Senior Developer Definition

The cluster centers on debates about what defines a 'senior developer' or 'senior engineer', including metrics like years of experience, leadership, decision-making, scope of responsibility, and how the term varies across companies.

📉 Falling 0.4x Career & Jobs
3,695
Comments
19
Years Active
5
Top Authors
#4470
Topic ID

Activity Over Time

2008
3
2009
7
2010
17
2011
31
2012
37
2013
50
2014
79
2015
112
2016
259
2017
189
2018
246
2019
297
2020
318
2021
407
2022
531
2023
398
2024
314
2025
375
2026
25

Keywords

US CRUD IMO SWE framework.html YOE FWIW levels.fyi SE MADLY senior junior engineer dev experience title developer companies years experience skill

Sample Comments

petetnt Sep 7, 2017 View on HN

"More senior developer" such as who or categorised by what metrics? Age?

candiddevmike May 6, 2021 View on HN

Do you really need a senior engineer?

triyambakam Aug 31, 2025 View on HN

Neither are you if that's your understanding of a senior engineer

vasili111 Jul 28, 2023 View on HN

Any senior developer using in resume term "senior"?

gtirloni May 26, 2022 View on HN

Senior dev is not what you were doing, judging by your description of it.

dgb23 Mar 22, 2023 View on HN

Senior developer aren't senior because they can type code very fast. They are senior because they can take on responsibilities and make decisions. A junior that types code very fast is a junior that types code very fast.

headcanon Feb 3, 2023 View on HN

First off, "Senior" is a pretty nebulous term and can mean different things to different people and different companies. Some companies have fairly detailed definitions of what is expected at different levels, and others don't. For the latter, "Senior" likely means "we don't want to have to teach you to code". Whether or not you want to work at a place like that is up to you and the conversation that you have with them in the interview. I wouldn't wor

sjf Oct 4, 2019 View on HN

By senior I mean 5+ years experience, not their job title.

codingwagie Feb 19, 2025 View on HN

Staff/senior is a different skill set, and you should just shoot for it instead of thinking banging out code will get you there

throw51319 Nov 27, 2019 View on HN

What would you generally consider senior SWE work in this case?