Software Engineer résumé: what employers are asking for right now
We read 1803 open software engineer postings on employers' own job boards, at companies including Databricks, Elastic and OpenAI. Of the 917 whose requirements we have read, the skills asked for most are Distributed Systems (50%), Python (46%) and Go (34%) — so those belong near the top of a software engineer résumé, in the words the posting uses. The median posting asks for 5+ years of experience.
From 1803 open postings on employers’ own job boards, as of .
Skills software engineer postings ask for
| Skill | Share of postings | Bar |
|---|---|---|
| Distributed Systems | 50% | |
| Python | 46% | |
| Go | 34% | |
| Kubernetes | 27% | |
| TypeScript | 26% | |
| System Design | 26% | |
| Git | 25% | |
| Api Design | 23% | |
| AWS | 22% | |
| SQL | 20% | |
| React | 19% | |
| Java | 19% | |
| JavaScript | 18% | |
| CI/CD | 16% | |
| Software Architecture | 15% |
Share of the 917 postings whose requirements we have read.
A skills section built from those postings
List only what you can talk about in an interview, and use the posting’s own words for it — a screener searching for “Distributed Systems” will not match a synonym. Ordered by how often employers ask:
Skills
Distributed Systems · Python · Go
Kubernetes · TypeScript · System Design · Git · Api Design · AWS · SQL · React · Java · JavaScript · CI/CD · Software Architecture
- Line 1: asked for by a third or more of postings.
- Line 2: often asked for.
Sample software engineer résumé
An illustrative example, not a real person: the employers and results are made up. The skills are the ones the postings above ask for, so it shows how those requirements read on a page.
Senior Software Engineer
Senior Software Engineer with 5+ years building distributed systems, APIs, and cloud services in Python and Go. Experience spans system design, Kubernetes, AWS, CI/CD, and product-facing web work across backend and frontend stacks.
Experience
Senior Software Engineer · Series B developer platform company
2021 – present
- Designed and shipped distributed systems in Go and Python that cut API latency 38% and improved service reliability during peak traffic.
- Built and maintained Kubernetes-based services with CI/CD pipelines, reducing deployment time from 45 minutes to 10 minutes.
- Led API design for internal and customer-facing services, standardizing contracts and lowering integration defects across teams.
- Partnered on system design for new platform features, scaling throughput 3x while keeping SQL-backed workflows consistent.
Software Engineer · Regional fintech product company
2018 – 2021
- Developed Python and JavaScript services for transaction and account workflows, improving request handling and reducing manual support cases.
- Implemented React and TypeScript interfaces for operational tools, giving support teams faster access to live system data.
- Worked across AWS infrastructure and Git-based delivery workflows to streamline releases and shorten rollback recovery.
- Contributed to software architecture and API design reviews, helping align backend services with product requirements and security needs.
Skills
Distributed Systems · Python · Go · Kubernetes · TypeScript · System Design · Git · Api Design · AWS · SQL · React · JavaScript
More software engineer bullet points to adapt
- Built service-to-service workflows in Go and Python, removing a shared bottleneck and improving end-to-end throughput.
- Introduced Kubernetes rollout checks and safer deployment steps, lowering production incidents during weekly releases.
- Defined API versioning and request validation rules, reducing breaking changes for downstream services.
- Created SQL queries and operational views that improved incident triage time for on-call engineers.
- Refactored frontend tooling in React and TypeScript to simplify internal admin tasks and reduce support load.
- Partnered on system design for a new platform layer, separating read and write paths for better scale.
- Automated CI/CD checks with Git-based workflows, catching integration issues earlier in the release process.
- Reviewed software architecture tradeoffs for cloud services, balancing reliability, cost, and delivery speed.
What sets an application apart
Listed as a plus rather than a requirement: Kubernetes (12%), React (11%), Machine Learning (10%), Docker (10%), AWS (9%), TypeScript (8%), Go (7%) and GCP (6%). Worth naming if you have it, and never worth claiming if you do not.
Level, location and pay
- Most are senior roles (47% of postings that state a level).
- 23% are listed as remote.
- Listed mainly in United States, Canada and United Kingdom.
- US postings that publish a yearly salary: median $285k, middle half $248k–$310k (from 168 postings).
Who is hiring software engineers
- Databricks159 open
- Elastic119 open
- OpenAI114 open
- Roblox100 open
- Palantir87 open
- Anthropic86 open
- Okta85 open
- MongoDB60 open
- Stripe55 open
- Coinbase48 open
- Zoox45 open
- Cloudflare43 open