Finding your way as a software engineer is as challenging as it is rewarding. The software engineer career path is filled with opportunities in nearly every industry, and the role is only expected to become more necessary as time goes on. 

If you’re thinking about becoming a software engineer or already have a software engineer certification, it can be helpful to set career goals to guide your future. 

This article hones in on the best career path for software engineers who want to make more money and climb higher up the ladder. But it’s important to keep in mind that there are countless possibilities when it comes to building your coding career. Let this serve as a guide to help you carve your path as a skilled developer, no matter your software niche.

What’s the best software engineer career path to follow?

When it comes to planning a career as a software engineer, there is no one-size-fits-all. But if you choose to work your way up in an organization, there are a few tried and true methods.

The career path for software engineers moves from “individual contributor to leadership and mentoring,” Simon Farrell, VP of engineering at Forage, says. 

Moving up on the software engineer career ladder requires strengthening your hard skills, becoming more knowledgeable about big-picture technical solutions, and stepping up as a leader. 

The beauty of working in programming is that you can take it in various directions, like gaming, data analytics, and mobile engineering. You can even make a corner of the tech world your own by specializing in a certain area, like cloud computing. 

In general, software engineers can work internally for organizations or as freelancers for clients. There are pros and cons to each approach, and the best route for you will rely on the goals you have for your career and your lifestyle.

Freelance developer vs in-house

Becoming a freelance developer offers engineers the freedom to choose their clients and work on their schedules, but working your way up by adding to your education and experience comes with perks such as a consistent paycheck, company benefits, and the opportunity to work within a team.

As a freelancer, you’ll make your own business proposal to pitch your ideas to potential clients, but at an organization, you’ll be contributing to the company’s project goals. 

Entry-Level Software Engineer Roles

These roles are best for those with zero to a few years of experience and basic programming skills.

As an entry-level engineer, there should be no expectations on technical capability — it should all revolve around your willingness to learn and ability to work well in a team,” Farrell says. “Your responsibilities will range from working with others to implementing product features, fixing bugs, and writing automated tests. In most cases, you will be working directly with a product manager and starting to learn how to read and deliver on requirements.

You will hopefully also be supported by more senior engineers where you will be expected to learn new concepts and start to understand the code architecture and ways of working.

Examples of entry-level software engineer job titles include:

• Junior software engineer
• Engineer I
• Programmer I
• Quality assurance tester
• Associate Engineer

Mid-Level Software Engineer Roles

After you’ve obtained some software engineering experience and feel more comfortable with the engineering process and delivering software, you may move into a mid-level role. 

Examples of mid-level software engineer job titles include:

• Software engineer manager
• Software engineer II
• Programmer II

A mid-level software engineer typically gains more autonomy and their work can be held to higher quality standards,” says Anthony Figueroa, chief technology officer and co-founder at Rootstrap, a software development company. “They start to develop better communication skills, both with technical and non-technical people.

They usually solve problems faster and have a way of working that is predictable. At this point, developers usually start to notice when some decisions are not correct and have the right confidence level to speak up and discuss with other team members.

In mid-level roles, your work will likely be more collaborative with senior engineers, who may ask for your input on larger-scale solutions. You might also be involved in more mentorship, assisting entry-level engineers as needed, or even stepping into a managerial role. 

“As a mid-level engineer, the expectations and responsibilities will start to focus around your technical craftsmanship,” Farrell says. “You will be expected to not only deliver as an independent contributor but also start to contribute to technical solutions and future architecture.”

Senior-Level Software Engineer Roles

Senior-level software engineers are responsible for driving the technical solutions the engineering team carries out. As a senior leader, you’ll work not only to lead your team but collaborate with other relevant teams, like product, to provide the best solutions to company problems.

“People will start to look to you for guidance and you will find you will be spending much more time mentoring the team and working with product on features and solution design,” Farrell says. “Communication plays a key part in the success of senior engineers and your future pathway into technical leadership.”

Examples of job titles at this level include:

• VP of engineering
• Chief technology officer
• Principal engineer
• Senior engineer
• Distinguished engineer

senior software engineer position. At this point, you’ll have the SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle) down and maybe even know a few more programming languages. As a result, senior software engineers have more responsibilities when it comes to the business side of development. 

Software Engineer Skills, Education, and Certifications

Although most software engineers have degrees, there’s an industry shift to prioritize skills over degrees when hiring. 

Skills

The essential hard skills for the software engineer career path are programming skills. If you’re interested in becoming a software engineer, you should master one programming language and be comfortable using at least two others. 

Each company, and even each type of engineer, may prefer a different language. For example, front-end engineers often use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. According to a 2022 survey, the most common languages for software engineers worldwide are JavaScript, HTML/CSS, Python, SQL, and TypeScript.

Depending on what type of software engineer role you’re interested in, you might need some more specific engineering skills, like:

Software testing: testing and debugging software to make sure it works as intended

• Object-oriented design: an approach to software design
• Data structures and algorithms: ways to organize data
• Version control: a system that tracks code changes

Yet software engineering is more than just applying hard skills. You also need soft skills like collaboration, problem-solving, and communication to work efficiently with the rest of the engineering team. In addition, you’ll need adaptability skills and a desire to learn to keep up with new and changing technologies throughout your career.

Tech leader

Tech leaders manage teams of software engineers and developers. Since they are responsible for the entire development process from start to finish, they report the teams’ progress to managers and stakeholders.

Another perk of being a tech leader is that you’ll have the opportunity to offer your professional opinion when making SDLC decisions. 

Team manager

Breaking into management is a common pathway for many software engineers as they enter the most knowledgeable and experienced point in their careers.

Not only will you be responsible for managerial tasks as a team manager, but you’ll also be responsible for your team of software engineers. You’ll also guide operations and help your team members progress in their careers. 

Technical architect

If you’re more technically inclined, you may advance to a position as a technical architect later in your software engineering career path. Technical architects are responsible for overseeing the organization’s technical architecture and engineering design.

Chief technology officer (CTO)

At the peak of your software engineering career, you’ll find yourself in the role of a CTO. This is an executive position that comes with both a paycheck and respect. CTOs oversee the organization’s tech landscape, including R&D.

Although this is the most common engineer or web developer career path, it’s not the only way to achieve your goals.

Not only do different organizations have various career paths, but software engineers also have the option to specialize in niche positions or even create one!