The 13th edition of the Stackoverflow Developer Survey has been published. 90,000 software developers worldwide took part in the study this year. Of particular interest from a recruiting perspective: salary data. How have the salaries for backend developers, DevOps engineers and others developed? You can find an overview in this article. (Please note that this article is about the german tech scene.)

What is Stack Overflow?

Stack Overflow is a platform for software developers to ask questions and share problems with the community. With over 100 million website views per month, it is one of the 50 most popular websites on the Internet. Many software developers use Stack Overflow in their daily programming work to solve problems, learn new things or interact with other software developers. 

What is the Stack Overflow Developer Survey?

The Stack Overflow Developer Survey is a study published once a year on various topics concerning software developers. It is divided into the following main topics:

• Overview
• Developer profile
• Technologies
• Artificial intelligence (AI; new since 2023)
• Work
• Community
• Professional developers
• Methodology

Overview

The "Overview" is classically the introduction to the study, describing what topics the study addresses and what its focus is. In this year's study, the topic of "AI" is a new addition, to which Stack Overflow also adds its new product Stack Overflow Labs introduces.

Developer profile

The "Developer Profile" describes which school career and educational opportunities software developers use to become software developers. 

Extract 2023: Participants under the age of 18 primarily use online tools, such as videos, blogs and forums, to acquire knowledge. Participants between the ages of 25 and 34 acquired their knowledge primarily through online courses and certificates (52 %) and through school careers (55 %). 

Technology

In the "Technology" section, the study shows the most popular programming languages, frameworks and co. of the software developers surveyed.

Extract 2023: The most popular technologies 2023 of the respective categories are JavaScript (Programming Languages; 63,61%), PostgreSQL (Database; 45,55%), Amazon Web Services (AWS) (Cloud; 48,62%), Node.js (web frameworks; 42,65%), .NET (5+) (other frameworks; 25,29%), Docker (other tools; 51,55%). In addition, Visual Studio Code is the most popular development environment (73,71%).

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

The "AI" section is included in the study for the first time in 2023. It describes how AI is used in software development.

Extract 2023: 70% of participants are using or planning to use AI in the development process this year.

By the way: How the use of AI in recruiting looks like, shows this article.

Work

In the "Work" section, the professional situation of developers is highlighted. What salaries do they earn? In which companies do they work? What influence do they have on the technologies used?

Extract 2023More than a third of all companies work completely remotely. However, compared to the previous year, +2% of companies also insist on on-site presence.

Community

"Community" describes the use of Stack Overflow itself by participants.

Professional developers

The "Professional developers" section describes the working environment of the software developers in the company. This includes communication with each other as well as the use of tools and programs. 

Extract 2023: 63% of all participants use over 30 minutes of a workday to search for solutions to problems. 

Methodology

The final section of the methodology shows how the study was planned and analyzed. This also includes feedback from the participants on the study itself.

Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2023: Participants and evaluation

The 2023 Stack Overflow Developer Survey polled a total of 89,184 respondents from 185 countries. 75.39% of them are full-time software developers. That's 67,237 software developers. A further 8,954 participants (10.04%) are not active full-time as software developers, but are involved in programming either professionally or through their studies. 

Tech salaries at a glance

The Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2023 asks for a total of 3,853 votes from Germany on salary (vs. 2022: 2,879 votes). 56.41% of them are full-time employees, 14.63% are full-time students, and 10.92% are freelancers. The remaining 18.04% are distributed among part-time employees and students and non-employees and retirees.

Salaries for software developers in Germany have increased year-on-year in almost all areas. Please note that the figures given below are average values.

Salary: Senior Executive (C-Level, VP, etc.)

At management level, the average salary in 2023 will be $104,421.5. This is an increase from +7,6% compared to the previous year ($97,045.5).

Salary: Engineering Manager

At middle management level, the average salary in 2023 will be $107,090. A plus from +11,58% vs. 2022 ($95.979).

Salary: Data Scientist / Machine Learning Specialist

For Data Scientists and Machine Learning Specialists, the 2023 average goes up to $87,813. An increase by +17,63% vs. 2022 ($74,651).

Salary: Data Engineer

Data engineering is about +11,58% high on $85,672 (previous year: $76,783).

Salary: Cloud Infrastructure Engineer

Cloud engineering is about +10,99% high on $85,227 (previous year: $76,788).

Salary: DevOps Specialist

In the DevOps sector, the study is the only one to show a decrease in the average salary of the salaries considered here. From $72,983 (2022) to $70,679 (2023). A minus of -3,16%.

Salary: Backend Developer

Backend developers are pleased with an increase of +14,12%. It goes from an average of $70,380 (2022) to $80,317 (2023).

Salary: Frontend Developer

In the front-end area, the average salary in 2023 is $68,537. A plus from +7,11% compared with the previous year ($63,986).

Salary: Full Stack Developer

Full stack developers earn on average in 2023 $69,608. An increase of +4,35% vs. 2022 ($66,708).

Salary: Mobile Developer

Mobile developers have to work with +24,33% made the biggest salary jump in the study. From an average of $67,186 (2022), it goes up to $83,530 (2023).

Salary: Embedded Developer

Embedded developers are happy about +10,52% Salary growth. The average salary in 2023 is $74,963 (2022: $67,825).

The study also shows other salary data. For example, the project manager (2023: $80,317), the desktop developer (2023: $69,608) and the game developer (2023: $64,254). 

A detailed insight into the study can be found here: Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2023

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