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 2212 Java Developer / Engineer job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 40164 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 $118,980.

State

The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $118,603.

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 $109,686.

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	0%
Bachelor's Degree	44.62%
Master's Degree	9.87%
Doctoral Degree	0.58%
Other	1.25%

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	6.91%
3 to 5 years	44.08%
6 to 8 years	31.27%
9+ years	17.74%

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 (27.6%)
Problem Solving (21.08%)
Troubleshooting (Problem Solving) (20.87%)
Management (12.94%)
Leadership (9.35%)
Writing (8.65%)
Innovation (8.09%)
Mentorship (7.61%)
Information Technology (7.35%)
Operations (6.89%)

Defining Skills

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

Java Full Stack Development (12.37%)
Application Programming Interface (API) (27.76%)
Agile Methodology (43.86%)
JavaScript (Programming Language) (27.78%)
Spring Boot (41.28%)
Git (Version Control System) (23.53%)
Computer Science (31.95%)
Java Platform Enterprise Edition (J2EE) (23.68%)
Spring Framework (40.6%)
Java Persistence API (8.15%)
Amazon Web Services (35.62%)
Java (Programming Language) (94.85%)
Software Development (24.67%)
Angular (Web Framework) (27.21%)
Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) (9.1%)
RESTful API (31.91%)
Apache Maven (14.65%)
Hibernate (Java) (16.8%)
CI/CD (25.61%)
Jenkins (20.85%)
Kubernetes (20.57%)
Junit (14.21%)
Software Engineering (27.44%)
SQL (Programming Language) (33.28%)
Microservices (37.76%)
Apache Kafka (19.62%)

Necessary Skills

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

Full Stack Development (20.45%)
Atlassian Confluence (4.25%)
Back End (Software Engineering) (7.38%)
HyperText Markup Language (HTML) (13.22%)
Microsoft Azure (15.53%)
JIRA (10.49%)
Test Automation (8.91%)
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) (15.82%)
Debugging (18.02%)
Version Control (10.68%)
Linux (10.61%)
Software Design Patterns (12.46%)
Software Development Life Cycle (14.78%)
Application Development (13.13%)
MySQL (7.34%)
Scalability (18.68%)
Automation (14.76%)
JQuery (5.65%)
Business Requirements (8.69%)
MongoDB (10.53%)
NoSQL (12.19%)
Systems Development Life Cycle (8.45%)
Code Review (13.93%)
Unit Testing (15.13%)
Unix (7.2%)
Continuous Integration (11.51%)
Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) (9.72%)
Software Quality (SQA/SQC) (5.79%)
Web Applications (6.64%)
TypeScript (6.42%)
DevOps (17.26%)
Relational Databases (10.65%)
Github (7.38%)
React.js (Javascript Library) (21.7%)
Bitbucket (5.68%)
Docker (Software) (19.44%)
Python (Programming Language) (15.33%)
JSON (10.28%)
PostgreSQL (10.89%)
OpenShift (4.62%)
Node.js (Javascript Library) (9.75%)
Scrum (Software Development) (15.99%)
Web Services (21.45%)
Extensible Markup Language (XML) (10.28%)
Front End (Software Engineering) (14.39%)
Test-Driven Development (TDD) (10.56%)
Scripting (7.84%)
Technical Design (3.58%)
Programming Languages (8.41%)

Distinguishing Skills

A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.

Spring MVC (5.61%)
Spring Batch (3.23%)
Cucumber (Software) (3.75%)
Spring Security (2.61%)
Apache Tomcat (6.49%)
Oracle WebLogic Server (2.61%)
Enterprise JavaBeans (2.11%)
Eclipse (Software) (6.32%)
WildFly (JBoss AS) (3.76%)
Java Message Service (JMS) (5.47%)
Apache Struts (3.35%)
Java Enterprise Edition (4.36%)
IBM Websphere Application Server (3.27%)
Object-Relational Mapping (4.24%)
RabbitMQ (2.93%)
Swagger UI (2.38%)
Apache Cassandra (5.11%)
Low Latency (2.04%)
JavaServer Pages (5.74%)
Gradle (5.85%)
Java Database Connectivity (5.14%)
Java Servlet (2.82%)
Java 8 (5.86%)
Mockito (4.66%)
Production Code (3.32%)

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.

Java Full Stack Development (16.83%)
Spring Boot (56.16%)
Spring Batch (4.39%)
Eclipse (Software) (8.6%)
Java Platform Enterprise Edition (J2EE) (32.22%)
Junit (19.33%)
Apache Kafka (26.69%)
Microservices (51.37%)

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 Engineer
Lead Java Software Engineer
Full Stack Java Software Engineer
Java AWS Developer
Core Java 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 (1457)
Cognizant Technology Solutions (763)
Motion Recruitment (625)
Insight Global (570)
Randstad (565)
Diverse Lynx (561)
Infosys (514)
Kforce (477)
Raytheon Technologies (476)
Capital One (349)

North Carolina

Randstad (98)
Infosys (58)
Motion Recruitment (56)
Fidelity Investments (53)
Cognizant Technology Solutions (53)
Genesis10 (52)
Synechron (44)
Allegis Group (44)
Kforce (41)
The Judge Group (39)

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.

Information Technology