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Software Developers

SOC 15-1252.00Job Zone 4 · Considerable Preparation

Research, design, and develop computer and network software or specialized utility programs. Analyze user needs and develop software solutions, applying principles and techniques of computer science, engineering, and mathematical analysis. Update software or enhance existing software capabilities.

Context coveredApplication, infrastructure, DevOps, and architecture roles; full SDLC; individual feature work through system-level design and team leadership.

Sources:O*NET v30.2O*NET Resource Center — Occupational Information Network, v30.2 (Sept 2025). Opens in new tab.SkillsCrosswalkSkillsCrosswalk — O*NET enrichment + adjacency index. Opens in new tab.
Emerging
Entry / Apprentice
  1. Well-defined coding tasks — implement under code review on an established codebase.
  2. Version control basics (branch, commit, pull request) — use correctly on a team's repository.
  3. Local development environment — set up and run reliably for an existing service.
  4. Unit tests for new code — write to coverage standards on assigned features.
  5. Bug reports with clear reproduction steps — diagnose and fix on isolated components.
  6. Code-review feedback — incorporate accurately on submitted pull requests.
  7. Existing system documentation — read and apply when implementing assigned tasks.
  8. Standard logging and error handling — add to new code following team conventions.
  9. Build and CI/CD outputs — interpret and respond to on individual changes.
  10. Standup updates and ticket hygiene — communicate consistently in a sprint team.
Developing
Mid-level / Established
  1. Multi-file features — design and implement end-to-end within an existing service.
  2. Integration points (APIs, queues, databases) — work across confidently in a familiar stack.
  3. Test strategy (unit, integration, end-to-end) — apply appropriately to assigned features.
  4. Production incidents on owned components — investigate and resolve with reduced guidance.
  5. Performance and scalability concerns in code — recognize and address in routine work.
  6. Code reviews for peers — provide substantive feedback on a team's pull requests.
  7. Estimates and breakdowns for medium tasks — produce reliably in sprint planning.
  8. Refactoring of legacy code — execute safely in well-tested areas of the codebase.
  9. Cloud services and platform tooling — use correctly in standard team workflows.
  10. Junior developers on routine work — guide on patterns and conventions during onboarding.
Proficient
Senior / Expert IC
  1. Service-level designs — propose, document, and lead implementation across a team's domain.
  2. Cross-cutting concerns (auth, observability, data modeling) — own across one or more services.
  3. Production reliability and on-call response — handle autonomously across a team's services.
  4. Performance, security, and cost trade-offs — analyze and decide on within a service or feature area.
  5. Technical specs and design docs — author and shepherd through review for non-trivial changes.
  6. Cross-team integrations — negotiate and deliver across organizational boundaries.
  7. Architectural debt and migrations — plan and execute incrementally on an owned service.
  8. Hiring loops and technical interviews — conduct competently across leveling guidelines.
  9. Mentorship across the team — provide on design, code quality, and career growth.
  10. Roadmap input from a technical perspective — contribute consistently in product planning.
Advanced
Lead / Principal / Executive
  1. System architecture across multiple services — design, evolve, and defend across the org.
  2. Engineering standards and platform direction — set, document, and uphold across teams.
  3. High-stakes incidents and recovery — lead response, root-cause, and structural follow-up.
  4. Technical strategy multi-quarter — define and align with product, leadership, and adjacent teams.
  5. Engineering hiring and leveling — shape rubrics, calibrate decisions, and grow the bar org-wide.
  6. Senior engineer development — mentor, sponsor, and grow across the engineering organization.
  7. Critical build-vs-buy and platform decisions — frame, evaluate, and drive to closure.
  8. External technical representation — speak credibly in customer, partner, and community contexts.
  9. Cross-functional initiatives — lead with product, design, and operations on company-level outcomes.
  10. Engineering culture and practices — shape through patterns, rituals, and standards across teams.

AI-at-Work Competency Framework

Sources:Anthropic Economic IndexAnthropic Economic Index — release_2026_03_24. Opens in new tab.Jadhav & Danve, 2026Skill Automation Feasibility Index — Jadhav & Danve, 2026 (arXiv:2604.06906). Opens in new tab.WEF Skills TaxonomyWEF Skills Taxonomy 2021 — Building a Common Language for Skills at Work. Opens in new tab.
Subscriber feature

Authoritative source data identified for 998 occupations

How a worker at each mastery level uses, directs, and evaluates AI tools in this occupation. Each statement cites its evidence inline; click a citation chip to verify the source.

