5 CV examples · UK · Updated October 2026
Software Developer CV Examples and Templates (UK)
A strong software developer CV proves you ship working, tested code, not just that you know a list of languages. Open with a short personal profile, name your stack, and back each role with outcomes such as faster releases, fewer incidents or features people actually use.
Software Developer CV at a glance
- Best format
- Reverse-chronological, single column, personal profile then technical skills
- Length
- 1 page for graduates, juniors and most mid-level; 2 for senior
- Top skills
- Writing clean, tested code, Debugging and problem-solving, Git, code review and CI/CD, Explaining technical decisions clearly
- Key qualifications
- Computing degree, T Level or apprenticeship, Level 4 Software Developer apprenticeship (England), Cloud certifications such as AWS Developer
- Average salary
- £30,000 to £75,000 a yearstarter to experienced, National Careers Service
- Typical hours
- 37 to 40 a weekevenings, weekends occasionally
5 software developer CV examples for 2026
Below are 5 UK software developer CV examples, from a graduate with no commercial experience and a career changer to a lead developer, plus personal profiles, skills, bullet points, ATS keywords and a free software developer CV template in Word for every example. Each one is shown at true A4 size and comes with a free single-column Word template. Open any example to read it in full.
Swipe to see all 5 examples →
Viraj Mistry
Graduate Software Developer
Leicester · viraj.mistry@email.com · 07700 900233 · linkedin.com/in/viraj-mistry-cv233
Skills & Tools
Personal Profile
Computer Science graduate (BSc Hons, 2:1) who led the back end of a final-year client project now used by a Leicester food bank. Confident in Java, Python, SQL and Git, and writes unit tests as standard. Seeking a graduate or junior software developer role in the East Midlands.
Employment History
Back-End Developer (final-year client project), University of Leicester, Leicester Oct 2025 – May 2026
- Built a Java Spring Boot API for a food bank’s volunteer rota, replacing a spreadsheet that caused double bookings.
- Designed the PostgreSQL schema and wrote 120 JUnit tests, keeping coverage above 85% in every sprint.
- Ran sprint reviews with the food bank coordinator, turning her feedback into prioritised user stories.
Peer Programming Mentor (part-time), University of Leicester, Leicester Sep 2024 – Jun 2026
- Ran weekly drop-ins for first-year students stuck on Python and Java coursework, supporting around 25 a week.
- Taught debugging step by step instead of giving answers, and wrote a one-page guide to reading stack traces.
- Flagged recurring problems with recursion to the module lead, who added a worked example to the lab sheets.
Customer Assistant (part-time), Hartsfield Foodstores, Leicester Jun 2022 – Sep 2025
- Worked evening and weekend shifts on the tills and online order desk through sixth form and university.
- Wrote a small Python script to total the weekly waste log, which the manager adopted for stock ordering.
Education & Qualifications
BSc (Hons) Computer Science, University of Leicester, 2:1, 2026
A-levels: Mathematics (A), Computer Science (A), Physics (B), 2023
Training & Certificates
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (2026)
Why this example works
- Treats a final-year client project like a real job, with a stack, tests, sprints and a deployed result an employer can check.
- Turns mentoring and a part-time job into evidence of communication and initiative, proof that no commercial experience rarely means no evidence.
- Links working code on GitHub, so a hiring manager can judge coding style and testing habits before the interview.
Rachel Brierley
Junior Software Developer
Bolton · rachel.brierley@email.com · 07700 900376 · linkedin.com/in/rachel-brierley-cv376
Profile
Junior software developer and former secondary maths teacher, now building React and TypeScript features for an education technology company in Manchester. Retrained through a Skills Bootcamp in 2025 after automating a maths department’s assessment tracking. Brings nine years of explaining complex ideas, meeting deadlines and designing for real users. Seeking a developer role in edtech or the public sector.
