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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Web Software Developer

💰 $70,000 - $140,000

Software DevelopmentWeb DevelopmentFull-Stack

🎯 Role Definition

A Web Software Developer is responsible for designing, building, testing, deploying, and maintaining high-quality web applications across front-end and/or back-end stacks. This role focuses on translating product requirements into scalable code, collaborating with product managers, designers, and operations teams, and continuously improving performance, security, and developer experience. Ideal candidates are proficient in modern web technologies (JavaScript/TypeScript, React/Angular/Vue, Node.js/.NET/Java), understand API design and databases, and are experienced with cloud platforms and CI/CD pipelines.


📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Junior Web Developer or Front-end Developer
  • Software Engineer (entry-level)
  • Web Designer transitioning to development

Advancement To:

  • Senior Web Developer / Senior Software Engineer
  • Lead Developer / Tech Lead
  • Full-Stack Engineer or Principal Engineer

Lateral Moves:

  • Product Engineer
  • DevOps Engineer / Site Reliability Engineer
  • UX Engineer / Front-end Architect

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Design, develop, and maintain responsive, accessible, and performant web user interfaces using modern front-end frameworks such as React, Angular, or Vue, ensuring consistent behavior across browsers and devices.
  • Implement robust server-side application logic and APIs using Node.js, Python, Java, or .NET, following RESTful and/or GraphQL design principles to support single-page applications and mobile clients.
  • Collaborate closely with Product Managers and UX/UI Designers to translate wireframes and business requirements into technical specifications, interactive prototypes, and production-ready features.
  • Build and maintain relational and NoSQL data models (PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, DynamoDB), including schema design, query optimization, indexing, and migration strategies.
  • Create, document, and version APIs and SDKs; enforce contract-driven development and API versioning to support backward compatibility and third-party integrators.
  • Write comprehensive automated tests (unit, integration, end-to-end) using tools like Jest, Mocha, Cypress, or Playwright to ensure code quality and reduce regressions.
  • Implement CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, or CircleCI to automate builds, tests, code quality checks, and deployments to staging and production environments.
  • Containerize applications and manage container orchestration with Docker and Kubernetes for scalable, fault-tolerant deployments and consistent developer workflows.
  • Optimize application performance at front-end and back-end layers (code splitting, lazy loading, memoization, caching, CDN configuration, database query tuning), measured against SLAs and performance budgets.
  • Enforce secure coding practices: input validation, authentication and authorization (OAuth, JWT), proper session management, encryption, and remediation of OWASP vulnerabilities.
  • Instrument applications with logging, metrics, and tracing (Prometheus, Grafana, ELK/EFK, OpenTelemetry) to monitor health, diagnose issues, and meet SLOs.
  • Lead code reviews, mentor junior engineers, shape coding standards and best practices, and promote a collaborative engineering culture focused on continuous improvement.
  • Integrate third-party services and cloud-native features (AWS/GCP/Azure services such as S3, Lambda, Cloud Functions, Secrets Manager) to accelerate feature delivery and reduce operational overhead.
  • Manage feature rollouts with feature flags, canary releases, and A/B testing frameworks to minimize user impact and gather data-driven insights.
  • Participate in sprint planning, backlog refinement, and agile ceremonies; estimate work, break down complex tasks, and deliver incremental value on predictable cadences.
  • Troubleshoot and resolve production incidents, perform root cause analysis, and produce postmortems with remediation plans to prevent recurrence.
  • Implement localization/internationalization strategies when applicable, ensuring string externalization, date/number formatting, and right-to-left support.
  • Collaborate with QA, security, and operations to define release readiness criteria and deploy secure, stable releases to production.
  • Maintain and improve developer tooling and internal libraries, reducing cognitive load on teams and accelerating time-to-market for new features.
  • Evaluate and recommend new technologies, libraries, and architectures that align with business goals, scalability requirements, and team skill sets.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
  • Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
  • Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
  • Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.
  • Maintain technical documentation, API docs, runbooks, and onboarding guides for new developers and cross-functional stakeholders.
  • Provide estimates and technical risk assessments for proposed features and platform changes.
  • Assist in vendor evaluations and integrations, including contract and security assessments for third-party SaaS providers.
  • Conduct performance and security audits in partnership with infrastructure and security teams.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Expertise in JavaScript and/or TypeScript and modern ES standards.
  • Strong front-end framework experience: React (preferred), Angular, or Vue.
  • Server-side development with Node.js/Express, Python (Django/Flask), Java (Spring), or .NET.
  • Experience designing and building RESTful APIs and GraphQL endpoints.
  • Proficient with relational databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL) and NoSQL stores (MongoDB, Redis).
  • Familiarity with HTML5, CSS3, CSS-in-JS, responsive design, and cross-browser compatibility.
  • Experience with version control workflows using Git, branching strategies, pull requests, and code reviews.
  • CI/CD pipeline setup and management (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, CircleCI).
  • Containerization and orchestration: Docker, Kubernetes, and cloud deployment patterns.
  • Cloud platform experience: AWS, GCP, or Azure (EC2/Lambda, S3, Cloud Functions, IAM).
  • Automated testing frameworks: Jest, Mocha, Jasmine, Cypress, Playwright, Selenium.
  • Web performance optimization techniques (bundling, tree-shaking, lazy loading, caching, CDN).
  • Security best practices: authentication/authorization (OAuth2, JWT), XSS/CSRF prevention, encryption.
  • Observability tooling: logging, metrics, tracing (ELK, Prometheus, Grafana, OpenTelemetry).
  • Knowledge of state management libraries (Redux, MobX, Context API) and design patterns for large applications.
  • Familiarity with accessibility standards (WCAG) and implementing accessible components.
  • Experience with build tools and package managers: Webpack, Vite, Babel, NPM, Yarn.
  • Understanding of deployment strategies: rolling updates, blue/green, canary, and feature flags.
  • Ability to model and consume third-party APIs and integrate payment, analytics, and authentication providers.

Soft Skills

  • Strong written and verbal communication; able to document decisions, write RFCs, and present technical trade-offs to stakeholders.
  • Problem-solving mindset with an emphasis on pragmatic, measurable solutions.
  • Collaboration and teamwork: experience working with product managers, designers, QA, and operations in cross-functional teams.
  • Mentorship and coaching: willing to guide junior engineers and share knowledge through pair programming and code reviews.
  • Time management and prioritization under competing deadlines and changing requirements.
  • Attention to detail and a quality-first approach when shipping features.
  • Adaptability to evolving tech stacks and business priorities.
  • Customer-focused thinking: building features with empathy for user needs and business outcomes.
  • Analytical mindset to interpret metrics, A/B test results, and user feedback to inform improvements.
  • Growth mindset: openness to feedback and continuous learning.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, or a related technical discipline — or equivalent practical experience.

Preferred Education:

  • Master's degree in Computer Science or related field, or industry certifications in cloud platforms, web security, or front-end engineering.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Computer Science
  • Software Engineering
  • Information Systems
  • Human-Computer Interaction (for UI/UX-focused roles)
  • Mathematics or related STEM disciplines

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 2–8+ years in web application development (varies by level — 2–4 years for mid-level, 5+ for senior).

Preferred:

  • 3–5+ years building production web applications with modern JavaScript frameworks and server-side technologies.
  • Demonstrable portfolio of shipped features or public GitHub projects that highlight coding style, architecture decisions, and testing rigor.
  • Experience in cloud-native deployments and production incident response.
  • Prior experience mentoring developers and participating in architectural discussions.