Difference between software engineer and software developer

Published: September 12, 2018 Last updated: July 13, 2022

8 min read

Any technical recruiter worth their salt should be able to tell the difference between a coder vs a computer programmer or even a programmer vs web developer. However, Identifying the difference between software developer vs software engineer in web development, can be a bit more difficult.

Software engineers and software developers are both highly skilled professionals with computer science fundamentals. Both need to possess technical knowledge and both are interested in writing code and being able to build computer software systems from the ground up.

That said, there are important differences between the two. Get them right and it could help you make an incredibly valuable technical hire. Get them wrong and you may end up hiring the completely wrong person for the position.

Table of Contents

Software Developer Vs Software Engineer

Software engineer vs software developer: What's the difference?

So why is it important to know the difference between software development and computer engineering? For one thing, these positions have different scopes and responsibilities. Importantly, for a recruiter, they usually also have different salary expectations.

Software developer vs software engineer salary

A quick glance at PayScale research suggests that at the time of writing, the average salary of a software engineer in the United States is $ 88,896 while the average for a software developer job is $74,001. Although, these salaries would likely fluctuate depending on whether the role was for junior developers or senior developers and also between each programming language.

Software engineer

Software developer

You also find that candidates for these roles should have different amounts of technical skill. More importantly, candidates should also be taking different approaches to their work. We’ll go into the details below but suffice it to say, developers tend to be more creative while engineers tend to be more precise. Why is that? Well, first you need to understand what both of these roles do.

What does a software developer do?

In our post ” Programmer vs developer: a recruiter’s guide to telling them apart ,” we established that a developer is like a professional chef. They can cook to a high standard and take a creative approach to making new dishes. They start by understanding the taste of their target customers and then create dishes that suit those tastes. Successful software developers essentially have the same role when it comes to computer systems, to write code and create high-quality software.

A developer usually starts the process of building software applications by speaking to customers and figuring out what their software needs are. With these criteria in hand, they go on to design and develop the different components in the application that will need to work together. To get the job done, a big part of what they do is managing the enitre development process from start to finish, making sure that they stay in constant contact with key stakeholders.

According to Bureau of Labor Statistics , a developer will often work closely with programmers who might actually execute on the design of the developer. But oftentimes, developers will use a variety of skills including good communication, project management, and domain-specific technical expertise. In fact, this last point is crucial to understanding the difference between a software developer and software engineer. As Felim O’Donnell, director of operations at Liberty IT says,

The difference between engineers and developers is that a developer takes functional specification and delivers the code required within tight parameters, essentially completing the task in isolation

Developers tend to do everything that Engineers do but on a limited scale. This allows them to be more creative than an engineer, coming up with solutions to problems as they occur. But engineers tend to solve issues on a much larger scale. There’s less room for creative solutions and instead, they need to be more systematic and they’re thinking.

List of key software developer skills

Mathematical aptitude

Knowledge of a software development cycle

Problem-solving skills

Knowledge of computer programs and computer programming skills

Knowledge of programming languages and software tools

Excellent organisational and time management skills

Teamwork

Attention to detail and excellent analytical skills

An understanding of data structures

Interest in the latest tech trends

Most developers will also have software development degrees. While mobile developers will need additional knowledge of the development process of mobile apps.

What does a software engineer do?

A developer should be a software architect, someone able to build software applications from start to finish. They have a more general knowledge of the entire development process. In the same way, any chef worth their salt should be able to come up with a menu that appeals to customers and is well-executed. And for most restaurants, this is just fine. But in larger facilities like hotels, you might have one kitchen which services five different restaurants. The head chef of this kitchen needs to be able to deliver that same level of quality as a chef running one restaurant while meeting the needs of 5. This means they need to be more systematic in their approach.

software engineer vs software developer: Future Engineer

The term engineer is a contentious one. While some countries require specific qualifications or a software engineering degree, others question its applicability to computer science. Despite these objections, there is still a large body of opinion that has a specific understanding of what a software engineer is.