Employment History
Junior Software Developer, Tallyboard Learning, Manchester Jan 2026 – Present
- Build React and TypeScript features for a homework platform used in secondary schools, releasing to production every week.
- Rebuilt the teacher marking screen with keyboard shortcuts and screen reader labels after testing it with three working teachers.
- Wrote Jest and React Testing Library tests for legacy components, raising coverage on the marking module from 40% to 78%.
Teacher of Maths and Key Stage 4 Data Lead, A secondary academy, Bolton Sep 2019 – Jul 2025
- Taught GCSE and A-level maths to classes of up to 32, planning lessons around exam board specifications.
- Built a Google Sheets and Apps Script tracker that turned mock results into intervention lists, saving staff two hours a week.
- Led a lunchtime coding club using Python and the BBC micro:bit for three years, with around 20 regular students.
Teacher of Maths, A secondary school, Wigan Sep 2016 – Aug 2019
- Completed the NQT induction year, then mentored two trainee teachers through their school placements.
- Introduced weekly online quizzes with instant feedback, cutting homework marking time across the department.
Education & Qualifications
Skills Bootcamp in Full-Stack Web Development (JavaScript, React, Node.js), completed 2025
PGCE Secondary Mathematics with QTS, Manchester Metropolitan University, 2016
BSc (Hons) Mathematics, University of Liverpool, 2:1, 2015
Technical Skills
JavaScript and TypeScript · React and Next.js · Node.js and Express · HTML, CSS and WCAG 2.2 accessibility · SQL (PostgreSQL) · Jest and React Testing Library · Git, pull requests and code review · Agile ceremonies and Jira · User testing with teachers · Clear technical writing
Why this example works
- Leads with the new career, a current developer job and the bootcamp, then reframes teaching as evidence of users, deadlines and data.
- Shows real front-end skill, including accessibility testing and test coverage, that a hiring manager can probe in a technical interview.
- Keeps teaching bullets short and relevant, cutting classroom detail that does not help a software role.
Why this example works
- Shows a clear no-degree route, service desk to Level 4 apprentice to developer, that employers who hire apprentices respect.
- Names the exact stack, C#, ASP.NET Core, SQL Server and Azure DevOps, so ATS keyword filters match a .NET advert.
- Proves impact with measures developers trust: query times, release effort, defects caught and downtime avoided.
Applying through an online portal? Use the Word download: it is the same CV in a single-column, ATS-safe layout. Keep this two-column design for emailing and networking.
Why this example works
- States SC clearance in the profile and certifications, the first thing a public sector recruiter screens for, without oversharing vetting details.
- Speaks the language of government digital: Service Standard, assessments, GOV.UK Design System, WCAG 2.2 AA and open code.
- Balances front-end and back-end evidence, so the full-stack claim is backed by bullets on both sides.
Ewan Lockhart
Lead Software Developer
Edinburgh · ewan.lockhart@email.com · 07700 900804 · linkedin.com/in/ewan-lockhart-cv804
Profile
Lead software developer and Chartered IT Professional (CITP) with 12 years building high-volume systems in Java and Kotlin, the last seven in payments. Leads a team of six developers at an Edinburgh payments company, owning the design, reliability and on-call health of the card authorisation platform. Known for raising engineering standards without slowing delivery and for growing graduates into strong developers. Seeking a principal developer or engineering manager role.
Employment History
Lead Software Developer, Northloch Payments, Edinburgh Mar 2023 – Present
- Lead six developers building the card authorisation platform, which handles peaks of 1,800 transactions a second for UK merchants.
- Redesigned authorisation routing as event-driven Kotlin services on Kafka, raising availability from 99.9% to 99.99% over 12 months.
- Mapped the platform’s failure scenarios for the firm’s FCA operational resilience work and tested recovery within agreed impact tolerances.
- Introduced architecture decision records and a weekly design review, giving the team a written history of every major trade-off.
