If you want to become a designated in-house authority or a technology guru, the role of a lead developer may right up your alley. In the IT world, a lead developer is a software engineer in charge of several projects. In many organizations, the role of lead developer goes beyond software development and reaches the technical leader of a team of developers.
In general, a lead developer is responsible for advocating on best practices, communicating progress, monitoring other developers, and providing technical guidance to the team; in short, they are responsible for facilitating the smooth running of projects. They may collaborate with makers, stakeholders, designers, CEOs, or top managers to ensure that the goals of the team align with the business goals of clients. Moreover, they act as a bridge between their development team and other business-oriented departments in their organization.
This career requires a bachelor's degree in computer science, software engineering, math, physics, or a related field. Most employers prefer an individual with several years of experience in software development. Lead developers should also have in-depth knowledge of software development, hands-on experience with coding and delivering digital products, and the ability to delegate tasks to other team members and peer developers.
Lead Developer Overview
Lead Developer Careers
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a lead developer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $49.49 an hour? That's $102,930 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 21% and produce 284,100 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Lead Developer Do
There are certain skills that many lead developers have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed analytical skills, communication skills and creativity.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a lead developer, we found that a lot of resumes listed 6.6% of lead developers included web services, while 5.7% of resumes included java, and 5.7% of resumes included javascript. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the lead developer job title. But what industry to start with? Most lead developers actually find jobs in the technology and finance industries.
How To Become a Lead Developer
If you're interested in becoming a lead developer, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 53.2% of lead developers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 30.6% of lead developers have master's degrees. Even though most lead developers have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a lead developer. When we researched the most common majors for a lead developer, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on lead developer resumes include associate degree degrees or doctoral degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a lead developer. In fact, many lead developer jobs require experience in a role such as developer. Meanwhile, many lead developers also have previous career experience in roles such as senior software engineer or software engineer.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the right jobs to get there.
Lead Developer Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of lead technician you might progress to a role such as project manager eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title senior director of information & technology.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for a Lead Developer
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
YMCA of Greater Seattle Lead Youth Development Instructor Lead Youth Development Instructor | YMCA of Greater Seattle YMCA of Greater Seattle | 03/26/2021 03/26/2021 | $37,04403/26/2021 $37,044 |
City of Aurora, Co After School Leader-Youth Development After School Leader-Youth Development | City of Aurora, Co City of Aurora, Co | 03/25/2021 03/25/2021 | $31,30503/25/2021 $31,305 |
Epiroc Lead Back End Developer Lead Back End Developer | Epiroc Epiroc | 03/25/2021 03/25/2021 | $81,55703/25/2021 $81,557 |
Randstad Lead SAP Hybris Developer Lead SAP Hybris Developer | Randstad Randstad | 03/25/2021 03/25/2021 | $140,00003/25/2021 $140,000 |
Bisoft LLC Lead Curam Developer (633514) Lead Curam Developer (633514) | Bisoft LLC Bisoft LLC | 03/25/2021 03/25/2021 | $146,09003/25/2021 $146,090 |
Calculate your salary
Use Zippia's Salary Calculator to see how your pay matches up.
Lead Developer Resumes
Designing and figuring out what to include on your resume can be tough, not to mention time-consuming. That's why we put together a guide that is designed to help you craft the perfect resume for becoming a Lead Developer. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
Learn How To Write a Lead Developer Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Lead Developer resumes and compiled some information about how best to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Detailed InformationTop Colleges for Lead Developers
1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA • Private
2. Stanford University
Stanford, CA • Private
3. Harvard University
Cambridge, MA • Private
4. Duke University
Durham, NC • Private
5. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
6. Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA • Public
7. Cornell University
Ithaca, NY • Private
8. Georgetown University
Washington, DC • Private
9. Dartmouth College
Hanover, NH • Private
10. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
Top Skills For a Lead Developer
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 6.6% of lead developers listed web services on their resume, but soft skills such as analytical skills and communication skills are important as well.
- Web Services, 6.6%
- Java, 5.7%
- Javascript, 5.7%
- Architecture, 5.2%
- Procedures, 4.9%
- Other Skills, 71.9% See All Lead Developer Skills
Best States For a Lead Developer
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a lead developer. The best states for people in this position are Washington, California, New York, and Virginia. Lead developers make the most in Washington with an average salary of $125,596. Whereas in California and New York, they would average $124,138 and $106,570, respectively. While lead developers would only make an average of $105,734 in Virginia, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. California
$124,138
Avg. Salary
2. Nevada
$102,030
Avg. Salary
3. District of Columbia
$117,597
Avg. Salary
How Do Lead Developer Rate Their Jobs?
Top Lead Developer Employers
We've made finding a great employer to work for easy by doing the hard work for you. We looked into employers that employ lead developers and discovered their number of lead developer opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that Headstrong was the best, especially with an average salary of $88,309. IBM follows up with an average salary of $77,952, and then comes Tata Consultancy Services with an average of $99,462. In addition, we know most people would rather work from home. So instead of having to change careers, we identified the best employers for remote work as a lead developer. The employers include DXC Technology, Perficient, and Micro Focus
Lead Developer Videos
