Software Developer job description in the United States
Duties, requirements, interview questions, and a ready-to-use template so you can post your job today.
Job summary
A software developer designs, writes, tests, and maintains the applications a business runs on or sells. The role turns requirements into working code, fixes defects, reviews the work of teammates, and keeps systems secure and maintainable over time. For the business, a solid developer means features delivered when promised, fewer production incidents, and software that can keep growing without being rewritten every two years.
Main duties
- Write clean, tested code for new features based on user stories and technical specifications
- Design database schemas, APIs, and integrations with third-party services
- Review pull requests from teammates and give constructive feedback on quality and security
- Diagnose and fix bugs reported by users, QA, or monitoring tools
- Write unit and integration tests and maintain the automated build and deployment pipeline
- Refactor legacy code to improve performance, readability, and maintainability
- Document technical decisions, setup steps, and API contracts for the rest of the team
- Estimate tasks, take part in sprint planning, and report progress and blockers in daily standups
- Apply secure coding practices and keep dependencies and frameworks up to date
Typical requirements
- Degree in computer science, software engineering, or equivalent demonstrable experience
- Two or more years building production software in the main language of the stack
- Solid knowledge of SQL and relational databases
- Daily use of Git and experience working with code reviews
- Experience with REST APIs and at least one modern web or mobile framework
- Familiarity with automated testing and continuous integration
- Clear written communication for documentation, tickets, and code reviews
Key skills
Salary in the United States
Based on jobs posted on Saplic over the last 6 months. This is a market benchmark, not an official figure.
Job posting template ready to copy
Replace the fields in brackets with your company's details.
Market benchmark: $13,291 per month (median of the jobs posted on Saplic over the last 6 months).
Software Developer — [Company name]
At [Company name], we are looking for a software developer to join our engineering team in [City]. The person in this role will build and maintain our applications, take part in code reviews and technical decisions, and ship features that our customers use every day.
Responsibilities
- Write clean, tested code for new features based on user stories and technical specifications
- Design database schemas, APIs, and integrations with third-party services
- Review pull requests from teammates and give constructive feedback on quality and security
- Diagnose and fix bugs reported by users, QA, or monitoring tools
- Write unit and integration tests and maintain the automated build and deployment pipeline
- Refactor legacy code to improve performance, readability, and maintainability
- Document technical decisions, setup steps, and API contracts for the rest of the team
- Estimate tasks, take part in sprint planning, and report progress and blockers in daily standups
- Apply secure coding practices and keep dependencies and frameworks up to date
Requirements
- Degree in computer science, software engineering, or equivalent demonstrable experience
- Two or more years building production software in the main language of the stack
- Solid knowledge of SQL and relational databases
- Daily use of Git and experience working with code reviews
- Experience with REST APIs and at least one modern web or mobile framework
- Familiarity with automated testing and continuous integration
- Clear written communication for documentation, tickets, and code reviews
What we offer
- Salary: [Salary]
- Benefits: [Benefits]
- Location: [City]
Interested in this job? Apply today.
How to hire a software developer
Name the actual stack
A posting that lists fifteen technologies scares off good candidates and attracts keyword matchers. It works better to name the three or four used daily and mark the rest as nice to have.
Use a realistic technical test
Puzzle questions measure interview practice, not job performance. A small task resembling real work, such as fixing a bug or adding an endpoint, with a time limit under two hours, predicts far better.
Review real code together
Asking the candidate to walk through code they wrote, from a repository or the test, and explain their decisions reveals depth. Follow-up questions about trade-offs separate understanding from copying.
Move quickly through the process
Experienced developers often hold several offers. A process with more than three stages or weeks of silence loses the best candidates to faster companies, so interview dates and a decision deadline should be set in advance.
Do not hire on seniority labels
Years of experience say little by themselves. It is more informative to ask what the candidate owned end to end, what broke in production, and how they handled it.
Interview questions for software developer candidates
Could you describe a project you built and the technical decisions you made in it?
What to look for: Clear personal contribution, reasoning behind choices, and awareness of trade-offs, not only a list of tools.
How did you track down the hardest bug you have had to fix?
What to look for: A systematic approach: reproducing, isolating, using logs or a debugger, and adding a test afterward.
What would you do if you were asked to deliver a feature by a deadline you considered unrealistic?
What to look for: Negotiating scope, communicating risk early, and proposing a phased delivery rather than silently cutting quality.
How do you decide what to test and what not to test?
What to look for: Pragmatism: priority on business logic and risky paths, and familiarity with unit and integration tests.
How did you respond to a code review comment you disagreed with?
What to look for: Openness, arguing with technical reasons, and willingness to accept the team standard.
How would you approach a large codebase you had never seen before?
What to look for: Reading documentation and tests, running it locally, tracing one flow, and asking targeted questions.
What would you check if a database query that used to be fast became slow?
What to look for: Execution plans, indexes, data growth, and recent changes, measured before optimizing anything.
Could you tell me about a time something you deployed caused a problem in production?
What to look for: Ownership, a quick rollback or fix, clear communication, and a preventive measure put in place.
Screen better with the Saplic ATS
Posting the job is the first step. The Saplic recruiting system organizes everything that comes after.
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Open software developer jobs in the United States
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Frequently asked questions
How much does a software developer make in the United States?
The median of the jobs posted on Saplic over the last 6 months is $13,291 per month, and the typical range runs from $11,038 to $14,213. This is a market benchmark, not an official figure.
What requirements are typical for a software developer in the United States?
The most common ones in job postings are: degree in computer science, software engineering, or equivalent demonstrable experience; two or more years building production software in the main language of the stack; solid knowledge of SQL and relational databases.
Is a college degree necessary to hire a software developer?
Not necessarily. Many capable developers are self-taught or trained in bootcamps, and what they can build matters more than the diploma. A degree is a useful signal of fundamentals for roles involving algorithms, data, or systems design. In every case, a practical test and a review of real code are more reliable than credentials.
Should a small company hire a junior or a senior developer first?
If there is no technical leader in the company, the first hire should be experienced. A junior developer needs someone to review code and teach good practices; without that, early mistakes become expensive to undo. Once a senior developer has set the foundations, junior hires become a cost-effective way to grow the team.
How much does it cost to post software developer jobs on Saplic?
Nothing. Posting the job is free and no credit card is required. The recruiting system for organizing the people who apply is free too.