Senior Software Developer, Granton Ledger, Edinburgh Jun 2019 – Feb 2023
- Built Java and Spring Boot services for an open banking payments product, connecting online merchants to UK bank APIs.
- Moved the platform from virtual machines to Kubernetes on AWS with Terraform, cutting infrastructure costs by about a quarter.
- Cut a nightly reconciliation batch from four hours to 35 minutes by moving it to a streaming design.
- Introduced contract tests between services, ending a pattern of release-day failures caused by breaking API changes.
Software Developer, Clydemoor Logistics, Glasgow Aug 2016 – May 2019
- Developed Java services for a route-planning system used by 900 delivery drivers across Scotland and the North of England.
- Rewrote a slow PostgreSQL query layer, bringing driver app sync times from minutes to seconds on poor mobile signal.
- Built a Jenkins pipeline with automated tests, moving the team from monthly to weekly releases.
- Wrote the on-call runbook for the dispatch system after leading the fix for a Christmas Eve outage.
Graduate Software Developer, Clydemoor Logistics, Glasgow Sep 2014 – Jul 2016
- Completed a two-year graduate programme, rotating through the warehouse systems, mobile and data teams.
- Built an internal Java and JavaScript tool for tracking damaged parcels, which stayed in use for five years.
- Automated weekly depot reports in SQL, freeing a planner from half a day of spreadsheet work each week.
Software Engineering Intern (summer), Clydemoor Logistics, Glasgow Jun 2013 – Aug 2013
- Fixed 20 bugs in the driver handheld app’s Java code, learning code review and release processes in a live team.
- Analysed six months of failed delivery data in SQL and presented the three biggest causes to the operations manager.
Education & Qualifications
BSc (Hons) Computing Science, University of Glasgow, First, 2014
Advanced Highers: Mathematics (A), Physics (A), Computing (B), 2010
Training & Certificates
Chartered IT Professional (CITP), BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT (2022) · AWS Certified Solutions Architect, Associate (2025) · Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD), The Linux Foundation (2025)
Technical Skills
Java 21 and Kotlin · Spring Boot and microservices · Apache Kafka and event-driven design · PostgreSQL and data modelling · AWS (EKS, RDS, Lambda) · Kubernetes and Terraform · System design and architecture decision records · Observability (Prometheus, Grafana, OpenTelemetry) · Incident management and post-incident reviews · Technical leadership and mentoring · Hiring and technical interviewing · Secure coding (OWASP Top 10, PCI DSS)
Technical leadership beyond the team
- Chair the company’s architecture guild, which sets shared standards for API design, logging and service ownership
- Run blameless post-incident reviews and track every agreed action through to completion
Speaking and community
- Spoke on event-driven payments design at a Scottish developer conference (2025) and two Edinburgh Java meetups
- Maintain a small open source Kotlin library for testing ISO 8583 card messages, with contributors from other payments teams
Training
- Secure software development for payments, covering PCI DSS v4 requirements for developers (2025)
Why this example works
- Leads with scope, team size, transaction volume and the platform owned, so seniority is clear before the first bullet.
- Shows lead-level work beyond code: architecture decisions, hiring, incident reviews and FCA operational resilience.
- Two pages are justified: five roles trace steady progression from summer intern to lead developer across three employers.
Software Developer personal profile examples
Copy the personal profile that matches your level, then swap in your own experience, settings and results.
Software Engineering graduate (BSc Hons, 2:1) with a year in industry at a Birmingham software house, fixing bugs and writing tests in a large C# codebase. Built a Python and React volunteer-matching app as a final-year project and published it on GitHub. Seeking a graduate software developer role with structured training and regular code review.
Motivated school leaver with A-levels in Computer Science, Mathematics and Physics, applying for a software developer apprenticeship. Built a Python weather dashboard and a small Unity game in spare time, both with code on GitHub, and helped run a Code Club at a local primary school. Ready to learn on the job and study towards a recognised qualification.
