It is not unusual for software engineers to experience feelings of stagnation and missed opportunities when they reach the midpoint of their careers.
In fact, it is estimated that 30 percent of engineering and computer science grads drop out of the development field by mid-career.
At some point you start questioning whether you want to continue doing the same thing or switch to a new career that offers new and different challenges, explained Karl Hughes, who became an entrepreneur after a decade of leading software engineering teams.
The quest for change got Hughes wondering: "What else can software engineers do besides write software?" He discovered that the list of career options was surprisingly long. Now, he’s the CEO of Draft.dev, a provider of technical marketing content for software engineers.
Why languish in the doldrums? Here’s a look at several encore careers that offer high demand and a broader range of challenges for software engineers.
Sales Engineer
When looking for an encore career, start by considering your desired workstyle, personality and inclination to interact with others, as well as roles that leverage your existing skills and strengths, such as analytical skills, critical thinking and problem-solving abilities.
Start by exploring jobs that touch up against software engineering and then keep pushing out further until you find something you like and that will help you develop a variety of skills that work well together or a “talent stack,” Hughes suggested.
Any growth vector for software engineers increases the communication frequency, noted Ben Tobin, a tech industry career coach and former software engineer. That’s an important factor to consider when deciding whether to pursue an alternate engineering specialty or a role that requires a drastically different approach than what you’re used to.
For example, sales engineer is a high impact, in-demand option for developers who like engineering but don't want to write code all day. These pros often serve as a bridge or consultant between a customer’s technical team and their company’s sales team across a variety of industries.
However, while you’ll need a strong understanding of the technical aspects of products and technology to succeed as a sales engineer, you also need to be ready, willing and able to interact with customers and salespeople all day.
Platform or DevOps Engineer
If you’re prone to communication fatigue, surveys show that platform and DevOps engineers typically spend around 20 percent to 30 percent of their workday on communication activities, including emails.
Platform engineering is an emerging field, driven by cloud adoption and the need to build and manage the underlying application infrastructure. In fact, Gartner predicts that, by 2026, 80 percent of large software engineering organizations will have established platform engineering teams, up from 45 percent in 2022. While tasks vary, most platform engineers work with databases and build APIs in addition to writing code.
DevOps engineer is another adjacent role to software engineering that usually entails some combination of release engineering, infrastructure provisioning and management, system administration and security.
Best of all, it will continue to utilize your experience as a developer while giving you the chance to work across the organization with different people. Again, DevOps engineering was one of the top five most in-demand jobs globally in 2024, and the need will continue to be high for the foreseeable future. Plus, tech pros could earn a $10,000 pay bump by acquiring DevOps expertise accruing to the latest Dice Tech Salary Report.
Data Engineer
Transitioning from software engineering to data engineering is quite feasible, now that data engineers are using programming languages to build data pipelines, write unit tests, data quality tests, and so on. Plus, the demand is skyrocketing and salaries are high. It’s definitely a career move that offers more diversity and the chance to work with a wider range of technologies and challenges compared to software development.
Cybersecurity Engineer
If you genuinely want to spend less time coding, consider alternative engineering specialties like cybersecurity where you can leverage your technical knowledge to identify vulnerabilities, and design and implement solutions that protect networks, systems, data and software from hackers and cyberattacks.
The demand for cybersecurity engineers is high. In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that the demand for cybersecurity engineers will grow by 33 percent from 2020 to 2030.
R&D Engineer
Working in research and development (R&D) can be both challenging and rewarding for someone with software engineering and creative problem-solving skills. The multifaceted role typically involves researching emerging technologies, building proof-of-concept prototypes, designing algorithms, managing projects and more.
Companies are increasingly prioritizing R&D to stay competitive, leading to boosted demand and higher salaries. However, getting into a good R&D team is hard, Hughes warned. That said, you may be able to cut your teeth by being part of a cross-disciplinary R&D team that includes software developers, data scientists, business analysts and project managers.
Product Manager, Technical Program Manager, Technical Project Manager
If you want to remain on a product team, the following roles collaborate with engineers and require technical expertise as well as other specialized skills and knowledge.
At one end of the spectrum are product managers who focus on strategy, user experience and market success. They conduct market research, analyze needs and shepherd the development of innovative solutions and features. Product management is a booming field across all industries from tech giants to financial institutions, entertainment, and healthcare.
At the other end of the spectrum are technical project managers who oversee projects that involve the development of high-tech products. Having a background in software engineering will help you decipher complex technical requirements and understand capabilities and limitations of the software engineering team. Of course, you also need excellent organization skills, business acumen and people skills to shepherd a project from start to finish—but if you crave diverse challenges and tasks, this could be the right career move for you.
“Technical program manager lies somewhere in the middle,” Tobin said. They often serve as go-betweens, collaborating with stakeholders, engineers, sales and marketing teams to drive product success.
Teacher, Trainer, Coach
If you are truly craving a different workstyle and better work-life balance, then consider pivoting from a career in software development to teaching, career coaching, developer advocacy or even technical writing.
Pairing technical acumen with communications skills can open doors to different types of career paths that are highly rewarding, fulfilling and flexible.
