How To Become An Application Lead: What It Is and Career Path

What is an application lead and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

The main duties of a lead applications developer are to direct the development team for applications testing, debugging, coding, creation, and design. People working in this position mentor the new developers or programmers. Supervision of the development team is also a part of their job. Additional duties would be to make sure that there is effective communication between the team members.

A bachelor's degree in management information systems, business, or computer science can be the stepping stone in becoming a lead application developer. Some employers require a master's degree in a relevant field. In addition to an understanding of programming languages, problem-solving skills, and a few years of relevant experience is helpful to land in a reputable organization as an application lead.

Normally, people working in this role get around $52 in an hour and make up more than $108,000 per annum. As expected, you will be getting decent compensation as this is a technical role.

ScoreApplication LeadUS Average

Salary

7.9

Avg. Salary $112,992

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

5.3

Growth Rate 9%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.3

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.19%

Asian 22.56%

Black or African American 9.64%

Hispanic or Latino 10.53%

Unknown 4.97%

White 52.10%

Gender

female 26.26%

male 73.74%

Age - 42

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 42

Stress Level

5.3

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

8.5

Complexity Level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

4.8

Work Life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an application lead

Explore application lead education requirements

Most common application lead degrees

Bachelor's

64.2 %

Master's

21.8 %

Associate

6.3 %

Start to develop specific application lead skills

Skills	Percentages
Java	10.76%
Architecture	7.95%
Emerging Technologies	7.58%
SDLC	5.29%
Application Development	4.83%

Complete relevant application lead training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New application leads learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as an application lead based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real application lead resumes.

Research application lead duties and responsibilities

Manage EDI customer requests, labeling, and customer compliance.
Code JSP pages and used JavaScript for client side validations and to achieve other client-side functionality.
Lead a team modifying existing software to incorporate new company name where applicable, which require extensive QA testing and debugging.
Conduct integration testing and regression testing with developers in development and QA, also conduct user acceptance testing with UAT team.

Get application lead experience

Generally, it takes 4-6 years to become an application lead. The most common roles before becoming an application lead include senior software engineer, programmer analyst team lead and software engineer.

Prepare your application lead resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your application lead resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on an application lead resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Application Lead Resume templates

Build a professional Application Lead resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Application Lead resume.

Apply for application lead jobs

Now it's time to start searching for an application lead job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do application leads rate their job?

-/5

5 Stars

4 Stars

3 Stars

2 Stars

1 Star

Application Lead reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Oct 2019

Cons

Less technical, but with some traveling sometimes

A zippia user wrote a review on Apr 2019