Former accounts assistant retraining as a software developer, with two years of self-taught Python and a completed coding bootcamp in JavaScript and React. Automated month-end reconciliations in Python for a finance team, saving a day of manual work every month. Seeking a junior developer role where business knowledge and clean, tested code both count.
Software developer with four years building Python and Django web applications for a Manchester property technology company. Owns features from refinement to release, writes tests first and supports the platform in production. Led the move to GitHub Actions that cut deployment time from 40 minutes to 8. Seeking a developer role with more ownership of system design.
Senior software developer with ten years in .NET and Azure, leading a team of five on a B2B ordering platform used by 3,000 trade customers. Sets coding standards, runs design reviews and mentors junior developers while still shipping code every week. Seeking a lead developer role with ownership of architecture and the chance to grow a team.
Best skills for a software developer CV
List the skills the job advert and person specification name, in the same wording, and prove the important ones in your employment history.
Hard skills
- Programming in Java, C#, Python, JavaScript or TypeScript
- Object-oriented and functional programming
- Data structures and algorithms
- Unit, integration and end-to-end testing
- Debugging and root-cause analysis
- REST and API design
- SQL and database design
- Version control with Git
- CI/CD pipelines
- Cloud services (AWS, Azure or Google Cloud)
- Secure coding (OWASP Top 10)
- Web accessibility (WCAG 2.2)
- System design and architecture
- Code review
Soft skills
- Analytical thinking
- Attention to detail
- Clear verbal and written communication
- Explaining technical ideas to non-technical people
- Teamwork and pair programming
- Curiosity and continuous learning
- Taking ownership of problems
Systems and equipment
- Git with GitHub, GitLab or Azure DevOps
- Visual Studio, VS Code or IntelliJ IDEA
- Docker and Kubernetes
- Jira and Confluence
- GitHub Actions, GitLab CI or Jenkins
- Postman and OpenAPI (Swagger)
- Terraform
- Grafana, Prometheus or Datadog
Qualifications and training
- Level 4 Software Developer apprenticeship (England)
- Level 6 Digital and Technology Solutions Professional degree apprenticeship (England)
- T Level in Digital Software Development (England)
- AWS Certified Developer, Associate
- Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD), The Linux Foundation
- Oracle Certified Professional: Java SE 21 Developer
- ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level
- Chartered IT Professional (CITP), BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT
Software Developer CV bullet point examples
Strong bullets pair an action verb with a specific task and a measurable result. Adapt these to your own numbers.
Building features and APIs
- Built a GraphQL API for a banking app’s spending insights, serving 200,000 monthly users with responses under 150 milliseconds.
- Shipped a self-service password reset journey that cut support calls about locked accounts by 45% in its first quarter.
- Replaced a third-party PDF service with an in-house generator, saving the company a five-figure annual licence fee.
Testing, quality and reliability
- Introduced mutation testing on a pricing module, exposing 30 weak tests that passed whatever the code did.
- Reduced flaky end-to-end tests from 12% of runs to under 1% by replacing fixed waits with proper test fixtures.
- Added structured logging and alerts to a booking service, so on-call developers spotted failures before customers reported them.
Performance, cloud and DevOps
- Moved image processing to a serverless queue, cutting peak-time server costs by a third during the January sales.
- Rewrote a Terraform setup as reusable modules, letting new teams create a production-ready environment in a day.
- Tuned database connection pooling after a load test, doubling the throughput the checkout service could handle.
Collaboration, leadership and security
- Fixed all 11 access-control findings from an annual penetration test within 30 days, and none reappeared at the retest.
- Wrote onboarding docs and a local setup script that took new starters from first day to first merged pull request in two days.
- Worked with the data protection officer to delete inactive accounts automatically, meeting the retention policy under UK GDPR.
Action verbs for a software developer CV
Start each bullet with a precise verb instead of “responsible for”.