Emerging
  1. AI-assisted boilerplate generation — accepts in-editor code completions for repetitive scaffolding and standard library calls, while manually authoring all core logic and architectural decisions Anthropic Economic IndexAnthropic Economic Index — release_2026_03_24. Opens in new tab. Jadhav & Danve, 2026Skill Automation Feasibility Index — Jadhav & Danve, 2026 (arXiv:2604.06906). Opens in new tab..
  2. Basic error lookup delegation — submits isolated error messages and stack traces to an AI assistant, then reads and manually applies the suggested fix after light review Anthropic Economic IndexAnthropic Economic Index — release_2026_03_24. Opens in new tab..
Developing
  1. Routine debug delegation — hands off self-contained bug reports and stack traces to an AI assistant, then validates the proposed fix against existing tests before merging Anthropic Economic IndexAnthropic Economic Index — release_2026_03_24. Opens in new tab. Jadhav & Danve, 2026Skill Automation Feasibility Index — Jadhav & Danve, 2026 (arXiv:2604.06906). Opens in new tab..
  2. Requirement-to-stub translation — directs an AI tool to generate function stubs and docstrings from written user requirements, then fills in implementation logic by hand Anthropic Economic IndexAnthropic Economic Index — release_2026_03_24. Opens in new tab..
  3. Documentation drafting — delegates first-draft generation of internal technical documentation and status reports to an AI assistant, then edits for accuracy and project-specific detail Anthropic Economic IndexAnthropic Economic Index — release_2026_03_24. Opens in new tab..
Proficient
  1. Cross-cutting refactor choreography — directs an AI agent through multi-file refactors using a stepwise plan, verifying each change against tests and retaining full authorship of the design Anthropic Economic IndexAnthropic Economic Index — release_2026_03_24. Opens in new tab. Jadhav & Danve, 2026Skill Automation Feasibility Index — Jadhav & Danve, 2026 (arXiv:2604.06906). Opens in new tab..
  2. Test suite acceleration — delegates generation of unit-test scaffolding and edge-case enumeration to an AI tool, then authors assertions that encode true business invariants Anthropic Economic IndexAnthropic Economic Index — release_2026_03_24. Opens in new tab. WEF Skills TaxonomyWEF Skills Taxonomy 2021 — Building a Common Language for Skills at Work. Opens in new tab..
  3. Feasibility analysis augmentation — uses an AI assistant to rapidly survey technical constraints, cost trade-offs, and comparable architectures during requirements analysis, then applies critical judgment to finalize the design decision Anthropic Economic IndexAnthropic Economic Index — release_2026_03_24. Opens in new tab. Jadhav & Danve, 2026Skill Automation Feasibility Index — Jadhav & Danve, 2026 (arXiv:2604.06906). Opens in new tab..
  4. Performance optimization triage — delegates profiling-driven suggestions for hot-path improvements to an AI assistant, evaluating each recommendation against system-level performance requirements before adoption Anthropic Economic IndexAnthropic Economic Index — release_2026_03_24. Opens in new tab..
Advanced
  1. Autonomous agent oversight — orchestrates AI coding agents across multi-component delivery pipelines, defining task boundaries, setting verification checkpoints, and resolving conflicts the agent cannot adjudicate autonomously Anthropic Economic IndexAnthropic Economic Index — release_2026_03_24. Opens in new tab. Jadhav & Danve, 2026Skill Automation Feasibility Index — Jadhav & Danve, 2026 (arXiv:2604.06906). Opens in new tab. WEF Skills TaxonomyWEF Skills Taxonomy 2021 — Building a Common Language for Skills at Work. Opens in new tab..
  2. AI risk governance — evaluates automation feasibility of each task in the development workflow, routes high-displacement-risk programming tasks to supervised AI execution, and preserves human authority over systems-analysis and judgment-intensive decisions Jadhav & Danve, 2026Skill Automation Feasibility Index — Jadhav & Danve, 2026 (arXiv:2604.06906). Opens in new tab. Anthropic Economic IndexAnthropic Economic Index — release_2026_03_24. Opens in new tab..
  3. Collaboration-mode strategy — apportions the 64 % augment and 28 % delegate split across sprint tasks by matching AI autonomy level to task complexity, ensuring that architectural and cross-team coordination decisions remain human-authored Anthropic Economic IndexAnthropic Economic Index — release_2026_03_24. Opens in new tab..
  4. Tool evaluation and adoption — benchmarks competing AI coding assistants against measured time-savings targets, integrates winning tools into the team's CI/CD workflow, and establishes review norms that maintain code quality under high AI-autonomy conditions Anthropic Economic IndexAnthropic Economic Index — release_2026_03_24. Opens in new tab. WEF Skills TaxonomyWEF Skills Taxonomy 2021 — Building a Common Language for Skills at Work. Opens in new tab..
Evidence pack
AEI usage
Task observations: 87
Augment share: 64.2%
Time saved: 55.9%
AI autonomy: 0.41
SAFI positioning
Top skill: Programming
Score: 71.8 / 100
Quadrant: Q1_high_displacement_risk
precision: exact
WEF cluster
Artificial Intelligence
artificial_intelligence
Sources:Anthropic Economic IndexAnthropic Economic Index — release_2026_03_24. Opens in new tab.Jadhav & Danve, 2026Skill Automation Feasibility Index — Jadhav & Danve, 2026 (arXiv:2604.06906). Opens in new tab.WEF Skills TaxonomyWEF Skills Taxonomy 2021 — Building a Common Language for Skills at Work. Opens in new tab.

