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What is a team lead and developer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025
4 min read
Quoted experts
Frank McCown Ph.D.,
Kevin Treu Ph.D.
introduction image

A team lead and developer manages a team of developers and is responsible for ensuring that all of the team's goals are met. They use their leadership, team management, and communication skills to keep everybody on the same page and help team members work cohesively. They are also responsible for training new developers, identifying areas for improvement, and helping team members improve their skills and work habits.

On top of these job duties, a team lead and developer also performs administrative tasks, such as updating employee records, creating schedules, creating progress reports, and communicating with upper management and other team leads.

To become a team lead and developer, one must have extensive work experience, ideally in a supervisory role. More importantly, they must have proven expertise as a developer in past job positions. Apart from that, a team lead and developer must have strong leadership, communication, collaboration, and people management skills to lead a team of developers effectively.

As part of management, a team lead and developer earns a high average annual salary of $109,000, with top earners earning as much as $147,000 a year.

What general advice would you give to a team lead and developer?

Frank McCown Ph.D.Frank McCown Ph.D. LinkedIn profile

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.
ScoreTeam Lead And DeveloperUS Average
Salary
6.7

Avg. Salary $85,824

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 29.86%

Black or African American 4.53%

Hispanic or Latino 8.28%

Unknown 4.83%

White 52.34%

Gender

female 25.97%

male 74.03%

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
7.9

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance
6.6

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Team lead and developer career paths

Key steps to become a team lead and developer

  1. Explore team lead and developer education requirements

    Most common team lead and developer degrees

    Bachelor's

    69.6 %

    Master's

    18.9 %

    Associate

    6.1 %
  2. Start to develop specific team lead and developer skills

    SkillsPercentages
    Java7.57%
    Architecture5.96%
    C++5.72%
    JavaScript5.47%
    SQL Server4.26%
  3. Complete relevant team lead and developer training and internships

    Accountants spend an average of 3-6 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New team lead and developers 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 team lead and developer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real team lead and developer resumes.
  4. Research team lead and developer duties and responsibilities

    • Work on defect management process manage within JIRA system.
    • Manage a staff of remote senior developers and designers of varying languages utilizing scrum and agile.
    • Develop an internal test website using HTML and Perl to automate the team's software development status reporting.
    • Collaborate with business analysts and UI design team to gather requirements for the project and to manage scope.
  5. Get team lead and developer experience

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

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

    Choose from 10+ customizable team lead and developer resume templates

    Build a professional team lead and developer 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 team lead and developer resume.
    Team Lead And Developer Resume
    Team Lead And Developer Resume
    Team Lead And Developer Resume
    Team Lead And Developer Resume
    Team Lead And Developer Resume
    Team Lead And Developer Resume
    Team Lead And Developer Resume
    Team Lead And Developer Resume
    Team Lead And Developer Resume
  7. Apply for team lead and developer jobs

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

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

How did you land your first team lead and developer job

Zippi

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Average team lead and developer salary

The average team lead and developer salary in the United States is $85,824 per year or $41 per hour. Team lead and developer salaries range between $48,000 and $152,000 per year.

Average team lead and developer salary
$85,824 Yearly
$41.26 hourly

What am I worth?

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How do team lead and developers rate their job?

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Team lead and developer reviews

profile
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 :)


profile
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


profile
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.


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Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

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