- Architected
- Automated
- Built
- Containerised
- Debugged
- Delivered
- Deployed
- Designed
- Developed
- Documented
- Implemented
- Integrated
- Maintained
- Mentored
- Migrated
- Modernised
- Optimised
- Prioritised
- Prototyped
- Refactored
- Reduced
- Released
- Scaled
- Secured
- Shipped
- Standardised
- Streamlined
- Tested
- Upgraded
- Analysed
Find more by category with the free action verb finder.
Best CV format for a software developer
Use a reverse-chronological software developer CV in a single column: personal profile, technical skills, employment history, then education and qualifications. Keep graduate, junior and most mid-level CVs to one side of A4; use two once you have senior experience or varied roles. Link GitHub instead of adding skill bars.
| Your situation | Format | Length | Lead with |
|---|---|---|---|
| Graduate or no experience | Skills-led: profile, technical skills, projects, then work | 1 page | Degree, final-year project, placement and GitHub |
| School leaver or apprenticeship applicant | Skills-led with a projects section | 1 page | A-levels or T Level, coding projects, clubs and volunteering |
| Career changer | Hybrid: profile and technical skills first | 1 page | Bootcamp or course, projects and transferable results |
| Software developer (2 to 5 years) | Reverse-chronological | 1 page (2 if varied roles) | Stack, features shipped and measurable impact |
| Public sector or contract developer | Reverse-chronological with clearance stated | 2 pages if senior or many contracts | Clearance status, sectors and recent services or projects |
| Senior or lead developer | Reverse-chronological | 2 pages | Team, systems owned, architecture and reliability |
Every example above follows these rules, on A4 and without a photo, date of birth or full address.
How to write a software developer CV that gets interviews
A software developer CV gets interviews when it shows what you built, how you built it and what changed as a result. Hiring managers and technical recruiters scan for your stack, the scale you work at and evidence of testing and teamwork.
Give each bullet a technology, a task and an outcome. ‘Cut checkout API response time from 900 ms to 200 ms with Redis caching’ beats ‘worked on performance’. Use measures developers trust: latency, uptime, release frequency, defects, test coverage or users served.
Job titles vary. The National Careers Service lists programmer as another title, and adverts use software engineer, application developer and web developer for similar work. Mirror the advert’s title under your name; the same advice works for a software engineer CV in the UK.
Software developer CV with no experience
You can write a software developer CV with no experience by treating university projects, placements, hackathons, open source contributions and personal apps as evidence. Lead with a personal profile that names your languages and the role you want, then put projects above unrelated work.
Link a GitHub profile with two or three finished projects, each with a README, tests and a note on what you would improve. One small app that solves a real problem for a club, charity or employer impresses more than ten tutorial clones.
Apprenticeships are a strong route without a degree. In England they include the Level 2 Software and data foundation apprenticeship (for 16 to 21 year olds), the Level 4 Software Developer apprenticeship and the Level 6 Digital and Technology Solutions Professional degree apprenticeship.
The T Level in Digital Software Development is a college route in England. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland run their own apprenticeship routes, such as Graduate Apprenticeships in Scotland.
Career changers should use a hybrid CV: profile, technical skills and projects first, then earlier experience reframed around problem-solving, data, users or automation. A coding bootcamp, an Open University module or a tool you built that saved your team time all count.
Keywords to include on a software developer CV
Include the exact languages, frameworks, tools and practices named in the advert, because many UK employers and recruitment agencies search CVs by keyword. Write each term the way the advert does, such as C# or .NET, and spell out acronyms once, such as continuous integration (CI).