Pathsmith Durable Skills Framework

Sources:Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.O*NET v30.2O*NET Resource Center — Occupational Information Network, v30.2 (Sept 2025). Opens in new tab.
Subscriber feature

Ten durable-skill domains mapped to four proficiency/role levels for each occupation. Each statement is aligned to the Pathsmith taxonomy, derived from trusted grounding data and mapped to occupation-specific O*NET tasks and skills.

1Communication10 statements
Emerging
  1. Technical documentation — drafts basic README files and inline code comments to describe function purpose and usage within a development team environment Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab. O*NET v30.2O*NET Resource Center — Occupational Information Network, v30.2 (Sept 2025). Opens in new tab.
  2. Stakeholder vocabulary — translates simple technical concepts into plain language when responding to non-technical team members during stand-up meetings Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
  3. Requirement intake — listens actively during initial user-needs sessions to capture software requirements without interrupting or misrepresenting stakeholder intent Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab. O*NET v30.2O*NET Resource Center — Occupational Information Network, v30.2 (Sept 2025). Opens in new tab.
Developing
  1. Status reporting — prepares written project status updates that convey progress, blockers, and next steps to both technical and non-technical audiences Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab. O*NET v30.2O*NET Resource Center — Occupational Information Network, v30.2 (Sept 2025). Opens in new tab.
  2. Cross-functional dialogue — participates in design discussions with systems analysts and engineers, asking clarifying questions to surface interface constraints and performance requirements Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab. O*NET v30.2O*NET Resource Center — Occupational Information Network, v30.2 (Sept 2025). Opens in new tab.
  3. Code review communication — provides written feedback on pull requests that identifies specific issues and suggests concrete improvements without ambiguity Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
Applying
  1. Feasibility documentation — authors comprehensive technical specifications that articulate design trade-offs, time constraints, and cost implications for stakeholder sign-off Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab. O*NET v30.2O*NET Resource Center — Occupational Information Network, v30.2 (Sept 2025). Opens in new tab.
Exceeding
  1. Architecture narrative — constructs and presents system design proposals using models, diagrams, and written rationale that align engineering decisions with business objectives across organizational levels Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab. O*NET v30.2O*NET Resource Center — Occupational Information Network, v30.2 (Sept 2025). Opens in new tab.
  2. Communication standard-setting — establishes team documentation conventions and mentors junior developers on writing precise technical correspondence that reduces ambiguity in project specifications Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab. O*NET v30.2O*NET Resource Center — Occupational Information Network, v30.2 (Sept 2025). Opens in new tab.
  3. External technical writing — authors developer-facing API documentation or white papers that enable external engineering teams to adopt and integrate software systems independently Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
2Leadership11 statements
Emerging
  1. Task ownership — takes individual responsibility for completing assigned feature tickets on time within a sprint cycle without requiring repeated follow-up from a lead developer Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
  2. Initiative demonstration — proactively identifies a minor bug or inefficiency in shared code and raises it to the team before it escalates into a larger system issue Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab. O*NET v30.2O*NET Resource Center — Occupational Information Network, v30.2 (Sept 2025). Opens in new tab.
Developing
  1. Peer guidance — mentors a junior developer through a debugging session, explaining reasoning and tools rather than simply providing the solution Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
  2. Sprint initiative — volunteers to lead a sub-task or module within a larger project, coordinating with one or two teammates to deliver a defined component on schedule Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
  3. Process improvement advocacy — proposes and gains team adoption of a small workflow change, such as a linting rule or branching strategy, that improves code consistency Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
Applying
  1. Technical lead execution — leads a feature team through full software development lifecycle, defining task breakdown, resolving blockers, and ensuring deliverables meet requirements within time and cost constraints Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab. O*NET v30.2O*NET Resource Center — Occupational Information Network, v30.2 (Sept 2025). Opens in new tab.
  2. Cross-functional coordination — convenes and facilitates design sessions with systems analysts, engineers, and stakeholders to align on system capabilities, limitations, and interface requirements Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab. O*NET v30.2O*NET Resource Center — Occupational Information Network, v30.2 (Sept 2025). Opens in new tab.
  3. Developer growth — conducts regular one-on-one code reviews and technical coaching sessions that accelerate the skill progression of junior and mid-level developers on the team Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
Exceeding
  1. Organizational technical direction — defines engineering standards, architectural principles, and development roadmaps that shape how multiple teams build and evolve software systems Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab. O*NET v30.2O*NET Resource Center — Occupational Information Network, v30.2 (Sept 2025). Opens in new tab.
  2. Culture of accountability — models and institutionalizes a team culture where developers take ownership of outcomes, conduct blameless retrospectives, and continuously improve delivery practices Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
  3. Cross-organizational influence — leads initiatives that span multiple teams or departments, aligning diverse stakeholders around a shared technical vision and driving adoption of new systems or methodologies Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab. O*NET v30.2O*NET Resource Center — Occupational Information Network, v30.2 (Sept 2025). Opens in new tab.
