---
title: "Software Developer job description: what real postings ask for (2026)"
description: "**Canonical URL:** https://jobspipe.dev/job-description/software-developer"
canonical: https://jobspipe.dev/job-description/software-developer
last_updated: 2026-09-10
---

# Software Developer job description: what real postings ask for (2026)

> Software Developer job description measured from live postings: 9.5% remote, 20.0% disclose pay, plus the skills and seniority employers ask for.

**Canonical URL:** https://jobspipe.dev/job-description/software-developer

This page reads every active software developer posting JobsPipe collects from LinkedIn, Indeed, Y Combinator, Workday, Greenhouse, Workable, SmartRecruiters, Ashby, Lever and Paylocity and turns it into a job description you can check against the market: the skills employers actually name, the seniority they target, how often the role is remote or lists pay, and which industries and countries the postings come from.

9.5% of these postings are marked remote, 20.0% state a salary or range, the most named skill is communication at 33.1% and the most common seniority label is senior at 18.6%. Postings with no seniority label stay in the denominator, so the seniority shares do not sum to one, and a posting counts once per skill it names, so the skill shares overlap.

## Headline shares

- **Remote:** 9.5%
- **Pay disclosed:** 20.0%

## Responsibilities employers list

- Own the day-to-day engineering work the role exists for, including SQL and Java.
- Keep agile and Python current and apply them to the recurring tasks that software developer postings describe.
- Work with the people who rely on the role, since employers name communication alongside the technical requirements.
- Meet the quality, safety and documentation standards the employer sets for engineering work.
- Document the work and hand it over cleanly so the rest of the engineering team can pick it up.
- Take ownership of the harder problems and mentor less experienced colleagues, since postings most often label the role as senior.
- Be present on site, since few software developers are hired for remote work in the postings.

## Requirements and skills

- Communication: named in 33.1% of software developer postings.
- SQL: named in 31.9% of software developer postings.
- Java: named in 31.5% of software developer postings.
- Also frequently named: agile (31.3%), Python (29.2%), CI/CD (28.8%).
- Seniority: postings most often label the role senior (18.6%), with entry level next at 7.3%. Postings with no label are not counted in either.
- Remote: 9.5% of software developer postings carry a remote flag. Say explicitly whether this role is remote, hybrid or on site.
- Pay: 20.0% of software developer postings state a salary or range. Include one to stand out from the rest.
- Employment type: full-time in 75.8% of postings that state a type.

## Skills named in the text (top twelve)

| Cut | Share |
|---|---|
| communication | 33.1% |
| sql | 31.9% |
| java | 31.5% |
| agile | 31.3% |
| python | 29.2% |
| ci/cd | 28.8% |
| git | 27.1% |
| c# | 24.6% |
| javascript | 22.8% |
| .net | 22.0% |
| aws | 21.1% |
| azure | 20.3% |

## Seniority stated in the posting

| Cut | Share |
|---|---|
| Entry level | 7.3% |
| Mid level | 6.2% |
| Senior | 18.6% |
| Lead or manager | 1.7% |
| Executive | 0.7% |

## Industries hiring software developers (ISIC division)

| Cut | Share |
|---|---|
| Software and IT services | 19.1% |
| Employment and staffing | 4.6% |
| Financial services | 4.0% |
| Head offices and consulting | 2.0% |
| Architecture and engineering | 1.7% |
| Scientific R&D | 1.4% |
| Other transport equipment | 1.4% |
| Information services | 1.2% |

## Where the roles are

| Cut | Share |
|---|---|
| United States | 26.5% |
| Germany | 12.9% |
| India | 12.6% |
| Canada | 8.8% |
| France | 6.1% |
| Brazil | 5.1% |
| United Kingdom | 2.8% |
| Mexico | 2.5% |

## Employer size, where known

| Cut | Share |
|---|---|
| 1-50 employees | 5.1% |
| 51-200 employees | 4.0% |
| 201-1000 employees | 6.6% |
| 1000+ employees | 21.3% |

## Employment type

| Cut | Share |
|---|---|
| Full-time | 75.8% |
| Contract | 4.0% |
| Part-time | 0.8% |
| Internship | 0.5% |

