Java Developer / Engineer

What Does a Professional in this Career Do?

A Java Developer or Engineer designs or improves computer software using the JAVA computer programming language. Oversees the JAVA software application development process. Analyzes customer or user needs, designs programs, writes code or instructs computer programmers, tests design, and documents programs. May assist with upgrades or maintenance.

Job Outlook

There were 3264 Java Developer / Engineer job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 54233 in the United States.

In combination with other careers in the Software Developer / Engineer industry, which includes the Java Developer / Engineer career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2015:

Salary

Many new Java Developer / Engineer jobs have salaries estimated to be in the following ranges, based on the requirements and responsibilities listed in job postings from the past year.

National

The average estimated salary in the United States for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $112,311.

State

The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $112,305.

Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Java Developer / Engineer postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $105,372.

Education and Experience

Posted Java Developer / Engineer jobs typically require the following level of education. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list education requirements.

Education Level	Percentage
Associate's Degree	1.09%
Bachelor's Degree	44%
Master's Degree	9.73%
Doctoral Degree	0.65%
Other	0.96%

Posted Java Developer / Engineer jobs typically require the following number of years of experience. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.

Years of Experience	Percentage
0 to 2 years	6.92%
3 to 5 years	45.79%
6 to 8 years	31.4%
9+ years	15.89%

Skills

Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Java Developer / Engineer positions expect applicants to have as well as the most common skills that distinguish individuals from their peers. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is also listed.

Baseline Skills

A skill that is required across a broad range of occupations, including this one.

Communication (25.35%)
Problem Solving (17.69%)
Troubleshooting (Problem Solving) (16.02%)
Management (11.82%)
Leadership (8.85%)
Writing (8.21%)
Mentorship (8.2%)
Innovation (6.73%)
Information Technology (6.7%)
Operations (6.65%)

Defining Skills

A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.

Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) (9.44%)
Java Full Stack Development (10.4%)
Software Engineering (25.22%)
Java Persistence API (7.9%)
Java (Programming Language) (94.94%)
Software Development (25.16%)
Java Platform Enterprise Edition (J2EE) (23.28%)
Agile Methodology (42.31%)
Application Programming Interface (API) (23.96%)
Amazon Web Services (33.69%)
Apache Maven (15.28%)
Junit (12.99%)
Computer Science (31.39%)
Hibernate (Java) (16.58%)
Test-Driven Development (TDD) (10.7%)
Spring Framework (39.27%)
Apache Kafka (17.54%)
JavaScript (Programming Language) (27.94%)
Microservices (35.19%)
RESTful API (29.18%)
Spring Boot (38.06%)
SQL (Programming Language) (32.73%)
Apache Tomcat (11.11%)
Angular (Web Framework) (27.34%)

Necessary Skills

A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.

Full Stack Development (24.84%)
Project Management (5.85%)
Code Review (12.21%)
Systems Development Life Cycle (8.15%)
Systems Design (5.16%)
Jenkins (19.11%)
Debugging (17.16%)
PostgreSQL (9.39%)
Business Requirements (10.4%)
JSON (11.07%)
Extensible Markup Language (XML) (11%)
HyperText Markup Language (HTML) (14.39%)
MongoDB (9.26%)
Automation (12.89%)
Linux (9.57%)
Data Structures (5.02%)
HTML5 (5.12%)
Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) (9.2%)
NoSQL (11.23%)
Software Development Life Cycle (12.76%)
Git (Version Control System) (20.96%)
CI/CD (22.23%)
Software Design Patterns (12.69%)
Scalability (13.67%)
Application Development (12.13%)
Unit Testing (15.7%)
Continuous Integration (10.24%)
Web Services (21.3%)
Microsoft Azure (14.16%)
Unix (7.16%)
Node.js (Javascript Library) (8.97%)
Scripting (7.85%)
Python (Programming Language) (14.82%)
Scrum (Software Development) (16.1%)
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) (16.26%)
JIRA (9.47%)
Docker (Software) (18.75%)
Front End (Software Engineering) (13.33%)
Test Automation (7.98%)
Bitbucket (5.14%)
DevOps (15.35%)
Relational Databases (10.38%)
Technical Design (3.51%)
Kubernetes (19.57%)
React.js (Javascript Library) (20.19%)
Version Control (8.76%)

Distinguishing Skills

A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.

Object-Relational Mapping (4.6%)
Oracle WebLogic Server (2.58%)
Object-Oriented Design (5.36%)
IBM WebSphere MQ (4.32%)
IBM Websphere Application Server (3.1%)
Mockito (4.29%)
Exception Reporting (4.41%)
Java 8 (6.69%)
Java Enterprise Edition (4.37%)
Spring Security (2.52%)
Java Message Service (JMS) (5.64%)
Swagger UI (2.14%)
JavaServer Pages (6.52%)
Apache Struts (3.71%)
SonarQube (2.63%)
Eclipse (Software) (6.42%)
Low Latency (2.03%)
IntelliJ IDEA (2.35%)
Enterprise JavaBeans (2.16%)
Java Servlet (3.36%)
Spring MVC (5.65%)
Spring Batch (3.41%)
Java Database Connectivity (5.26%)
WildFly (JBoss AS) (3.71%)
Behavior-Driven Development (3.18%)
Apache Cassandra (4.43%)
Gradle (5.76%)

Salary Boosting Skills

A professional who wishes to excel in this career path may consider developing the following highly valued skills. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is listed.

Amazon Web Services (59.04%)
Behavior-Driven Development (5.57%)
Computer Science (55.01%)
JavaServer Pages (11.43%)
Low Latency (3.55%)

Alternative Job Titles

Sometimes employers post jobs with Java Developer / Engineer skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:

Java Developer
Full Stack Java Developer
Java Engineer
Java Software Developer
Lead Java Developer
Full Stack Java Software Engineer
Full Stack Java Engineer
Lead Java Software Engineer
Java AWS Developer
Java Application Developer

Similar Occupations

If you are interested in exploring occupations with similar skills, you may want to research the following job titles. Note that we only list occupations that have at least one corresponding NC State Online and Distance Education program.

Common Employers

Here are the employers that have posted the most Java Developer / Engineer jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.

United States

JPMorgan Chase (1369)
Randstad (1234)
Capital One (1054)
Cognizant Technology Solutions (872)
Motion Recruitment (862)
Guidehouse (625)
Citigroup (606)
Kforce (577)
Humana (575)
Diverse Lynx (558)

North Carolina

Randstad (344)
Fidelity Investments (104)
Kforce (70)
Cognizant Technology Solutions (64)
ManpowerGroup (63)
Wells Fargo (51)
The Matlen Silver Group (47)
Spectraforce Technologies (47)
Charlotte, Nc (42)
Cynet Systems (41)

NC State Programs Relevant to this Career

If you are interested in preparing for a career in this field, the following NC State Online and Distance Education programs offer a great place to start!

Computer Programming Undergraduate Certificates

All wages, job posting statistics, employment trend projections, and information about skill desirability on this page represents historical data and does not guarantee future conditions. Data is provided by and downloaded regularly from Lightcast. For more information about how Lightcast gathers data and what it represents, see Lightcast Data: Basic Overview on Lightcast's Knowledge Base website.

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