3Metacognition11 statements
Emerging
  1. Learning gap identification — reflects on areas of unfamiliarity when encountering a new programming language or framework and seeks targeted learning resources before beginning implementation Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
  2. Debugging self-monitoring — pauses during a stuck debugging session to articulate the assumptions being made about system behavior rather than continuing trial-and-error changes Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
Developing
  1. Estimation calibration — reviews past sprint velocity and compares estimated versus actual task completion times to adjust future planning accuracy Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
  2. Knowledge strategy selection — chooses between reading documentation, watching tutorials, or pair programming based on self-assessment of which learning method yields faster comprehension for a given technical concept Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
  3. Code reflection — reviews own merged code after a sprint retrospective to identify patterns in mistakes or over-engineering decisions before repeating them in the next cycle Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
Applying
  1. Design decision auditing — documents the reasoning behind architectural choices at the time of implementation so that future self and teammates can evaluate whether original assumptions still hold as the system evolves Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab. O*NET v30.2O*NET Resource Center — Occupational Information Network, v30.2 (Sept 2025). Opens in new tab.
  2. Skill roadmap planning — assesses current technical strengths and gaps against project demands and constructs a personal development plan that targets high-leverage competency areas Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
  3. Cognitive load management — recognizes when context-switching between multiple features degrades code quality and restructures daily work schedule to protect deep-focus development blocks Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
Exceeding
  1. Team metacognitive practice — facilitates retrospectives and architectural post-mortems that train the broader team to examine collective reasoning processes, not just outcomes, improving group decision quality over time Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
  2. Mental model articulation — explicitly maps and communicates the internal model of a complex system to new team members, accelerating their ability to reason about edge cases and failure modes Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab. O*NET v30.2O*NET Resource Center — Occupational Information Network, v30.2 (Sept 2025). Opens in new tab.
  3. Adaptive learning leadership — identifies when the team's existing problem-solving strategies are insufficient for a new technical domain and orchestrates a deliberate upskilling or knowledge-acquisition process Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
4Critical Thinking11 statements
Emerging
  1. Requirement questioning — identifies ambiguous or conflicting statements in a software requirements document and flags them for clarification before writing any code Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab. O*NET v30.2O*NET Resource Center — Occupational Information Network, v30.2 (Sept 2025). Opens in new tab.
  2. Evidence-based debugging — isolates a software defect by forming a hypothesis, writing a targeted test, and interpreting the result before modifying code Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab. O*NET v30.2O*NET Resource Center — Occupational Information Network, v30.2 (Sept 2025). Opens in new tab.
Developing
  1. Feasibility evaluation — analyzes proposed feature requests against existing system architecture, time constraints, and cost budgets to determine realistic scope before committing to delivery Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab. O*NET v30.2O*NET Resource Center — Occupational Information Network, v30.2 (Sept 2025). Opens in new tab.
  2. Trade-off analysis — compares multiple algorithmic approaches or technology choices using measurable criteria such as performance benchmarks, maintenance cost, and scalability before recommending a solution Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab. O*NET v30.2O*NET Resource Center — Occupational Information Network, v30.2 (Sept 2025). Opens in new tab.
  3. Assumption surfacing — identifies unstated assumptions embedded in a system design proposal and tests each assumption against available data or domain knowledge before proceeding Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
Applying
  1. Systems impact reasoning — evaluates how a proposed modification to one software module propagates effects through dependent components, predicting failure modes before implementation begins Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab. O*NET v30.2O*NET Resource Center — Occupational Information Network, v30.2 (Sept 2025). Opens in new tab.
  2. Root cause analysis — conducts structured post-incident investigations that distinguish proximate causes from systemic root causes, preventing recurrence rather than treating symptoms Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab. O*NET v30.2O*NET Resource Center — Occupational Information Network, v30.2 (Sept 2025). Opens in new tab.
  3. Requirements-to-design validation — maps each user need to a specific design decision, verifying that the proposed software architecture satisfies stated requirements without unnecessary complexity Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab. O*NET v30.2O*NET Resource Center — Occupational Information Network, v30.2 (Sept 2025). Opens in new tab.
Exceeding
  1. Architectural judgment — evaluates long-term technical debt, scalability ceilings, and organizational risk when recommending foundational system redesigns, using mathematical models and historical system data to support conclusions Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab. O*NET v30.2O*NET Resource Center — Occupational Information Network, v30.2 (Sept 2025). Opens in new tab.
  2. Critical review leadership — chairs design review sessions where competing architectural proposals are evaluated against rigorous criteria, guiding the team to evidence-based decisions that withstand stakeholder scrutiny Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab. O*NET v30.2O*NET Resource Center — Occupational Information Network, v30.2 (Sept 2025). Opens in new tab.
