A senior programmer is responsible for the design, development, and implementation of software programs and applications that align with the business requirements. He or she leads a team of junior programmers in encoding, testing, and debugging an organization's software programs and applications.
They are also responsible for holding client meetings, implementing new projects, proposing business solutions, and generally providing technical support to all personnel in an organization.
Senior programmers work closely with other programmers, analysts, IT staff, finance staff, and managers to understand system needs and develop solutions within set timelines and budgets. A successful senior programmer should have extensive knowledge and experience in programming, leadership skills, communication skills, analytical skills, attention to detail, and problem-solving skills.
Senior programmers typically work 40 hours a week Monday to Friday from 9 to 5. They may work remotely sometimes or work off-site when they have client meetings.
Senior Programmer Overview
Senior Programmer Careers
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a senior programmer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $44.05 an hour? That's $91,617 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -7% and produce -17,900 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Senior Programmer Do
There are certain skills that many senior programmers 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 concentration, troubleshooting skills and detail oriented.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a senior programmer, we found that a lot of resumes listed 12.6% of senior programmers included procedures, while 9.9% of resumes included sas, and 7.9% of resumes included database. 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 senior programmer job title. But what industry to start with? Most senior programmers actually find jobs in the technology and finance industries.
How To Become a Senior Programmer
If you're interested in becoming a senior programmer, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 69.5% of senior programmers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 16.9% of senior programmers have master's degrees. Even though most senior programmers 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 senior programmer. When we researched the most common majors for a senior programmer, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on senior programmer resumes include associate degree degrees or diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a senior programmer. In fact, many senior programmer jobs require experience in a role such as programmer. Meanwhile, many senior programmers also have previous career experience in roles such as programmer analyst or senior software engineer.
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Senior Programmer 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 senior software engineer you might progress to a role such as manager eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title information technology operations manager.
Senior Programmer Jobs You Might Like
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Average Salary for a Senior Programmer
Best Paying Cities For Senior Programmers
Recently Added Salaries
Company  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Splunk Senior Programmer Writer (Remote-US West) | Splunk | 08/05/2021 | $90,00008/05/2021 |
Splunk Senior Programmer Writer (Remote-US West) | Splunk | 08/05/2021 | $90,00008/05/2021 |
Splunk Senior Programmer Writer (Remote-US West) | Splunk | 08/05/2021 | $90,00008/05/2021 |
Vizient Senior Statistical Programmer, SAS | Vizient | 08/05/2021 | $75,10008/05/2021 |
Splunk Senior Programmer Writer (Remote-US West) | Splunk | 08/05/2021 | $90,00008/05/2021 |
Calculate your salary
Use Zippia's Salary Calculator to see how your pay matches up.
Senior Programmer 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 Senior Programmer. 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 Senior Programmer Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Senior Programmer resumes and compiled some information about how to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Senior Programmer Resume Examples And TemplatesTop Colleges for Senior Programmers
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 • Private
7. Cornell University
Ithaca, NY • Private
8. Georgetown University
Washington, DC • Private
9. Dartmouth College
Hanover, NH • Private
10. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
Online Courses For Senior Programmer That You May Like
Using PL/SQL learn how to combine the efficiency of SQL & Procedural Language(PL) to build a powerful PL/SQL Application...
Attempt Projects and Tests on a mock database that is designed to simulate the day-to-day work of a SQL programmer...
Full-Stack MVC Web Application with ASP.NET Core 3.0, ASP.NET Core 2.2 & Entity Framework Core...
Top Skills For a Senior Programmer
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, 12.6% of senior programmers listed procedures on their resume, but soft skills such as concentration and troubleshooting skills are important as well.
- Procedures, 12.6%
- SAS, 9.9%
- Database, 7.9%
- C++, 6.8%
- Adam, 5.4%
- Other Skills, 57.4% See All Senior Programmer Skills
Best States For a Senior Programmer
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a senior programmer. The best states for people in this position are West Virginia, California, Washington, and North Carolina. Senior programmers make the most in West Virginia with an average salary of $110,339. Whereas in California and Washington, they would average $105,292 and $105,058, respectively. While senior programmers would only make an average of $98,547 in North Carolina, 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. Washington
$105,058
Avg. Salary
2. District of Columbia
$108,664
Avg. Salary
3. California
$105,292
Avg. Salary
How Do Senior Programmer Rate Their Jobs?
Top Senior Programmer 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 senior programmers and discovered their number of senior programmer opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that IBM was the best, especially with an average salary of $74,622. Accenture follows up with an average salary of $98,754, and then comes Parexel with an average of $96,440. 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 senior programmer. The employers include Battelle, Siemens, and Leidos
Senior Programmer Videos
