Software developer jobs: skills, pay and how to get hired

Updated 5 Nov 2026. Figures from the jobs in our search, not the whole market.

Contents

What a software developer does
The skills the ads ask for
Where the jobs are, country by country
Your CV for a software developer job
How we read our data

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What a software developer does

A software developer turns a need into working software: a web shop, a banking app, the system that plans a warehouse's deliveries. Writing code is only part of it. The job is also reading other people's code, testing, reviewing changes, fixing what breaks in production, and agreeing with colleagues what to build next.

Job titles vary: Software Developer, Software Engineer, Programmer, and in German ads "Softwareentwickler". Front-end developers build what people see in the browser, back-end developers the services and data behind it, full-stack developers both. We count the general titles as one role.

The skills the ads ask for

We read a sample of the ads every day and count the skills they name. On a computer, hover a skill in the text to see its share; on a phone, the table has the same figures.

Skill	Share of ads	What is expected
Java	20%	Modern Java (records, streams, generics) in a framework such as Spring, with tests and a build tool.
Python	26%	Clean, tested Python: a small web service or a script others can run, with types, tests and packaging.
JavaScript	15%	The language of the browser and of many servers: async code, modules, and the quirks that cause bugs.
TypeScript	11%	JavaScript with types: model the data, let the compiler catch mistakes, and keep the types honest.
C#	20%	C# on .NET: web APIs, async code, dependency injection and tests; common in banks and industry.
SQL	18%	Write joins and aggregations, read a query plan, and know when an index helps.
Git	33%	Branches, pull requests, a clean history, and fixing a merge conflict without panic.
CI/CD	29%	Every change is built and tested automatically; a green pipeline can ship, a red one stops the release.
Docker	12%	Package a service and its dependencies into an image that runs the same on a laptop and in production.
Kubernetes	11%	Run containers at scale: deployments, health checks, scaling and config; often shared with a platform team.
AWS	5%	Core services (compute, storage, databases, IAM for access rights) and what they cost. depends on the provider
Azure	8%	Microsoft's cloud: app services, functions, storage and identity; common in larger European firms. depends on the provider
React	11%	Components, state and effects; build a page that stays fast and testable as it grows. depends on the release
Node.js	2%	JavaScript on the server: an HTTP API, async I/O, and the packages you depend on.
Spring	6%	Spring Boot for Java services: configuration, data access, security and tests. depends on the release
.NET	10%	The .NET platform for C#: web APIs, Entity Framework for databases, and the build and test tools.
REST APIs	6%	Design an HTTP API with clear resources, status codes, versioning, paging and helpful errors.
Microservices	6%	Know when splitting a system pays off, and what it costs: network failures, data consistency, tracing.
Unit Testing	8%	Fast tests for one piece of logic each; they run on every change and fail for one reason.
Test Automation	8%	Automated tests at several levels (unit, integration, end to end) that run in the pipeline.
Agile	10%	Short cycles of planning, building and showing work; adjust the plan from what you learn.
Scrum	12%	One common way of working in sprints, with a backlog, a daily stand-up, reviews and retrospectives.
Linux	21%	Work on a server's command line: logs, processes, permissions and the network.
English	64%	The working language of many teams, and of most documentation and code comments.

Shares of the software developer ads we read in the last 7 days, as of 5 Nov 2026. Our ads, not the whole market.

Three things stand out. First, most ads want one main language done well, most often Java, Python, C# or JavaScript with TypeScript. Second, the tools that ship code count almost as much as the language: Git, CI/CD (tests and builds that run on every change), Docker and a cloud such as AWS or Azure. Third, ads name a way of working, usually agile teams, and expect unit tests as part of the job, not as extra.

Databases are everywhere: SQL appears in many ads whatever the language. Web work adds React in the browser and a framework such as Spring or Node.js on the server.

Where the jobs are, country by country

Each country below has its own figures: the cities with the most jobs in our list when a few clearly lead, whether the number is growing, how often ads offer remote or hybrid work, and pay ranges from published research, in the local currency.

Germany

13% of the ads offer hybrid work, and 16% are fully remote.

Pay (Base salary)

Entry level: €45,000 to €62,000 a year
Mid-level: €60,000 to €78,000 a year
Senior: €72,000 to €95,000 a year

Total pay, with stock and bonus, usually runs €70,700 to €102,000 a year across levels, and more at big tech companies.

Baden-Württemberg, Hesse, Hamburg and Bavaria pay the most by state, the eastern states the least; Munich and Frankfurt top the city lists.

Sources: gehalt.de (2026), Indeed (Oct 2026), Indeed (senior) (Oct 2026), Indeed (junior) (Oct 2026), Payscale (Oct 2026), Levels.fyi (Oct 2026).

Pay researched on 27 Oct 2026.

Language: many ads in Germany mention German, often for meetings, customers and documents. Many teams work in English; the ad usually says which. "Fließend" means fluent, "gute Kenntnisse" a good working level.

Law (EU): GDPR applies to every system that keeps personal data, so expect questions on logs, test data and deletion.

Job figures as of 5 Nov 2026.

United States

11% of the ads offer hybrid work, and 38% are fully remote.

100% of the ads that say are full-time.

