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Best Jobs For Former Senior Software Engineers [2023]

By Chris Kolmar
Jul. 13, 2022

It’s tough to be a senior software engineer nowadays, and more and more of them are losing confidence in their own profession.

While the amount of people majoring in courses preparing people for a job as a senior software engineer isn’t necessarily dropping, fewer and fewer people are applying to become senior software engineers in the first place and the workforce itself is looking grim.

With so many senior software engineers no longer sticking around, this begs the question:

What are they all doing now?

We were curious, so we looked through the resumes of former senior software engineers to see what kind of jobs they were moving into after leaving the field. There were thousands of answers, so we made the cutoff at the top 100 jobs.

But given that there are some very surprising and interesting items on this list, we’ve decided to highlight a few of those instead.

Best Jobs For Former SENIOR SOFTWARE ENGINEERS

  1. Lead Technician Jobs

  2. Lead Developer Jobs

  3. Project Leader Jobs

  4. Developer Jobs

  5. Solutions Architect Jobs

  6. Quality Assurance Lead Jobs

  7. Systems Analyst Jobs

  8. Architect Jobs

  9. Architect And Developer Jobs

  10. Applications Developer Jobs

Some of these items are admittedly more attractive than one another as far as actually working the job goes, but one way or another, you’ve got to admit they’re eye-catching.

The full list of those jobs can be found below.

Detailed Ranking of the Most Common Jobs of Former SENIOR SOFTWARE ENGINEERS

Rank Job Title %
1 Software Engineer 4.96%
2 Lead Technician 3.1%
3 Consultant 2.12%
4 Senior Consultant 1.67%
5 Software Developer 1.65%
6 Senior Java Developer 1.58%
7 Principal Software Engineer 1.5%
8 Lead Developer 1.43%
9 Team Leader 1.22%
10 Project Manager 1.12%
11 Project Leader 0.9%
12 Developer 0.88%
13 Solutions Architect 0.81%
14 Programmer Analyst 0.8%
15 Senior .net Developer 0.79%
16 Business Analyst 0.74%
17 Senior Project Manager 0.73%
18 Quality Assurance Lead 0.67%
19 Systems Analyst 0.67%
20 Staff Software Engineer 0.65%
21 Architect 0.62%
22 Architect And Developer 0.61%
23 Senior Engineer 0.58%
24 Senior Programmer Analyst 0.58%
25 Applications Developer 0.57%
26 Chief Technology Officer 0.56%
27 Software Consultant 0.54%
28 Software Development Manager 0.52%
29 Software Architect 0.51%
30 Director Of Software Development 0.51%
31 Senior Systems Engineer 0.51%
32 Senior Web Developer 0.48%
33 Product Manager 0.47%
34 Technical Analyst 0.46%
35 Lead Engineer 0.46%
36 Technology Architect 0.45%
37 Web Developer 0.45%
38 Senior Systems Analyst 0.45%
39 Senior Associate 0.43%
40 Information Technology Project Manager 0.42%
41 Software Development Engineer 0.42%
42 Technical Consultant 0.41%
43 Systems Engineer 0.41%
44 Vice President 0.41%
45 Program Manager 0.39%
46 Senior Software Architect 0.38%
47 Lead Architect 0.37%
48 Senior Manager 0.37%
49 Principal Engineer 0.37%
50 Principal Consultant 0.35%
51 Development Manager 0.34%
52 Senior Technologist 0.33%
53 Module Lead 0.32%
54 Senior/lead Developer 0.31%
55 Manager 0.31%
56 Software Engineer-Consultant 0.31%
57 Information Technology Manager 0.3%
58 Senior Quality Assurance Engineer 0.3%
59 Senior Etl Developer 0.29%
60 Java Developer 0.29%
61 Senior Architect 0.29%
62 Senior Analyst 0.29%
63 Developer/consultant 0.27%
64 Senior Technical Consultant 0.27%
65 Software Engineering Manager 0.27%
66 Engineering Manager 0.27%
67 Information Technology Consultant 0.27%
68 Research Assistant 0.27%
69 Senior Business Analyst 0.26%
70 Owner 0.26%
71 Engineering Director 0.26%
72 Senior Software Engineer/architect 0.26%
73 Software Engineer-Team Lead 0.26%
74 Staff Engineer 0.25%
75 Technical Director 0.25%
76 Senior Programmer 0.25%
77 Technical Project Manager 0.24%
78 Quality Assurance Engineer 0.24%
79 Engineer 0.23%
80 Lead Consultant 0.23%
81 Systems Administrator 0.22%
82 Data Analyst 0.22%
83 Associate 0.22%
84 Member, Technical Staff 0.21%
85 Net Developer 0.21%
86 Senior Technician Specialist 0.21%
87 Senior Test Engineer 0.21%
88 Information Technology Analyst 0.21%
89 Technical Manager 0.21%
90 Technical Specialist 0.21%
91 Oracle Developer 0.2%
92 Senior Product Manager 0.2%
93 Software Test Engineer 0.2%
94 Founder 0.2%
95 Lead Software Developer 0.2%
96 Mobile Applications Developer 0.2%
97 Database Administrator 0.19%
98 Senior Software Engineer Lead 0.19%
99 Graduate Research Assistant 0.18%
100 Development Technician 0.18%

Most Common Jobs For Former SENIOR SOFTWARE ENGINEERS

  1. Software Engineer

  2. Lead Technician

  3. Consultant

  4. Senior Consultant

  5. Software Developer

  6. Senior Java Developer

  7. Principal Software Engineer

  8. Lead Developer

  9. Team Leader

  10. Project Manager

These are all good jobs, all of them either utilizing some skill that a senior software engineer would have or being a stepping stone to a different career.

Here’s the thing about these jobs though — they’re pretty much exactly what you’d expect a lot of former senior software engineers to do.

How We Determined the Best Jobs of Former SENIOR SOFTWARE ENGINEERS

Using resume information from our database of over 7 million resumes, we looked at all resumes that listed senior software engineer under their work history. Then we looked at which jobs showed up on their work histories following their stints as a senior software engineer, sorting them by their most frequent.

That’s how we made the initial ranked list.

To make our list of most interesting jobs, we looked through the ranked list to see if any positions:

  • Showed up in fewer than 1% of all new jobs
  • And, were not part of the 100 most common jobs in our database

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Author

Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar is a co-founder of Zippia and the editor-in-chief of the Zippia career advice blog. He has hired over 50 people in his career, been hired five times, and wants to help you land your next job. His research has been featured on the New York Times, Thrillist, VOX, The Atlantic, and a host of local news. More recently, he's been quoted on USA Today, BusinessInsider, and CNBC.

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