How To Become A Systems Lead Programmer: What It Is and Career Path

What is a systems lead programmer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a systems lead programmer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $54.48 an hour? That's $113,321 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 9% and produce 56,000 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreSystems Lead ProgrammerUS Average

Salary

8.0

Avg. Salary $113,321

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

5.3

Growth rate 9%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.19%

Asian 14.60%

Black or African American 10.18%

Hispanic or Latino 10.97%

Unknown 5.00%

White 59.05%

Gender

female 13.98%

male 86.02%

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 systems lead programmer

Explore systems lead programmer education requirements

Most common systems lead programmer degrees

Bachelor's

70.0 %

Master's

14.7 %

Associate

11.3 %

Start to develop specific systems lead programmer skills

Skills	Percentages
Mainframe	6.93%
MQ	6.81%
Disaster Recovery	5.82%
DB2	5.82%
CICS	5.78%

Complete relevant systems lead programmer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New systems lead programmers 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 systems lead programmer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real systems lead programmer resumes.

Research systems lead programmer duties and responsibilities

Lead a project which provide a network channel connection to the mainframe providing applications for lan-attach devices.
Manage business requirements gathering for functionality development and interface definition from the legacy systems to the CRM and SA management applications.
Create and provide configuration support for TCP/IP and VTAM interfaces.
Assist the CICS, DB2 and IMS systems programmers with the installation, testing and implementation of new releases.

Get systems lead programmer experience

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

Prepare your systems lead programmer resume

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

Choose from 10+ customizable systems lead programmer resume templates

Build a professional systems lead programmer 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 systems lead programmer resume.

Apply for systems lead programmer jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a systems lead programmer 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 systems lead programmers rate their job?

-/5

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Systems lead programmer reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Aug 2023

Pros

$88K may be the average, but a Senior CICS System Programmer (let's say 5 to 10 years of experience, and really knowledgeable) will pay $70/hour. Again, you really have to know your internals and debugging, and newer stuff like CPSM, TCP/IP, JVM, etc.

Cons

You will be oncall...personally,I am once every 5 weeks. My shop is pretty static, so I don't get called often...but some shops can have brutal oncalls.

A zippia user wrote a review on Jun 2019