JavaScript
Python
Django
React.js
PHP
Both small and large companies come to the point when they need to expand, develop customer software advancements, or support business growth. Software developers skills can bring valuable solutions. Having a software developer in your team is a must if you're creating a new app. It's also critical if you're increasing the efficiency of your software, or undertaking the new security measures.
From our experience, we will reveal to you the most popular business demands of the last year. What roles and skills businesses seek to expand and grow? What areas are developing the most, suffering from talent shortages? Let's dive into the details.
Software Developer Skills in Need: Top Positions and Specializations
In 2025, businesses are increasingly prioritizing the integration of generative AI, bolstering cybersecurity measures, and leveraging data analytics to deliver personalized customer experiences — highlighting the software developer skills needed to drive these initiatives.
We’ve seen businesses move past the AI hype. In 2025, it has become more about results. Ernst & Young reports that 97% of leaders see ROI on AI, yet many still wrestle with legacy systems and change-resistant teams. It’s not a tech problem anymore; it’s an execution one.
Harvard Business Review echoes this shift. Companies are no longer dazzled by AI’s potential — they’re focused on use cases that actually move the needle. For many of our clients, that starts with hiring for software developer skills needed to embed gen AI into real workflows, not future-proof fantasies.
AI and ML expertise remains front and center. Developers who can scale intelligent systems — especially with generative AI and NLP — are in high demand. Add cloud-native fluency and secure coding practices, and you have a developer who’s not just valuable, but essential. Companies serious about hiring top talent must move fast, offer growth, and create a culture where developers thrive
CEO and President,
Redfish Technology
Top Positions in Demand with Software Engineering Skills
As of 2025, the global population of software developers has reached approximately 47.2 million, marking a significant increase that underscores the escalating demand for software developer skills across various industries. With expansion of skills required for a software developer and their scope becoming more complex, you may experience shortages when you hire software developers.
Based on global tendencies and our own experience in Outstaff Your Team, the following roles rank the highest among all requests we receive from global businesses. Depending on the level of specialists and the exact skills you require, the hiring process can take longer than expected. So, plan accordingly when you're preparing your business scaling.
AI and ML Engineer
Artificial intelligence and machine learning continue to be a hot topic now. Developers specializing in AI and ML create algorithms that process and produce huge amounts of raw data. Software engineering skills required for this position include data management, fine-tuning and training models, embedding models into existing IT software, and integrating them with other applications.
As more and more industries compete for AI implementation, a software development team requiring AI engineer can be placed almost everywhere. Healthcare and automobile industry, IT outsourcing, and financial sector are all interested in these specialists. With such a high demand and competition, build your team in advance.
Robotic Process Automation Developer
In parallel with AI-tools implementation, businesses lead activities on automation of their processes. Understanding the key skills for software developer roles in this space is crucial, as automation has become a cost-efficient way to drive measurable results. With automation, the main focus is on increasing efficiency of operations, improving accuracy, reducing manual work and operational costs.
The main hard skills for a software engineer working with RPA involve technical proficiency in developing and deploying bots. With software development expertise, specialists map up processes in an RPA tool, scripting and configuring codes to automate the existing tasks. The requests for automation similarly come from every corner. You'll compete for talents with banking and insurance sectors, healthcare and global customer operations.
QA Engineer
With the increase of AI development expands also the field of QA. The practice of continuous integration and continuous deployment fuels the demand as well. Whether involved in manual or automated testing, engineers create scripts for the testing process, elaborate on testing scenarios, and assess the performance of various software features.
The most popular software developer hard skills related to QA include mastery of test automation tools and frameworks and knowledge of programming languages, such as Python, Ruby, or JavaScript. While testing software products, engineers should also be familiar with DevOps and Agile practices.
Even though QA Engineers continue to be in demand, the number of specialists available in the market can cover your needs.
An interesting fact from our practice: for the last request for QA Engineer from one of our clients, we got 1500 applications from all over the world in less than a month.
If you're in search of a QA Engineer or any other developer, Outstaff Your Team has 13+ years of experience and knows how to make it happen for you.
Start hiring today
Cybersecurity/Information Security Engineer
With the usage of sensitive data in numerous tools come needs for cybersecurity specialists. Today, cybersecurity is one of the IT outstaffing trends. But it's also one of the IT segments where the demand is much higher than the availability of professionals with software developer skills needed for this role.
While engineers in cybersecurity have a strong general knowledge of security and cryptography protocols, they should also be skilled in security tools, firewalls, and antivirus software. By configuring VPNs and IDS/IPS, they build a complex environment to protect a business from cyberthreats, leakages, and data breaches.
Just to give you a heads-up, the number of good cybersecurity specialists in the market is quite low. If you're trying to find developers for startup teams with strict timelines and niche requirements, your hiring campaign can easily stretch into months.
Any software developer skills needed for your business? Our team can help you find the best talents in the field.
Contact us for details
Top In-Demand Software Developers Skills
As you know, current and future hiring campaigns more and more focus on skills rather than degrees. Harvard Business Review states the same, citing tech giants who already remove degree requirements from their job descriptions. That's why focus on skills is a must while opening new job opportunities.
Clearly defining the roles when you create your team is one thing. The other is understanding the exact skills needed for software developer roles that match your project requirements. This is especially important since many of them interlink between different roles. The definition of skills as well as the mastery level will also influence the software developer cost at the end.