  3. Systemic risk identification — anticipates second- and third-order consequences of large-scale software changes across integrated systems, flagging risks before they surface as production incidents Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab. O*NET v30.2O*NET Resource Center — Occupational Information Network, v30.2 (Sept 2025). Opens in new tab.
5Collaboration11 statements
Emerging
  1. Pair programming participation — contributes as both driver and navigator in paired coding sessions, sharing reasoning and accepting feedback without defensiveness Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
  2. Shared repository etiquette — follows team branching, commit message, and merge request conventions that enable multiple developers to work in the same codebase without conflict Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
Developing
  1. Cross-role coordination — works with QA engineers and UX designers to align on acceptance criteria, ensuring that developed features match tested and designed specifications before release Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab. O*NET v30.2O*NET Resource Center — Occupational Information Network, v30.2 (Sept 2025). Opens in new tab.
  2. Conflict navigation — resolves technical disagreements with teammates by presenting evidence and deferring to agreed-upon decision criteria rather than defaulting to seniority or persistence Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
  3. Shared goal contribution — breaks down personal work tasks to show explicit linkage to sprint goals, communicating dependencies to teammates proactively to prevent delivery bottlenecks Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
Applying
  1. Multi-discipline project collaboration — confers with systems analysts, engineers, and business stakeholders throughout a project lifecycle to surface limitations, define interfaces, and synchronize delivery milestones Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab. O*NET v30.2O*NET Resource Center — Occupational Information Network, v30.2 (Sept 2025). Opens in new tab.
  2. Distributed team effectiveness — maintains productive collaboration across time zones by establishing asynchronous communication norms, detailed handoff documentation, and shared progress visibility Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
  3. Collaborative code ownership — participates in mob programming or group design sessions where shared ownership of a system component replaces individual silos and distributes technical knowledge across the team Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
Exceeding
  1. Collaborative culture design — establishes team agreements, working norms, and tooling choices that enable high-functioning collaboration across large, diverse, or geographically distributed development organizations Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
  2. Inter-team dependency leadership — orchestrates collaboration across multiple engineering teams building interdependent systems, resolving interface conflicts and aligning on shared contracts before they become integration failures Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab. O*NET v30.2O*NET Resource Center — Occupational Information Network, v30.2 (Sept 2025). Opens in new tab.
  3. Stakeholder co-creation — facilitates joint design workshops with customers, product managers, and engineers that translate user needs into validated software requirements through structured collaborative inquiry Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab. O*NET v30.2O*NET Resource Center — Occupational Information Network, v30.2 (Sept 2025). Opens in new tab.
6Character11 statements
Emerging
  1. Deadline honesty — communicates proactively when a task will not be completed on time rather than waiting until the deadline passes to disclose the delay Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
  2. Code attribution — credits the work of other developers appropriately in documentation and discussions, avoiding misrepresentation of contributions in collaborative projects Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
Developing
  1. Error ownership — acknowledges authorship of a bug introduced into production, documents the failure accurately in the incident report, and participates in the fix without deflecting responsibility Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
  2. Ethical code practice — flags security vulnerabilities, data privacy risks, or technical shortcuts that could harm end users when discovered during development, even when doing so delays a deadline Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
  3. Professional consistency — applies the same quality standards to low-visibility internal tools as to customer-facing features, regardless of whether the work will receive external scrutiny Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
Applying
  1. Scope integrity — resists pressure to mark requirements as complete when acceptance criteria have not been fully met, maintaining accurate project status reporting even when it creates stakeholder friction Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab. O*NET v30.2O*NET Resource Center — Occupational Information Network, v30.2 (Sept 2025). Opens in new tab.
  2. Inclusive technical practice — reviews team coding standards and design decisions for unintentional bias or exclusionary assumptions that affect accessibility or user experience for underrepresented groups Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
  3. Confidentiality stewardship — handles sensitive system architecture, customer data, and proprietary algorithms with strict adherence to organizational security policies and professional confidentiality obligations Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
Exceeding
  1. Ethical architecture advocacy — raises ethical, privacy, and societal implications of large-scale system design decisions to leadership, advocating for responsible engineering choices even when they conflict with business expediency Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
  2. Accountability culture modeling — demonstrates and publicly recognizes accountable behavior across the team, creating an environment where engineers report mistakes early and treat them as learning opportunities rather than sources of blame Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
  3. Professional standards contribution — participates in industry working groups, open-source governance, or internal ethics review boards that shape responsible software development practices beyond a single organization Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