A software engineer should be able to do everything that a software developer does, but with a different design philosophy. Engineers take a bigger picture view than developers. This means that they need to be more focused on structure design and eliminating technical debt. Rather than being interested in solving the immediate problem at hand, they are interested in solving that problem at hand while minimizing the trade-offs to other parts of the system and its architecture.

You often find software engineers divided into two categories . application engineers are somewhat similar to developers. They tend to design, build, install, and maintain applications, usually on a large scale. system engineers, on the other hand, maintain the IT infrastructure of tech companies. Rather than working on a specific application, engineers are interested in software design, to build and maintain the systems that support applications with the consideration of all stakeholders involved.

Software engineers are more likely than developers to be involved with systems analysis work and more advanced systems engineering.

Software engineer skills

Software engineering includes the ability to analyze complex technical information
They will implement engineering principles to impact the existing database architecture
A software engineer has experience using computer software and building software

applications.
Software engineers have experience, or at least a working familiarity, with various

programming languages, including JavaScript, Java, Ruby, PHP and Python.
Software engineers apply engineering principles and deliver complex software systems
Software engineers are familiar with various frameworks
Provide other engineers with software development and testing support

Key differences: software developer vs software engineer

Software developers tend to do everything software engineers do but on a more limited scale. This allows a developer to be more creative than an engineer. Allowing them to not only develop software but to come up with solutions to problems as they occur.
Software engineering includes being able to do everything that a software developer does, but with a different design philosophy.
A software developer usually starts the application development process by speaking to customers and figuring out what their software needs are.
Software engineers take a bigger picture view than software developers, meaning they’re more focused on the overall structure of a software system- its design, and eliminating technical debt.
Software engineers are interested in solving immediate problems while minimizing trade-offs to other parts of the system and its architecture.

What’s the difference between a software engineer and software developer on a resume?

In many of the basic engineering principles, a software engineer and software developer can do similar things. But what you’ll find is that a software developer tends to focus on solving the problems of one user or set of users, while an engineer will focus on the issues of all users. Therefore their professional knowledge will encompass more engineering.

This video does a great job of explaining the differences:

It’s a good idea to look at the skills the candidate possesses. A software developer will tend to have domain-specific knowledge. For instance, you’ll see a lot of Java developers or Ruby developers. Engineers tend to have a much wider experience. Similar to what you would see with a full stack developer, you might see a back-end engineer or systems engineer. They’ll be expected to have experience in a number of different domains.

When hiring, the skills to look for in a developer vs software engineer are different. A software engineer will be someone who has high-level maths and approaches problems in a very logical manner. Don’t look for someone who accepts ambiguity. An engineer should be able to see how their actions could create problems down the line.

When looking for a developer, you want to see a greater emphasis on creatively solving problems. The technical scope of developers tends to be more focused so you want somebody who’s more interested in coming up with solutions than worrying about long-term technical debt.

How can I test key skills in software development

It’s actually pretty easy to test a software engineer and a developer. You can give them the same types of tasks and work sample tests. What you want to see is how they approach the problem and make decisions about the solution.

As Aaron Sempf, Head of Tech at Tribal Melbourne says ,

The traits I look for in individuals when filling either an engineer role or a developer role can be quite different, however, the tasks or tests I give to both are the same, but evaluated in different ways.

Using a platform like DevSkiller TalentScore, you can provide a task that mirrors the type of work the candidate will do when they start working for you. Depending on the candidate, the same task can be approached in different ways. When looking for an engineer, you want someone who produces a clean and efficient solution that doesn’t clash with the rest of the system. When looking for a developer, look for somebody who can problem solve efficiently using all of the resources available to them.

The differences between a software engineer vs software developer mainly come down to the way they approach tasks and the scope that they manage. Learning these terms will help you understand what skills you should look for to hire the right people.