How To Become A Developer Support Engineer: What It Is and Career Path

What is a developer support engineer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted experts

Frank McCown Ph.D.,

Kevin Treu Ph.D.

Developer Support Engineer helps developers to design solutions relating to the needs of the project. He/She installs and configures systems. He/She develops test structures for applications and solutions. Also, he/she performs debugging and troubleshooting of applications. His/Her duties also include collecting and analyzing data to identify problems and resolve them. The developer support engineer reviews customer specifications and evaluates necessary upgrades. He/She develops and maintains excellent relationships with clients to maximize their satisfaction.

Employers are looking for developer support engineers with a bachelor's degree in a related field and a minimum of two years of relevant work experience. You must have analytical, communication, customer service, and problem-solving skills. You must be conversant with software and application development fundamentals. Also, you must be familiar with modern web services. The average salary of a developer support engineer is $107,256 per year. Their salary ranges from $83,000 to $137,000.

What general advice would you give to a developer support engineer?

Frank McCown Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Harding University

The market is stable for software developers, despite the economic challenges created by the pandemic. Before accepting a job offer, talk to the company's employees through online meetings or email, and see what they think of the company. Do they enjoy their work? Are there opportunities to learn new technologies? How does the company treat their employees? There's a good chance you will be working remotely in your first job, so you will need to exercise a lot of self-discipline, be punctual for online meetings, do the work you've been assigned, and know when to ask questions when you get stuck. Expect a steeper-than-normal learning curve if you are working remotely instead of in an office.

ScoreDeveloper Support EngineerUS Average

Salary

7.9

Avg. Salary $111,050

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

4.0

Growth rate 21%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

4.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.17%

Asian 30.03%

Black or African American 4.33%

Hispanic or Latino 8.06%

Unknown 4.77%

White 52.65%

Gender

female 23.17%

male 76.83%

Age - 38

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 38

Stress level

4.0

Stress level is moderate

7.1 - high

Complexity level

7.9

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.6

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a developer support engineer

Explore developer support engineer education requirements

Most common developer support engineer degrees

Bachelor's

69.3 %

Master's

17.4 %

Associate

8.5 %

Start to develop specific developer support engineer skills

Skills	Percentages
Java	10.51%
C++	9.73%
Python	8.83%
API	5.95%
Technical Support	4.66%

Complete relevant developer support engineer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 3-6 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New developer support engineers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a developer support engineer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real developer support engineer resumes.

Research developer support engineer duties and responsibilities

Conduct several interviews with management and end-users which lead to finish the database application.
Develop user interfaces using JSP, HTML and CSS.
Develop UI using HTML, AJAX, Javascript and jQuery and jQueryUI.
Develop and maintain XML documentation in conjunction with the QA team to support code changes.

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