For software developers, more often than not, job titles don't really mean that much.
Take for example these:
- Software Developer
- Software Engineer
- Web Developer
- Full-stack Developer
These titles could potentially represent the exact same position and duties!
It usually comes down to the actual job description itself and how the company views it's different tiers of developers.
But when it comes to "senior" and "lead" developers, there usually is a difference.
P.S. This article is originally from YourDevCareer.com where you can check out more articles and resources to help accelerate your career growth!
Senior Developer
A senior developer, in my view, is not marked by his title (of course), but by these traits:
- Very competent in the core technologies used in his/her organization
- Understands high-level architectural design and patterns
- Experience building "full" solutions
- Actively mentors intermediate and junior developers
The most important of these is the last.
You can be an expert with, let's say, JavaScript and building NodeJS apps.
But, if you can't take your experience, expertise and knowledge and transfer it to your team members then I wouldn't say you are really a senior developer.
What's the best indicator of being a senior dev?
Do you regularly have other team members coming to you for advice and help?
Sometimes you may find yourself thinking:
"Why does everyone keep asking me questions! Just go learn it yourself!"
Instead of being upset - you should be thankful and encouraged!
You're someone who your team trusts and considers the go-to for knowledge and expertise!
Lead Developer
A lead developer has the abilities and skills of a senior developer. But more ๐
The lead developer can act as a senior developer - mentoring, providing general design guidance and puts work into the foundation and early stages of a product's development.
But more importantly, the mark of a lead developer is:
They are a bridge or connector between your development team and the other business-oriented departments in your organization.
Lead developers often:
- Aid in planning product development and timelines
- Provide feedback to marketing or sales teams
- Discuss and aid the CEO or top managers to make sure that the development team and technologies being selected are aligned with the business' goals and vision of the company.
This means lead developers require:
- Good communication skills
- Good understanding of the product
- Good understanding of the business problem the software is solving
- Good understanding of the field the software's users are part of (medical, HR, etc.)
- Understanding of other disciplines like management, product development, marketing, etc.
Summary
I suppose the short way to say this is that senior developers are leaders who are mostly "inward" facing - towards their development team.
Lead developers are more outward facing - bridging the gap between the development or technical team and all the other departments in the company.
Becoming a lead, therefore, is much more about knowing how to think about the "big picture" and being able to translate business terms into technical terms.
It also involves translating technical solutions into language that non-technical co-workers will understand ๐
What do you think? Let me know in the comments!
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Oldest comments (50)
wonderful insight
Thank you!
Everywhere I've worked in 20+ years as a developer, 'Senior Developer' essentially boils down to 'older developer' ๐
Hahaha. I can attest to this. ๐
Thanks for your good article. We want to learn advance core technologies,high-level architectural design and patterns for being a senior developer.
You're welcome! Glad it was helpful.
Damn! I'm a Lead Developer and I didn't even realize. I guess I need a salary increase ๐ค๐
same reaction ! :))
Same reaction too! :D
Me too :0
Totally agree
๐
Wonderful explanation, I'm totally agree ๐
Thanks!๐
It is mesmerising how changing technology stack, industry and company culture have a tremendous impact on your seniority.
One year ago I moved from being a .NET architect in Brazil, with 11 years of experience, to being a senior React/Node.js developer in Germany, in a job that teams are expected to handle their own operations in AWS, Docker and Kubernetes.
Only now I can say that I reasonably understand the overall company architecture and processes. It is not easy to move from being the go-to guy to a person that barely understands what is going on and whose opinion is not super valuable.
Despite being a hard process, it is absolutely valid in terms of learnings.
Wow! Sounds like you have very well rounded and in-depth experience and knowledge after that!
I think your story proves the point that being competent in the tech stack you working with does matter.
This is just a reworked Peter principle. Taking skilled people away from their strongest skill set.
The idea that one cannot code in our old age is ridiculous. Imagine telling a doctor that he's too old to keep up with modern medicine
This is important. Management and development are two distinct skill sets.
I think it's important to add additional items to senior engineer:
One other addition I think is that a lead engineer doesn't have to be everything that a senior engineer is. I have less talented engineers managing more senior people who just want to do technical work. Obviously lead engineers can't be totally green but you box yourself in as a manager if the most talented people technically are the only ones who can manage a team of engineers.
Def. agree.
I agree that a lead developer doesn't necessarily need to be the best technically. But, usually, lead developers are expected to take on some pretty important fundamental architectural design up-front.
That implies a certain level of skill and experience.
It also helps if they are technically competent in order to build trust as a leader. No one wants to follow someone whose job is to direct the team in technical matters but himself isn't competent.
But that just qualifies your point a bit more.
Sometimes you have devs who are really skilled technically but wouldn't make good leaders. But I don't think the opposite would be true - specifically for a lead developer - since trust and respect need to be present. Part of that, again, is to be lead by someone who can actually make the right choices on technical matters and be a good mentor in technical matters.
Thanks for the extra points Steve!