7Creativity11 statements
Emerging
  1. Alternative solution exploration — generates at least two distinct implementation approaches for a new feature before selecting one, rather than defaulting to the first method that comes to mind Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
  2. Constraint reframing — reinterprets a technical limitation as a design constraint that opens unexpected approaches to solving a software problem within resource bounds Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
Developing
  1. Novel debugging strategy — devises an unconventional diagnostic technique to isolate an intermittent production bug that resists standard logging and unit testing approaches Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab. O*NET v30.2O*NET Resource Center — Occupational Information Network, v30.2 (Sept 2025). Opens in new tab.
  2. Feature ideation contribution — proposes original ideas during product brainstorming sessions that extend the intended scope of a feature by recognizing unaddressed user needs in the requirements Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab. O*NET v30.2O*NET Resource Center — Occupational Information Network, v30.2 (Sept 2025). Opens in new tab.
  3. Prototype experimentation — builds a quick functional prototype to test a speculative architectural idea, generating empirical data to evaluate feasibility before committing team resources Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
Applying
  1. Innovative system design — applies mathematical modeling and scientific analysis to design software architectures that produce measurably better performance or scalability outcomes than conventional approaches Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab. O*NET v30.2O*NET Resource Center — Occupational Information Network, v30.2 (Sept 2025). Opens in new tab.
  2. Cross-domain synthesis — adapts algorithms or patterns from adjacent technical domains to solve problems in the current system, bringing novel perspectives that colleagues embedded in the domain would not generate Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
  3. Developer tooling invention — creates internal tools, scripts, or automation utilities that substantially reduce repetitive work for the team, improving delivery speed through creative engineering Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
Exceeding
  1. Disruptive architecture innovation — conceives and champions a fundamentally new approach to a long-standing system design problem, gaining organizational adoption and producing step-change improvements in capability or efficiency Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab. O*NET v30.2O*NET Resource Center — Occupational Information Network, v30.2 (Sept 2025). Opens in new tab.
  2. Creative culture facilitation — structures hackathons, innovation sprints, or design thinking workshops that generate novel software ideas from the broader team and pipeline them into the product roadmap Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
  3. Open-source innovation contribution — authors and publishes original open-source libraries or frameworks that solve unsolved problems and gain adoption by the broader developer community Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
8Growth Mindset11 statements
Emerging
  1. Feedback receptivity — incorporates specific code review feedback into revised submissions without treating critique as a personal evaluation of ability Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
  2. Challenge acceptance — volunteers to implement a feature in an unfamiliar programming language or framework rather than requesting reassignment to comfortable technology Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
Developing
  1. Setback recovery — encounters a failed deployment or rejected design proposal, conducts a personal debrief to extract lessons, and applies them in the subsequent development cycle Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
  2. Deliberate skill stretch — identifies a technical area outside current competence, such as distributed systems or machine learning integration, and pursues structured learning through courses, projects, or mentorship Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
  3. Effort-mastery connection — attributes improvement in code quality and system design proficiency to sustained practice and iteration rather than innate talent, and communicates this framing when mentoring others Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
Applying
  1. Iterative improvement commitment — treats each sprint retrospective as a genuine opportunity to change personal and team practices, implementing at least one concrete process improvement per cycle Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
  2. Productive struggle embrace — persists through architecturally complex problems without prematurely escalating or seeking shortcuts, recognizing sustained effort as the mechanism for developing advanced engineering judgment Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
  3. Constructive criticism seeking — proactively requests detailed peer reviews and architecture critiques beyond the minimum required, using the feedback to surface blind spots in technical reasoning Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
Exceeding
  1. Learning culture institutionalization — builds team structures such as internal tech talks, learning guilds, and knowledge-sharing rituals that make continuous growth a systemic expectation rather than an individual choice Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
  2. Failure normalization leadership — publicly shares personal technical failures and the lessons extracted from them, modeling the growth mindset for the organization and reducing the stigma that suppresses early error reporting Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
  3. Adaptive mastery demonstration — transitions successfully into entirely new technical paradigms such as cloud-native architecture or a new programming language ecosystem, applying prior learning strategies to accelerate proficiency in the new domain Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
9Mindfulness11 statements
Emerging
  1. Distraction awareness — recognizes when context switching between code tasks is fragmenting attention and takes deliberate steps to complete one logical unit of work before shifting focus Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
