obtain and evaluate information on factors such as reporting formats required, costs, or security needs to determine hardware configuration.
  • Prepare reports or correspondence concerning project specifications, activities, or status.
  • Recommend purchase of equipment to control dust, temperature, or humidity in area of system installation.
  • Specify power supply requirements and configuration.
  • Store, retrieve, and manipulate data for analysis of system capabilities and requirements.
  • Supervise and assign work to programmers, designers, technologists, technicians, or other engineering or scientific personnel.
  • Supervise the work of programmers, technologists and technicians and other engineering and scientific personnel.
  • Train users to use new or modified equipment.

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Technology Skills

  • Access software — Citrix cloud computing software; PuTTY
  • Administration software — Software distribution management software
  • Analytical or scientific software — IBM SPSS Statistics Hot technology ; Minitab; SAS Hot technology ; The MathWorks MATLAB Hot technology ; 5 more
  • Application server software — Atlassian Bitbucket Hot technology ; GitLab Hot technology ; Kubernetes In-Demand Hot technology ; Red Hat OpenShift Hot technology ; 7 more
  • Authentication server software — Single sign-on SSO
  • Backup or archival software — Backup and archival software; Veritas NetBackup
  • Business intelligence and data analysis software — Alteryx software Hot technology ; IBM Cognos Impromptu; Microsoft Power BI Hot technology ; Tableau Hot technology ; 3 more
  • Cloud-based data access and sharing software — Dropbox; Google Drive; Microsoft SharePoint Hot technology ; Slack Hot technology ; 1 more
  • Cloud-based management software — Amazon Web Services AWS CloudFormation Hot technology ; IBM WebSphere; IBM WebSphere MQ; Splunk Enterprise Hot technology ; 1 more
  • Clustering software — VMware
  • Communications server software — IBM Domino
  • Computer based training software — Moodle
  • Configuration management software — Chef Hot technology ; IBM Terraform Hot technology ; Perforce Helix software; Puppet Hot technology ; 6 more
  • Content workflow software — Atlassian JIRA In-Demand Hot technology ; Emerald Software Group Emerald Green Office
  • Customer relationship management CRM software — Blackbaud The Raiser's Edge; Oracle Eloqua; Salesforce software Hot technology
  • Data base management system software — Amazon DynamoDB Hot technology ; Elasticsearch Hot technology ; Oracle Database Hot technology ; Redis Hot technology ; 21 more
  • Data base reporting software — Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services SSRS Hot technology ; Oracle Business Intelligence Discoverer; SAP Business Intelligence; SAP Crystal Reports; 3 more
  • Data base user interface and query software — Airtable; Apache Hive Hot technology ; Blackboard software; GraphQL Hot technology ; 14 more
  • Data mining software — Google Analytics Hot technology
  • Desktop communications software — Skype
  • Desktop publishing software — Adobe InDesign Hot technology ; Microsoft Publisher
  • Development environment software — Apache Kafka In-Demand Hot technology ; Apache Maven Hot technology ; Oracle Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition J2EE Hot technology ; Oracle SQL Developer Hot technology ; 62 more
  • Device drivers or system software — Microsoft DirectX
  • Document management software — Adobe Acrobat Hot technology ; Document management system software
  • Electronic mail software — Google Gmail; IBM Notes; Microsoft Exchange; Microsoft Outlook Hot technology
  • Enterprise application integration software — Atlassian Bamboo Hot technology ; Extensible markup language XML In-Demand Hot technology ; Jenkins CI In-Demand Hot technology ; Microsoft SQL Server Integration Services SSIS Hot technology ; 5 more
  • Enterprise resource planning ERP software — Microsoft Dynamics Hot technology ; Oracle JD Edwards EnterpriseOne; Oracle PeopleSoft Hot technology ; SAP software Hot technology ; 7 more
  • Enterprise system management software — IBM Power Systems software
  • Expert system software — Ansible software Hot technology
  • File versioning software — Apache Subversion SVN Hot technology ; Git In-Demand Hot technology ; Version control software
  • Filesystem software — File server software
  • Financial analysis software — Delphi Technology; Oracle E-Business Suite Financials
  • Graphical user interface development software — Figma Hot technology ; Graphical user interface GUI builder software; Graphical user interface GUI design software; Salesforce Visualforce
  • Graphics or photo imaging software — Adobe Creative Cloud software Hot technology ; Adobe Illustrator Hot technology ; JamBoard; Trimble SketchUp Pro Hot technology ; 4 more
  • Information retrieval or search software — Apache Avro; LexisNexis
  • Instant messaging software — Blink; GroupMe
  • Internet directory services software — Microsoft Active Directory Hot technology
  • Internet protocol IP multimedia subsystem software — Voice over internet protocol VoIP system software
  • Map creation software — ESRI ArcGIS software Hot technology
  • Metadata management software — Informatica software Hot technology ; Quest Erwin Data Modeler; Talend Data Fabric
  • Network conferencing software — LogMeIn GoToWebinar
  • Network monitoring software — Nagios; Wireshark
  • Network operation system software — IBM z/OS operating systems
  • Network security and virtual private network VPN equipment software — Firewall software; Virtual private networking VPN software
  • Object or component oriented development software — Apache Spark Hot technology ; Objective C Hot technology ; Scala Hot technology ; TypeScript In-Demand Hot technology ; 34 more
  • Object oriented data base management software — Hibernate ORM Hot technology ; PostgreSQL In-Demand Hot technology
  • Office suite software — LibreOffice; Microsoft Office software Hot technology
  • Operating system software — Apple iOS Hot technology ; Google Android Hot technology ; Microsoft Windows Server Hot technology ; UNIX Shell Hot technology ; 21 more
  • Platform interconnectivity software — Migration software
  • Portal server software — Apache HTTP Server
  • Presentation software — Google Slides; Microsoft PowerPoint Hot technology
  • Process mapping and design software — Microsoft Visio Hot technology
  • Program testing software — Hewlett Packard LoadRunner; JUnit Hot technology ; Selenium Hot technology ; SonarQube; 21 more
  • Project management software — Atlassian Confluence Hot technology ; Microsoft Team Foundation Server Hot technology ; Microsoft Teams Hot technology ; Oracle Primavera Enterprise Project Portfolio Management Hot technology ; 1 more
  • Requirements analysis and system architecture software — IBM Rational RequisitePro; Requirements management software; Unified modeling language UML
  • Sales and marketing software — Marketo Marketing Automation Hot technology
  • Spreadsheet software — Google Sheets Hot technology ; Microsoft Excel Hot technology
  • Storage networking software — Amazon Simple Storage Service S3 Hot technology ; Storage area network SAN software
  • Transaction security and virus protection software — Encryption software; McAfee; NortonLifeLock cybersecurity software
  • Transaction server software — Customer information control system CICS; IBM Middleware; Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS); Object Management Group Object Request Broker; 1 more
  • Video conferencing software — Cisco Webex Hot technology ; Google Meet; LogMeIn GoToMeeting; Zoom Hot technology ; 1 more
  • Video creation and editing software — Adobe After Effects Hot technology ; Flipgrid; Screencastify; YouTube; 1 more
  • Web page creation and editing software — Adobe Dreamweaver; Google Sites; LinkedIn Hot technology ; WordPress Hot technology ; 1 more
  • Web platform development software — Bootstrap Hot technology ; Eclipse Jersey Hot technology ; React In-Demand Hot technology ; Vue.js Hot technology ; 31 more
  • Word processing software — 3M Post-it App; Google Docs Hot technology ; Microsoft OneNote; Microsoft Word Hot technology ; 1 more
Hot technology
Hot Technologies are requirements most frequently included across all employer job postings.
In demand
In Demand skills are frequently included in employer job postings for this occupation.

