How To Become A Lead Development Engineer: What It Is and Career Path

What is a lead development engineer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted experts

Frank McCown Ph.D.,

Kevin Treu Ph.D.

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a lead development engineer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $55.12 an hour? That's $114,658 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 21% and produce 284,100 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a lead development 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.

ScoreLead Development EngineerUS Average

Salary

8.0

Avg. Salary $114,658

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 29.76%

Black or African American 4.63%

Hispanic or Latino 8.40%

Unknown 4.86%

White 52.17%

Gender

female 12.84%

male 87.16%

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

8.1

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.6

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a lead development engineer

Explore lead development engineer education requirements

Most common lead development engineer degrees

Bachelor's

69.2 %

Master's

20.8 %

Associate

6.9 %

Start to develop specific lead development engineer skills

Skills	Percentages
Java	18.71%
Python	9.29%
API	7.39%
Code Reviews	4.16%
CSS	3.57%

Complete relevant lead development engineer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 3-6 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New lead development 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 lead development engineer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real lead development engineer resumes.

Research lead development engineer duties and responsibilities

Lead the design and development of a web-base platform construct in JAVA and MySQL.
Manage and provide consultation to GEC teams in china for coding, testing, and debugging the code.
Manage application delivery projects using background in SDLC and project management methodology.
Front end applications are developed using HTML, CSS, jQuery, AJAX.

Get lead development engineer experience

Generally, it takes 2-4 years to become a lead development engineer. The most common roles before becoming a lead development engineer include software engineer, senior software engineer team lead and lead engineer.

Prepare your lead development engineer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your lead development engineer resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a lead development engineer resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable lead development engineer resume templates

Build a professional lead development engineer resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your lead development engineer resume.

Apply for lead development engineer jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a lead development engineer job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do lead development engineers rate their job?

-/5

5 stars

4 stars

3 stars

2 stars

1 star

Lead development engineer reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Nov 2023

Pros

Problem solving and cutting edge technology - always learning and evolving my skill set

Cons

Still have to deal with people :)

A zippia user wrote a review on Jun 2020

Pros

I enjoyed working on creative problems that dealt with the user interface

Cons

I didn't like how technical it could become

A zippia user wrote a review on Aug 2019

Pros

Designing a new system or making changes to an old one.

Cons

Compensation. Pay and Benefits do not match the time spent on a project. Alabama is the Worst state to live in for SOFTWARE ENGINEER Salaries. 40 to 50 percent less than our peer States.

What is a lead development engineer and how to become one

What general advice would you give to a lead development engineer?

Lead development engineer career paths

Key steps to become a lead development engineer

Explore lead development engineer education requirements

Most common lead development engineer degrees

Start to develop specific lead development engineer skills

Complete relevant lead development engineer training and internships

Research lead development engineer duties and responsibilities

Get lead development engineer experience

Prepare your lead development engineer resume

Choose from 10+ customizable lead development engineer resume templates

Apply for lead development engineer jobs

How did you land your first lead development engineer job

Average lead development engineer salary

How do lead development engineers rate their job?

Lead development engineer reviews