How To Become A Senior Developer Analyst: What It Is and Career Path

What is a senior developer analyst and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Dr. Tao Ju

The senior developer analyst's role is to define, develop, test, analyze, and maintain new software applications in support of the achievement of business requirements. This includes writing, coding, testing, and analyzing software programs and applications. The senior developer analyst would also research, design, document, and modify software specifications throughout the production life cycle. They also provide mentoring, support, and guidance to the programmer/analyst's role.

This position will require a college diploma or university degree in the field of computer science, information systems, or software engineering, and four years equivalent work experience or an associate degree to become a developer analyst; however, it will take an additional six to ten years of experience to achieve the senior role.

The senior developer analyst makes about $88,981 per year. Nonetheless, this figure can vary significantly depending upon experience and premise.

What general advice would you give to a senior developer analyst?

Dr. Tao Ju

Vice Dean for Research & Professor, Washington University in St. Louis

They are not in this alone. The opportunities are out there, but it is up to them to be proactive and take ownership of their career. They should become familiar with and use all of the resources available to them-alumni, faculty and career advisors, job search sites, mentoring programs, career fairs, professional associations, and networking events. Take advantage of their existing network and seek out ways to make further connections. Keep an eye on trends, follow news, and research companies. Dream big but be flexible. In this time of constant transition and change, graduates who can shift their plans to the conditions of the job market will have less stress and more success. Talk with companies they've never heard of and explore careers they've never considered. They might be surprised at what they find and where it leads them. Lastly, remain confident and positive. They've worked hard to get to this point and they can be rest assured that their choice to pursue engineering will pay off in the short and long run.

ScoreSenior Developer AnalystUS Average

Salary

7.5

Avg. Salary $96,151

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

5.3

Growth rate 9%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.3

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.19%

Asian 21.43%

Black or African American 9.65%

Hispanic or Latino 10.53%

Unknown 4.97%

White 53.23%

Gender

female 24.87%

male 75.13%

Age - 42

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 - 42

Stress level

5.3

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.3

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.8

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a senior developer analyst

Explore senior developer analyst education requirements

Most common senior developer analyst degrees

Bachelor's

69.6 %

Master's

19.2 %

Associate

7.1 %

Start to develop specific senior developer analyst skills

Skills	Percentages
Java	6.66%
C++	5.79%
C #	5.79%
SQL Server	3.75%
Power Bi	3.60%

Complete relevant senior developer analyst training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New senior developer analysts 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 senior developer analyst based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real senior developer analyst resumes.

Research senior developer analyst duties and responsibilities

Manage a small team of developers to create a new suite of mainframe services and batch programs.
Maintain, debug, and manage PC base manufacturing/planning/costing systems to ensure accurate forecasting, scheduling, and production planning.
Create and maintain application specific user help documentation output in HTML with CSS formatting.
Develop multiple PL/SQL packages, procedures, tables, triggers, and Unix shell scripts to support business changes.

Get senior developer analyst experience

Generally, it takes 4-6 years to become a senior developer analyst. The most common roles before becoming a senior developer analyst include programmer analyst, senior software engineer team lead and senior programmer analyst.

Prepare your senior developer analyst resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your senior developer analyst 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 senior developer analyst resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

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