How to hire a software project leader

How to hire a software project leader, step by step

Here's a step-by-step software project leader hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a software project leader job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new software project leader
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   Before you post your software project leader job, you should take the time to determine what type of worker your business needs. While certain jobs definitely require a full-time employee, it's sometimes better to find a software project leader for hire on a part-time basis or as a contractor.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   A software project leader's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, software project leaders from different industries or fields will have radically different experiences and will bring different viewpoints to the role. You also need to consider the candidate's previous level of experience to make sure they'll be comfortable with the job's level of seniority.

   This list shows salaries for various types of software project leaders.

   Type of Software Project Leader	Description	Hourly rate
   Software Project Leader	Software developers are the creative minds behind computer programs. Some develop the applications that allow people to do specific tasks on a computer or another device... Show more	$40-68
   Leader	Leaders pave the way for a company to achieve certain goals. They are in charge of bringing the organization to greater heights... Show more	$23-73
   Principal Software Engineer	A Principal Software Engineer is responsible for the technical aspects of an organization's projects. They diagnose, document, and troubleshoot systems to resolve problems identified through testing, as well as implement strategies to improve integration and efficiency.	$47-87

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Software Development
   • Project Management
   • Scrum
   • C
   • C++
   • Java
   • Software Project
   • Configuration Management
   • RTOS
   • SQL Server
   • Earned Value Management
   • JavaScript
   • Data Analysis
   • Linux

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Lead daily scrum meetings, organize and chair scrums with cross-functional teams to deliver the product goals and deliverables.
   • Maintain mature java-base web application design to automate highly detail engineering requests for the DoD.
   • Provide guidance and support to scrum team members, remove impediments and assist teams to maximize productivity.
   • Develop excellent debugging, analytical and programming skills.
   • Create the architecture framework for dynamically setting properties and property types for oracle using reflection.
   • Design enterprise software, including requirements analysis, software architecture, user interface, and database schema.

   More software project leader duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your software project leader job description is one of the best ways to attract top talent. A software project leader can vary based on:

   • Location. For example, software project leaders' average salary in missouri is 44% less than in california.
   • Seniority. Entry-level software project leaders 41% less than senior-level software project leaders.
   • Certifications. A software project leader with certifications usually earns a higher salary.
   • Company. Working for an established firm or a new start-up company can make a big difference in a software project leader's salary.

   Average software project leader salary

   $109,474yearly

   $52.63 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level software project leader salary

   $84,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 14, 2025

   Average software project leader salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$152,704	$73
   2	Washington	$125,139	$60
   3	Virginia	$111,029	$53
   4	Pennsylvania	$106,783	$51
   5	New York	$103,259	$50
   6	Michigan	$102,940	$49
   7	South Carolina	$101,251	$49
   8	Texas	$101,245	$49
   9	Massachusetts	$99,140	$48
   10	Maryland	$94,976	$46
   11	Colorado	$94,313	$45
   12	Tennessee	$94,078	$45
   13	Illinois	$93,389	$45
   14	Oklahoma	$92,244	$44
   15	Utah	$92,161	$44
   16	New Jersey	$92,121	$44
   17	Georgia	$88,602	$43
   18	Wisconsin	$87,814	$42
   19	Alabama	$84,953	$41
   20	Ohio	$83,360	$40

   Average software project leader salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Boston Consulting Group	$127,100	$61.11	17
   2	Sandia National Labs	$122,814	$59.05	3
   3	Thales	$119,786	$57.59	5
   4	Populus Group	$116,031	$55.78
   5	AT&T	$115,516	$55.54	45
   6	TRW Automotive Holdings	$114,920	$55.25
   7	Bosch USA	$113,652	$54.64	16
   8	DIRECTV Puerto Rico	$112,061	$53.88
   9	Visteon	$111,147	$53.44
   10	Jabra	$109,604	$52.69
   11	Stanley Black & Decker	$108,265	$52.05
   12	McKesson	$107,883	$51.87	12
   13	GE Healthcare Holdings Inc.	$106,796	$51.34	33
   14	Booz Allen Hamilton	$106,326	$51.12	151
   15	Satyam	$105,661	$50.80
   16	Aptiv	$105,661	$50.80
   17	Dst Inc	$105,661	$50.80
   18	DST Health Solutions LLC	$105,661	$50.80
   19	Kion Group	$105,661	$50.80	16
   20	Gn Us Holdings Inc	$105,637	$50.79

4. Writing a software project leader job description

   A software project leader job description should include a summary of the role, required skills, and a list of responsibilities. It's also good to include a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager. Below, you can find an example of a software project leader job description:

   Software project leader job description example

   X is Alphabet's moonshot factory. We are a diverse group of inventors and entrepreneurs who build and launch technologies that aim to improve the lives of millions, even billions, of people. Our goal: 10x impact on the world's most intractable problems, not just 10% improvement. We approach projects that have the aspiration and riskiness of research with the speed and ambition of a startup.
   About the team:
   
   You will join an early stage team exploring how a mix of new fabrics, robotics and AI/ML might help people with mobility challenges and improve quality of life for hundreds of millions of people. For example, imagine the functionality of exoskeletons in a form-factor closer to clothing. The project will be in a prototyping phase, rapidly iterating and implementing ideas to progressively de-risk the idea from a technical perspective.
   
