Software engineers design, build and run the systems behind products and services. Postings usually ask for one or two main programming languages plus experience with the cloud platforms and delivery tooling a team already uses.
We analyzed 620 U.S. job descriptions from 160 employers for Software Engineering roles. The most requested skills were Python (38%), Java (27%) and Kubernetes (22%).
17,437open U.S. roles tracked
5 yearstypical experience asked for
$213,000median advertised pay, from 2,090 roles that state it
Languages
Python38%
Java27%
C++20%
SQL19%
C#12%
JavaScript11%
TypeScript10%
Go9%
Rust8%
Cloud & infrastructure
Kubernetes22%
AWS22%
CI/CD21%
Distributed systems21%
Azure15%
Linux14%
Docker13%
Google Cloud12%
Microservices10%
Terraform9%
Product & design
Agile20%
Prototyping10%
AI & machine learning
LLMs11%
Machine learning10%
Operations
Root cause analysis9%
Security
Incident response7%
Updated November 7, 2026, using job descriptions collected since September 25, 2026. Shares show how many of the sampled descriptions mention a skill, so a low share can still be a firm requirement in the roles that list it. We sample a limited number of descriptions per employer so that no single company dominates, and we only report figures backed by several employers. Advertised pay comes from a different group of roles than H1B filings, so the two are not directly comparable.
