How To Become A Staff Programmer: What It Is and Career Path

What is a staff programmer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

Quoted Expert

James Sellmann Ph.D.

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a staff programmer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $54.32 an hour? That's $112,979 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -7% and produce -17,900 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a Staff Programmer?

James Sellmann Ph.D.

Dean, Professor of Philosophy and Micronesian Studies, University of Guam

General advice is to keep in mind that you must leverage your skills, especially your soft skills of being able to work with people, to communicate effectively and to be able to solve problems. Be real. Don't try to pretend to be someone else to impress others. Be your authentic self. And show up on time.

ScoreStaff ProgrammerUS Average

Salary

7.9

Avg. Salary $112,979

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

5.1

Growth Rate -7%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.4

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.18%

Asian 16.40%

Black or African American 4.99%

Hispanic or Latino 8.81%

Unknown 4.70%

White 64.92%

Gender

female 23.73%

male 76.27%

Age - 48

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 - 48

Stress Level

5.1

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

7.3

Complexity Level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

5.7

Work Life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a staff programmer

Explore staff programmer education requirements

Most common staff programmer degrees

Bachelor's

68.0 %

Master's

14.1 %

Associate

13.7 %

Start to develop specific staff programmer skills

Skills	Percentages
Database	9.36%
COBOL	5.50%
DB2	4.29%
PL/SQL	4.21%
Mainframe	3.70%

Complete relevant staff programmer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New staff programmers 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 a staff programmer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real staff programmer resumes.

Research staff programmer duties and responsibilities

Achieve improved efficiency and cost reduction goals through efforts and expertise provide in multiple LPAR eliminations and data center consolidations.
Provide technical support to team members on CICS, DB2, and design relate issues.
Develop UNIX shell script which calls the application.
Develop subsequent functionality using HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and AJAX.

Prepare your staff programmer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your staff programmer 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 a staff programmer resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Staff Programmer Resume templates

Build a professional Staff Programmer 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 Staff Programmer resume.

Apply for staff programmer jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a staff programmer 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 staff programmers rate their job?

-/5

5 Stars

4 Stars

3 Stars

2 Stars

1 Star

Staff Programmer reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Jun 2019

Pros

The opportunity to take lead and mentor junior programmers

Cons

Working with Junior programmers who won't take your advice/direction even if you have a sound argument