   The team is multi-disciplinary, bringing together expertise in machine learning, biomechanics, robotics and soft goods. What unites us is a drive for impact and willingness to look ridiculous. We celebrate spectacular failures.
   
   About the role:
   
   You will be the project's technical lead for software, machine learning, high level controls, data insights and simulation. You'll work cross-functionally with the Hardware and Embedded Systems lead, Product Management, and other teams. Our team is small, scrappy and constantly evolving, as such, you should enjoy contributing high impact code as well as guiding and mentoring others.
   
   This is an incredibly dynamic role and requires high interdisciplinary communication, organization, and planning. The ideal candidate is a self-starter and has a track record of effectively operating in a dynamic loosely-structured environment (e.g. startup, new product within Google). You should be comfortable with uncertainty and constantly figuring out what to do next. If you like to know exactly what you'll be working on tomorrow/next quarter, it's probably not for you. If you flourish in creative chaos and can gently introduce a bit of rigor but not too much to kill the spirit of innovation, if you are motivated by making the world a better place through technology, and want to be part of an inclusive team with diverse mindsets and backgrounds that makes this happen - then this might just be the role for you.
   
   How you'll make 10X impact:
   
   * Be an active engineer and technical lead on the project. You must be willing to get your hands dirty! We operate Python, C++ and bash code in several distinct environments
   * Own the technical roadmap for software, ML and controls and drive the team to meet the milestones. Balance longevity and broad exploration with rapid execution. Work with the engineering team across SWE, Machine Learning, and statistical problems
   * Drive key decisions on software architecture. Produce technical and design documents. Lead design reviews and provide feedback to the team members.
   * You will be a key stakeholder for the product and hardware roadmap as well. Work to bring prototype to product. Work with UX, HW/SW, and PM to rapidly prototype features to speed up innovation.
   * Assess and scope technical feasibility of possible new products, prototypes, and research explorations
   * Work with internal and external partners to scope and execute data collection and testing as needed
   * Provide mentorship to the team members
   * Provide a sounding board of advice, assumption questioning, and puns to the project lead and other senior team members.
   
   What you should have:
   
   Having as many of these specific qualifications is a plus, but transferable skills/experiences from other adjacent domains may be equally valuable, we care more about who you are than what you've done.
   
   * Passion for impact, drive to help us achieve it and enough objectivity to tell us what's not possible
   * Technical leadership experience of successfully building and scaling teams and large scale software systems, ideally in a consumer product context. Experience of launching products interfacing multiple crossfunctions.
   * A visionary and audacious streak - we'd rather explore high-risk, high-reward ideas than build a functional, yet incremental, platform.
   * 5 years of technical leadership experience (TL/TLM) in algorithm development (AI/ML/Signal processing), software engineering, statistical analysis, and/or robotics controls
   * Ability to reduce ambiguity in a problem and make it tracktable, including vaguely posed ideas such as "can we use RL to learn better robotics control?"
   * Strong leadership skills, including written and verbal communication skills
   * Experience with, exposure to, or interest in robotics, controls, HW/SW integration, mobility, wearables is nice-to-have, but you'll be working with a strong robotics lead and in a team with many content experts - we can teach you robotics easier than we can teach an robotics expert leadership and cultural attributes.

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   To find software project leaders for your business, try out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important talent pools for any company is its current employees.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and your current work to ask if they know any software project leaders they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit entry-level software project leaders with the right educational background.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter have more than 3.5 billion users, and they're a great place for company branding and reaching potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your software project leader job on Zippia to find and recruit software project leader candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites such as dice, engineering.com, stack overflow, it job pro.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   During your first interview to recruit software project leaders, engage with candidates to learn about their interest in the role and experience in the field. During the following interview, you'll be able to go into more detail about the company, the position, and the responsibilities.

   Remember to include a few questions that allow candidates to expand on their strengths in their own words. Asking about their unique skills might reveal things you'd miss otherwise. At this point, good candidates can move on to the technical interview.

   Sometimes, it's not enough to interview software project leader candidates, so you can ask them to do a test project. If you are not a technical person and don't know what a test project should be, you can use these websites:

   • TestDome
   • CodeSignal
   • Testlify
   • BarRaiser
   • Coderbyte

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new software project leader

   Once you've selected the best software project leader candidate for the job, it's time to write an offer letter. In addition to salary, this letter should include details about the benefits and perks you offer the candidate. Ensuring that your offer is competitive is essential, as qualified candidates may be considering other job opportunities. The candidate may wish to negotiate the terms of the offer, and you should be open to discussion. After you reach an agreement, the final step is formalizing the agreement with a contract.

   It's also important to follow up with applicants who do not get the job with an email letting them know that the position is filled.

   Once that's done, you can draft an onboarding schedule for the new software project leader. Human Resources should complete Employee Action Forms and ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc. They should also ensure that new employee files are created for internal recordkeeping.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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