Pay (Base salary)

Entry level: $80,000 to $110,000 a year
Mid-level: $110,000 to $150,000 a year
Senior: $145,000 to $200,000 a year

The San Francisco Bay Area pays the most, then New York and Seattle.

Big tech companies add stock on top, so their total pay is far above these ranges.

Sources: US Bureau of Labor Statistics (May 2025 data), Built In (2026), Indeed (Oct 2026), Robert Half 2027 Salary Guide (a projection).

Pay researched on 27 Oct 2026.

Job figures as of 5 Nov 2026.

United Kingdom

13% of the ads offer hybrid work, and 38% are fully remote.

Pay (Base salary)

Entry level: £30,000 to £45,000 a year
Mid-level: £45,000 to £70,000 a year
Senior: £65,000 to £95,000 a year

London pays clearly more than the rest of the UK, and "software engineer" ads pay a little more than "software developer" ads.

Contract work is common: the middle of the advertised day rates is about £425 to £575.

Sources: ITJobsWatch (Oct 2026), ITJobsWatch (senior) (Oct 2026), ITJobsWatch (junior) (Oct 2026), ITJobsWatch (software engineer) (Oct 2026), ITJobsWatch (contract rates) (Oct 2026), Indeed (Oct 2026).

Pay researched on 27 Oct 2026.

Job figures as of 5 Nov 2026.

Switzerland

2% of the ads offer hybrid work, and 57% are fully remote.

Pay (Base salary)

Entry level: CHF 80,000 to CHF 95,000 a year
Mid-level: CHF 95,000 to CHF 115,000 a year
Senior: CHF 115,000 to CHF 140,000 a year

Swiss salaries are often paid in 13 monthly payments; the figures here are for the whole year.

Sources: SwissDevJobs (2026), Indeed (Oct 2026), Payscale (Jul 2026), Lohncheck.ch (2026).

Pay researched on 27 Oct 2026.

Language: ads around Zurich and Basel often ask for German, ads around Geneva and Lausanne for French; international teams work in English.

Job figures as of 5 Nov 2026.

India

6% of the ads offer hybrid work, and 42% are fully remote.

Pay (Base salary)

Entry level: ₹4 lakh to ₹6.5 lakh a year
Mid-level: ₹6.5 lakh to ₹13 lakh a year
Senior: ₹12 lakh to ₹22 lakh a year

The kind of employer matters more than the years: product companies and multinationals pay far above IT services firms.

Bengaluru, Gurugram and Hyderabad pay the most.

Sources: Indeed (Oct 2026), Indeed (senior) (Oct 2026), Payscale (Oct 2026), Hyring (citing AmbitionBox) (Sep 2026).

Pay researched on 27 Oct 2026.

Job figures as of 5 Nov 2026.

Your CV for a software developer job

A developer CV is read twice: first by the hiring software, which looks for the words of the ad, then by an engineer, who looks for proof that you built real things. Write for both.

Use the words the ads use

Name your main language and framework exactly as the ad does: "Java, Spring Boot", not "JVM-based technologies".
Put a short skills line near the top with the core of the ad: your language (for example Java or Python), SQL, Git, CI/CD, Docker and your cloud.
Name the testing you do: unit tests, integration tests, test automation. Many ads ask for it and few CVs say it.
Only list what you could discuss for ten minutes. Every word on the CV can become an interview question.

Prove each skill

A skill in a list proves nothing. A line under a job proves it: what you built, how big it was, and one result that shows it worked, such as speed, errors, cost, users or time saved.

Skill	Weak line	Strong line, with proof
Java	Java, Spring.	Built the order service in Java and Spring Boot handling 2 million orders a month; cut checkout errors by 40%.
SQL	Good SQL skills.	Rewrote the 5 slowest reports' queries and added two indexes; the monthly report went from 9 minutes to 40 seconds.
CI/CD	Experience with CI/CD.	Set up a pipeline that tests every pull request; releases went from monthly to several a week.
Testing	Writes tests.	Raised test coverage of the billing module from 30% to 85%; production bugs there fell by half.
Docker	Docker, Kubernetes.	Moved 6 services into Docker containers; a new developer's setup went from two days to one hour.

Never claim what you did not do. A side project counts: say it is one, link the code, and describe its results the same way.

How we read our data

The jobs: the software developer jobs in our job search, matched the same way the search matches them. Our list is not the whole market, so we give shares and rankings, never counts.
The skills: we read a sample of the ads every day and count the skills in them with a fixed word list. We keep only the counts, never the ad text.
Pay: from published salary research, with each source and its date, as a range from entry level to senior. It is not worked out from our ads.
Dates: every figure is worked out again each day, and shows the day it was worked out.

Frequently asked questions

What does a software developer do?: Designs, writes, tests and maintains software, and fixes it when it breaks. Much of the day is reading code, reviewing changes and agreeing with the team what to build.
Is a software developer the same as a software engineer?: In job ads, mostly yes. Some companies use "engineer" for roles with more design and operations work, but the skills asked for are largely the same.
Which programming language should I learn?: The one the jobs you want ask for. Java, Python, C# and JavaScript with TypeScript cover most ads; one done well beats four done lightly.
What should a software developer CV show first?: Two or three things you built, each with what it did and one result that proves it worked, then a short skills line in the words of the ad.

More on the software developer role

The cvscored teamPublished 27 Oct 2026 · Updated 27 Oct 2026

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