  2. Emotional regulation in reviews — manages frustration when receiving critical code review feedback, pausing before responding to ensure replies are constructive rather than defensive Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
Developing
  1. Intentional task sequencing — plans the daily development schedule with explicit prioritization of complex cognitive work during peak focus periods, reserving meetings and administrative tasks for lower-energy windows Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
  2. Present-moment debugging — resists the urge to implement a solution before fully understanding the problem, slowing down to trace system behavior step by step rather than reacting to surface symptoms Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab. O*NET v30.2O*NET Resource Center — Occupational Information Network, v30.2 (Sept 2025). Opens in new tab.
  3. Meeting engagement — maintains attentive presence during sprint planning and design sessions, contributing observations grounded in what is currently being discussed rather than rehearsing future arguments Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
Applying
  1. Pressure-state awareness — recognizes when deadline pressure is producing tunnel vision in design decisions and deliberately widens the problem frame before committing to a technically risky implementation path Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
  2. Intentional communication — pauses before responding to ambiguous stakeholder requests to formulate a precise clarifying question rather than making assumptions that propagate errors downstream in the development cycle Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab. O*NET v30.2O*NET Resource Center — Occupational Information Network, v30.2 (Sept 2025). Opens in new tab.
  3. Sustainable pace maintenance — monitors personal cognitive load across a sprint and communicates capacity limits to the team before overcommitment leads to degraded code quality or burnout Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
Exceeding
  1. Team stress-state recognition — observes signs of collective cognitive overload or interpersonal friction in the team and intervenes with structural changes to workload, communication, or team dynamics before delivery quality deteriorates Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
  2. Mindful architecture decision-making — creates structured pauses in the design process for high-stakes architectural decisions, ensuring the team evaluates evidence and implications with full attention rather than defaulting to momentum-driven choices Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab. O*NET v30.2O*NET Resource Center — Occupational Information Network, v30.2 (Sept 2025). Opens in new tab.
  3. Organizational attention stewardship — designs team rituals, meeting cadences, and notification policies that protect deep work time across the engineering organization, treating collective attention as a managed resource Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
10Fortitude11 statements
Emerging
  1. Bug persistence — continues methodical investigation of a difficult defect through multiple failed hypotheses rather than abandoning the problem or immediately escalating to a senior engineer Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
  2. Rejection recovery — receives a rejected design proposal or failed code review and resubmits an improved version without withdrawing from the technical discussion Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
Developing
  1. Sustained delivery under pressure — maintains code quality standards and testing discipline during high-pressure release cycles rather than cutting corners when deadline urgency increases Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
  2. Uncertainty tolerance — begins scoping and designing a software solution when requirements are incomplete or ambiguous, making reasoned progress without waiting for perfect information Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab. O*NET v30.2O*NET Resource Center — Occupational Information Network, v30.2 (Sept 2025). Opens in new tab.
  3. Legacy code endurance — persists through the cognitive difficulty of understanding and modifying a large, poorly documented legacy codebase, making steady progress without abandoning the effort Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab. O*NET v30.2O*NET Resource Center — Occupational Information Network, v30.2 (Sept 2025). Opens in new tab.
Applying
  1. Production incident fortitude — maintains composure and methodical problem-solving during high-severity production outages, leading the team through triage and resolution under organizational pressure Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
  2. Long-horizon project commitment — sustains consistent quality and engagement across multi-month software development projects, managing motivation and attention through the low-visibility middle phases of development Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
  3. Adversarial stakeholder navigation — continues advocating for sound technical approaches when facing organizational resistance, budget pressure, or stakeholder demands that conflict with engineering best practices Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab. O*NET v30.2O*NET Resource Center — Occupational Information Network, v30.2 (Sept 2025). Opens in new tab.
Exceeding
  1. Organizational resilience building — establishes engineering practices such as chaos engineering, disaster recovery drills, and blameless postmortems that build the team's collective capacity to absorb and recover from adversity Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
  2. Courageous technical dissent — publicly challenges a widely supported but technically flawed architectural direction at the organizational level, presenting evidence-based alternatives and accepting the professional risk of disagreement Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.
  3. Sustained innovation persistence — drives a long-term technical transformation initiative such as a platform migration or major refactoring program through months of resistance, setbacks, and competing priorities without abandoning the effort Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab. O*NET v30.2O*NET Resource Center — Occupational Information Network, v30.2 (Sept 2025). Opens in new tab.
Sources:Pathsmith Durable SkillsPathsmith Durable Skills Framework — America Succeeds + CompTIA. Opens in new tab.O*NET v30.2O*NET Resource Center — Occupational Information Network, v30.2 (Sept 2025). Opens in new tab.
Show O*NET source anchors54 anchors · skillscrosswalk.com