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Occupational Requirements

Detailed Work Activities

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Experience Requirements

Job Zone

Title
Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed
Education
Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.
Related Experience
A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.
Job Training
Employees in these occupations usually need several years of work-related experience, on-the-job training, and/or vocational training.
Job Zone Examples
Many of these occupations involve coordinating, supervising, managing, or training others. Examples include real estate brokers, sales managers, database administrators, graphic designers, conservation scientists, art directors, and cost estimators.
SVP Range
(7.0 to < 8.0)

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Training & Credentials

State training
Local training
Certifications
State licenses

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Apprenticeship Opportunities

Example apprenticeship titles for this occupation:

  • Application Developer
  • Commercial Drone Software Developer

Specific title(s) listed above are vetted by industry and approved by the U.S. Department of Labor for use in a Registered Apprenticeship Program.

Start your career and build your skillset. Visit Apprenticeship.gov external site to learn about opportunities related to this occupation.

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Worker Characteristics

Interests

Interest code: ICR
Want to discover your interests? Take the O*NET Interest Profiler at My Next Move.
  • Investigative — Work involves studying and researching non-living objects, living organisms, disease or other forms of impairment, or human behavior. Investigative occupations are often associated with physical, life, medical, or social sciences, and can be found in the fields of humanities, mathematics/statistics, information technology, or health care service.
  • Conventional — Work involves following procedures and regulations to organize information or data, typically in a business setting. Conventional occupations are often associated with office work, accounting, mathematics/statistics, information technology, finance, or human resources.
  • Realistic — Work involves designing, building, or repairing of equipment, materials, or structures, engaging in physical activity, or working outdoors. Realistic occupations are often associated with engineering, mechanics and electronics, construction, woodworking, transportation, machine operation, agriculture, animal services, physical or manual labor, athletics, or protective services.

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Workforce Characteristics

Wages & Employment Trends

Median wages (2022)
$61.18 hourly, $127,260 annual
State wages
Local wages
Employment (2022)
1,594,500 employees
Projected growth (2022-2032)
Much faster than average (9% or higher)
Projected job openings (2022-2032)
136,300
State trends
Top industries (2022)

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics 2022 wage data external site and 2022-2032 employment projections external site. “Projected growth” represents the estimated change in total employment over the projections period (2022-2032). “Projected job openings” represent openings due to growth and replacement.

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Job Openings on the Web

State job openings
Local job openings

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More Information

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Sources of Additional Information

Disclaimer: Sources are listed to provide additional information on related jobs, specialties, and/or industries. Links to non-DOL Internet sites are provided for your convenience and do not constitute an endorsement.

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