We've gathered the skills that were in the highest demand in the market during the last year.
Database Administration
The heart of all business activities remains data. The more sophisticated software solutions you seek, the more databases you will need to offer to manage. With mastery in database administration, you expect software developers to manage datasets, design, and implement the needed applications. As the scale of datasets continues to increase, so does the demand for good database management skills.
Data Analytics
Data analytics is not only a prerogative of data analysts. As one of the core skills for a software developer mentioned in job descriptions, it helps them analyze user's behavior. After getting the data from the business, developers can offer more efficient solutions, while improving operational processes. With good data analytics — one of the top software developer skills today — the final solutions are tailored for the business. This skill helps to find a solution that will stay competitive in the market.
Data Science
This is one of the most important software developer skills. Combining in itself data analysis with statistics, this skill is especially sought-after for developing more complicated solutions and machine learning models. With data science skills, developers are expected to create more efficient automated solutions and intelligent systems.
Big Data
This is the area where managing really huge datasets come into play. With big data skills, developers can manage big data frameworks that will analyze and build upon available raw data. Even if you look for full-stack developers, who typically don't work with big data, the availability of this skill can move their development to the next level. Big data is one of software developer skills that will ensure the scalability of software solutions and help in creation of real-time data processing apps.
Cloud Computing
As more and more applications are cloud-based, cloud computing is consequently one of the leading software developer skills today. Businesses typically search for developers familiar with such technologies as Google Cloud, AWS, and Azure. This skill is requested not only to create new cloud-based technologies, but also to move the existing ones to the cloud.
Programming Languages
This year, we’ve seen Python hold its ground, especially among teams building AI-driven features or cleaning up messy data pipelines. JavaScript and TypeScript aren’t going anywhere — they’re still core to frontend-heavy projects. But what’s changed in 2025 is the rise of Go and Rust. More teams are asking for them not because they’re trendy, but because they’re tired of debugging memory issues or latency in high-load systems.
If you're hiring for infrastructure-heavy roles, skills needed for software developer today definitely include experience with these lower-level, high-performance languages. It's one of the skills required to be a software developer that actually makes a noticeable difference in how a product scales.
If you struggle to find a specialist mastering Java or C++, Outstaff Your Team can handle your demand.
Browse candidates today
Beyond Software Developer Hard Skills: Future Trends
In addition to artificial intelligence and cybersecurity that we have already covered, different trends start already appearing here and there.
One thing that’s changed fast in 2025: AI is writing code alongside developers. At some companies tools like GitHub Copilot or Claude Sonnet now draft a third of all code. That’s changed hiring conversations. Teams aren’t just asking for React or Python anymore — they want people who know how to guide these tools and still catch what they miss. Prompt engineering and model-aware coding are becoming some of the most in demand software engineering skills, even for mid-level roles.
On the infrastructure side, there is more demand for engineers who can build for the edge — especially in logistics and manufacturing, where processing has to happen close to the source. Blockchain’s also coming back into the picture, but not for coins — now it’s about security, traceability, and smart contract integrations.
And here's the kicker: the more niche your stack (think Solidity, Rust, or edge-native architectures), the higher the cost to hire a software developer. These roles aren’t just rare — they’re strategic hires.
Developers who can create AI-powered applications, understand cloud-native architecture, and embed security by design are defining 2025’s hiring trends. AI skills aren't standalone anymore — they’re expected to work hand in hand with secure, scalable infrastructure. Companies that prioritize learning, security-first thinking, and developer growth will stay ahead
Summary
The software development world doesn’t slow down — and neither do the expectations placed on engineering teams. In 2025, businesses are no longer chasing innovation for the sake of it. They’re investing in results-driven development, where AI, automation, and security are non-negotiables.
What’s changed is the depth of expertise companies now require. It’s no longer enough to list Python or AWS on a résumé. Hiring managers want developers with the software developer skills to train models, audit AI outputs, secure decentralized systems, and build cloud-native apps that scale without drama. The dev skills needed today are sharper, more interdisciplinary, and far more connected to business outcomes than ever before.
At Outstaff Your Team, we’ve seen the difference the right hire can make — especially when that hire isn’t just technically skilled but also understands how to move a product forward. Whether you’re scaling fast or rebuilding your tech core, we help you meet your moment by matching you with talent who’s already ahead of the curve.
FAQ
What are the most in-demand software developer skills today?
Right now, it’s a mix of sharp backend logic and AI fluency. Teams are hiring for Python and Rust, but also for people who can wrangle AI outputs, work cloud-native, and not blink at debugging edge cases in production.
Why are AI and machine learning considered top software developer skills?
Because AI isn’t an R&D experiment anymore — it’s part of the product. If a developer can’t fine-tune models or catch where generative tools go off track, they’re not going to keep up with today’s build cycles.
What software development expertise is a must for every software developer?
You need to know your stack, sure — but you also need to know how that stack holds up under load, integrates with other systems, and stays secure. That’s the baseline in 2025, not a bonus.
Viktoria is our Talent Acquisition specialist, the talent guru of Outstaff Your Team. With extensive experience in IT, programming, and HR, she is the one who finds the best tech talent gems across markets and geographic locations. Meticulously working with the requirements for the job offerings, she identifies and engages the best candidates that will be the future match for the tech positions. She elaborates sourcing strategy and keeps her finger on the pulse with the competitive market.