O*NET enrichment · skillscrosswalk.com

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Source anchors that ground each statement

Related titles
Software Developer · AI Specialist (Artificial Intelligence Specialist) · Application Analyst · Application Architect · Application Developer · Application Engineer · Application Integration Engineer · Application Integrator · Application Programmer · Application Software Engineering IT Specialist (Application Software Engineering Information Technology Specialist) · Application Support Engineer · Application Systems Analyst
RAPIDS apprenticeships
0249 · Software Developer
O*NET skills
ProgrammingCritical ThinkingJudgment and Decision MakingReading ComprehensionSystems AnalysisActive LearningSystems EvaluationComplex Problem SolvingTechnology DesignActive ListeningWritingOperations AnalysisSpeakingTime ManagementMonitoringCoordination
Knowledge domains
Computers and ElectronicsMathematicsCustomer and Personal ServiceEnglish Language
Abilities
Oral ComprehensionWritten ComprehensionOral ExpressionProblem SensitivityDeductive ReasoningNear VisionInformation OrderingWritten ExpressionInductive ReasoningCategory Flexibility
Work styles
Attention to DetailInnovationDependabilityIntellectual CuriosityAchievement OrientationAdaptability
Technology
Word processing softwareDevelopment environment softwareObject or component oriented development softwareData base user interface and query softwareDocument management softwareVideo creation and editing softwareGraphics or photo imaging softwareWeb page creation and editing softwareWeb platform development softwareDesktop publishing software
Tasks · seed anchors for statements
  1. Analyze user needs and software requirements to determine feasibility of design within time and cost constraints.
  2. Develop or direct software system testing or validation procedures, programming, or documentation.
  3. Confer with systems analysts, engineers, programmers and others to design systems and to obtain information on project limitations and capabilities, performance requirements and interfaces.
  4. Modify existing software to correct errors, adapt it to new hardware, or upgrade interfaces and improve performance.
  5. Prepare reports or correspondence concerning project specifications, activities, or status.
  6. Analyze information to determine, recommend, and plan installation of a new system or modification of an existing system.
  7. Store, retrieve, and manipulate data for analysis of system capabilities and requirements.
  8. Design, develop and modify software systems, using scientific analysis and mathematical models to predict and measure outcomes and consequences of design.
CIP education codes
11.010211.010311.010411.020111.020211.020311.020411.020511.040111.070111.080411.090214.090114.090315.120430.080130.160130.390130.480130.7001

Sources: O*NET v30.2 (CC BY 4.0), SkillsCrosswalk.com, LER.me, Anthropic Economic Index, SAFI (Jadhav & Danve, 2026), WEF Skills Taxonomy 2021, Pathsmith Durable Skills Framework. © 2026 EBSCOed.