- Languages: Java, C#, Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Kotlin, Go
- Frameworks: Spring Boot, .NET, Django, React, Angular, Node.js
- Practices: Agile, Scrum, test-driven development (TDD), code review, pair programming
- Testing: JUnit, xUnit, pytest, Jest, Playwright
- Delivery: Git, CI/CD, Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform
- Cloud and data: AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, SQL, PostgreSQL
- Security and standards: OWASP Top 10, WCAG 2.2, UK GDPR
How to show security clearance and public sector work
State your clearance level and that it is active, for example ‘SC cleared (active)’, in your CV’s profile or certifications. Many defence and central government roles ask for existing clearance. Think carefully before advertising it on public profiles such as LinkedIn, as NPSA’s Think Before You Link guidance advises.
Leave out vetting reference numbers and anything from the vetting process. Under UK National Security Vetting an employer sponsors SC and DV clearance, so you cannot apply yourself; if you have never been vetted, say you are willing to undergo security clearance.
For government digital services, name the Service Standard, service assessments, the GOV.UK Design System and accessibility work. Public sector websites must meet WCAG 2.2 AA under the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.
Government digital teams use the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework, whose developer roles run from apprentice developer to principal developer. Civil service applications are assessed against Success Profiles, so match your evidence to the behaviours and technical skills in the advert.
What to include and leave off a UK software developer CV
| ✓ Include | ✗ Avoid |
|---|---|
| A 3-5 line personal profile naming the developer role you want | A photo, date of birth, age, marital status or nationality |
| A technical skills section that matches the advert’s stack | Your full home address or National Insurance number |
| Results with numbers: response times, uptime, release frequency, defects, users | Named referees (write ‘References available on request’ if space allows) |
| Scale: users, transactions, team size or the systems you own | Skill bars, star ratings or percentages for languages |
| A GitHub or portfolio link to finished, tested projects | Every technology you have ever touched; list only what you could discuss in an interview |
| Degree with classification, apprenticeship level or T Level | Employer code, client names under NDA or vetting reference numbers |
| Security clearance level if you hold it, such as ‘SC cleared (active)’ | Multi-column layouts, tables or icons that ATS may misread |
| Certifications with dates, such as AWS or CKAD | Misspelt technology names, which suggest carelessness with detail |
How to write a software developer CV
- Read the advert and pick your stack. List the languages, frameworks, tools and practices in the advert and mark the essential ones. These become your keywords and decide which projects and roles to lead with on your software developer CV.
- Write a personal profile. In 3-5 lines, give your level, main languages and sector, one headline achievement and the role you want. Graduates lead with their degree, best project and GitHub; career changers lead with retraining and a project.
- Add a technical skills section. List 8-12 skills covering languages, frameworks, databases, cloud and tools, using the advert’s wording. Only include technologies you could discuss confidently in a technical interview, and put the ones the employer asks for first.
- Show what you built in your employment history. Work backwards from your current job. Give recent roles 3-5 bullets that start with an action verb and name the technology, the task and a measurable outcome. Older or unrelated roles need only one or two.
- Add projects, education and certifications. Give your degree with its classification, or your apprenticeship or T Level, then summarise A-levels or Highers. Add certifications with dates, plus a projects section if your commercial experience is limited.
- Link your code and proofread. Add LinkedIn to your contact line and GitHub to your projects, then check spelling, dates and technology names. Save as Word or PDF as the advert asks, with a file name such as ‘Firstname-Surname-CV’.
Software Developer salary in the UK
National averages for England. Use them to benchmark offers, not as a promise for any single job.
The National Careers Service puts average pay for a software developer at £30,000 a year for new starters, rising to around £75,000 with experience. Typical hours are 37 to 40 a week, with evenings, weekends occasionally.
Source: National Careers Service, Software developer job profile (Department for Education), contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Figures are averages; pay varies by region, employer and experience.
Covering letter tip for a software developer
Open your covering letter with why this product or team interests you, then give one technical achievement that matches the advert, with the stack and the result. Add a line on how you work with others, such as code review or pairing, and keep it under one page. Civil service roles may ask for a personal statement instead.
Start from our cover letter templates or draft one in seconds with the cover letter generator.
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