## A job description template for a Software Developer

Every share in the template is measured from the postings above, not invented.

```text
Title: Software Developer

Summary
We are hiring a software developer to own the engineering work described below. The responsibilities and requirements follow what active software developer postings ask for, so candidates who have done this job will recognise it.

Responsibilities
- Own the day-to-day engineering work the role exists for, including SQL and Java.
- Keep agile and Python current and apply them to the recurring tasks that software developer postings describe.
- Work with the people who rely on the role, since employers name communication alongside the technical requirements.
- Meet the quality, safety and documentation standards the employer sets for engineering work.
- Document the work and hand it over cleanly so the rest of the engineering team can pick it up.
- Take ownership of the harder problems and mentor less experienced colleagues, since postings most often label the role as senior.
- Be present on site, since few software developers are hired for remote work in the postings.

Requirements
- Communication (named in 33.1% of software developer postings)
- SQL (named in 31.9% of software developer postings)
- Java (named in 31.5% of software developer postings)
- Agile (named in 31.3% of software developer postings)
- Python (named in 29.2% of software developer postings)
- CI/CD (named in 28.8% of software developer postings)
- Level: senior, the label 18.6% of postings use

Work arrangement
- Location: state remote, hybrid or on site. 9.5% of software developer postings are marked remote.
- Employment type: full-time, which 75.8% of postings with a stated type use.

Pay
- State a salary or range. 20.0% of software developer postings already do.
- Name the benefits that matter for this role rather than a generic list.
```

## How to write a software developer job description

1. **Use the title candidates search for.** Pick the canonical title that appears on this page, not an internal level name or a creative variant. Candidates search by the common title, and so do the boards that index it. Read [the general method for writing a job description](https://jobspipe.dev/answers/how-do-you-write-a-job-description).
2. **Lead with the work, not the company.** Open with two or three sentences on what the person will own and who they work with. Save the company history for the end.
3. **List the responsibilities that recur.** Five to seven bullets, each starting with a verb, each describing work the role does most weeks. The responsibilities above are phrased from the skills that recur in real postings for this title.
4. **Separate must-have from nice-to-have.** Put the skills most postings name in the must-have list and everything else in a shorter nice-to-have list. The skill shares on this page show which is which.
5. **State remote, employment type and pay up front.** Say whether the role is remote, hybrid or on site, name the employment type, and give a salary range. Then revisit the posting as the market moves. Read [how often job descriptions should be updated](https://jobspipe.dev/blog/how-often-should-job-descriptions-be-updated).

## Method

Denominator: active postings on the ten collected boards, grouped by canonical title (deduplicated by posting id). Counted on 2026-09-10. Postings are deduplicated by id, filtered to those not yet recorded as closed, matched on the canonical title, and grouped on the field named in each heading. Only shares are published.

Reproduce the underlying rows:

```bash
curl -X POST https://api.jobspipe.dev/v1/jobs/search \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $JOBSPIPE_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"job_title_or":["software developer"],"status":"active","limit":25}'
```

## FAQ

### What does a software developer do?

A software developer does the engineering work employers describe in their postings, and the skills those postings name most are communication, SQL and Java. The responsibilities section above phrases that work as bullets you can reuse.

### What skills do software developer postings ask for?

The most named skills are communication (33.1%), SQL (31.9%), Java (31.5%), agile (31.3%), Python (29.2%). Skills are extracted from the posting text against a curated lexicon, and a posting counts once per skill it names, so the shares overlap. The API filter skills_or returns the postings behind any of them.

### Is the software developer role remote?

9.5% of active software developer postings carry a remote flag. The flag is read from the posting itself, so hybrid roles that never say remote are counted as on site. Filter the API with remote set to true and job_title_or set to the title to reproduce the figure.

### Do software developer postings disclose pay?

20.0% state a salary or a range in the posting text or structured fields. Disclosure varies more by board and by jurisdiction than by role, so compare the figure with the board-level shares on the sources pages before reading it as a market signal.

### Which industries hire software developers?

By ISIC division, the largest shares are Software and IT services (19.1%), Employment and staffing (4.6%), Financial services (4.0%). Industry is resolved from the employer's classification where known, and postings without a classification are excluded from this cut. The filter isic_division_or reproduces each row.

### Where do these numbers come from?

From JobsPipe's live index of postings on the ten boards it collects, deduplicated by posting id and counted on 2026-09-10. Only shares are published; the underlying counts stay private. Every figure can be reproduced against the JobsPipe API with the filters shown on this page.

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Function and country profiles: https://jobspipe.dev/postings. Pull the postings behind every share with the Jobs API: https://jobspipe.dev/jobs-api.


---
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