Software Engineer CV Example & Template
A complete two-page CV for a mid-level software engineer with five years in UK product companies, followed by what engineering managers and recruiters look at first. Copy the structure, then replace the stack, systems and numbers with your own, and only list tools you could talk about in an interview.
Last reviewed October 2026
Example Software Engineer CV
Daniel Okafor
Software Engineer, TypeScript, Node.js and AWS
Leeds, UK
Profile
Software engineer with five years of experience building and running backend services and APIs for UK fintech and logistics products. Strongest in TypeScript, Node.js, PostgreSQL and AWS. I own features from design to production, write the tests and the runbook, and care about what happens at 3am. Looking for a mid-level to senior engineer role on a product team with real users.
Experience
Software Engineer
Mar 2023 – Present
Ledgerline (payments platform, 140 staff) · Leeds
- Own the payout service in a team of six engineers: Node.js and TypeScript on AWS ECS, PostgreSQL, SQS, handling around 90,000 payouts a day.
- Cut p95 latency on the payout status API from 1.4s to 210ms by fixing two N+1 queries and adding a read replica and a short Redis cache.
- Led the move from a hand-run deploy script to GitHub Actions and Terraform, taking deploys from 45 minutes to 9 and removing weekend releases.
- Wrote the retry and idempotency layer for bank callbacks, which stopped duplicate payouts and removed about 30 support tickets a month.
- Review around 15 pull requests a week and mentor one junior engineer, who took on on-call duty after six months.
Software Engineer
Sep 2021 – Feb 2023
Parcelwise (logistics software, 60 staff) · Sheffield
- Built the driver tracking API in Node.js and PostgreSQL, used by 1,800 drivers and returning live positions with a median response of 90ms.
- Raised unit and integration test coverage on the routing module from 38% to 81% using Jest, which cut regressions found after release from about six a month to one.
- Replaced a nightly CSV import with an event-driven job on SQS, shortening customer data availability from next morning to under five minutes.
- Added structured logging and Datadog dashboards with alerts on error rate, reducing mean time to detect incidents from roughly 40 minutes to 8.
Junior Software Developer
Aug 2020 – Aug 2021
Brightpath Digital (agency) · Leeds
- Delivered features on eight client web projects using React, Node.js and MySQL, working in two-week sprints with a lead developer.
- Built a booking form integration with a third-party REST API that handled 3,000 submissions a month with no data loss.
- Fixed and documented 60 bugs from the support queue and wrote the team's first checklist for code review.
Education
BSc (Hons) Computer Science, 2:1
2016 – 2020
University of Leeds
Final-year project: a peer-to-peer file synchronisation tool written in Go.
Skills
TypeScript and JavaScript · Node.js and Express · PostgreSQL and SQL tuning · AWS: ECS, SQS, RDS, Lambda · Terraform · GitHub Actions CI/CD · Docker · REST API design · Jest and integration testing · Redis · Datadog and structured logging · React (working knowledge)
Certification
- AWS Certified Developer – Associate (2024)
Open source and writing
- Maintainer of a small TypeScript library for idempotent webhook handling, used in three public projects
Why this Software Engineer CV works: what shortlisters check first
A stack you can defend
Engineering managers read the skills section and then ask about it. List the languages, frameworks and cloud services you have shipped with, and mark anything lighter as working knowledge. A long wall of logos reads as keyword stuffing and invites questions you cannot answer. Matching the main stack in the advert is worth more than listing everything you have touched.
Impact on a system, not a list of tickets
Good bullets name the system, the problem and the change: latency, throughput, error rate, deploy time, cost or incident count before and after. 'Worked on the API' says nothing. 'Cut p95 latency from 1.4s to 210ms' tells a reader you measured the problem. If you cannot share exact figures, give a believable range and the scale you worked at.
Ownership and scale
Say how big the team was, what you owned and how many users, requests or payments the service handled. Mid-level engineers are hired for owning a feature or service end to end, including tests, monitoring and on-call. Seniors add design decisions, reviews and mentoring. Make the level you are applying for visible in the verbs you use.
Engineering practice
Name the practices you actually follow: code review, automated tests, CI/CD, infrastructure as code, observability and incident reviews. These tell a hiring team you can work in their process on day one. One line about how you raised test coverage or shortened a deploy is stronger than the word 'agile' on its own.
Links that hold up
A GitHub profile or personal project helps only if the code is readable and recent. Pin two or three repositories with a short README. Open source contributions count when they are merged. If your best work is private, describe it clearly instead, and be ready to talk through the design in an interview.
Key skills recruiters look for
How to write each section of a Software Engineer CV
Profile
Three or four lines: years of experience, the kind of product you build, your main stack and the level you want. Add one thing that sets you apart, such as payments, on-call experience or a migration you led. Skip 'passionate' and 'team player'.
Experience
Open each job with the company size or product, then your team size and stack. Write three to five bullets, each with an action, a technology and a result. Put the most relevant job first and keep early roles to two or three lines.
Skills
Group by area if you like: languages, cloud, data and tooling. Order by strength, not alphabet. Use the exact names from the advert, such as PostgreSQL rather than 'databases', because recruiters and applicant tracking systems both search for them.
Education and certifications
Graduates put education higher; after two or three years it can move below experience. Add certifications only if they match the job, for example AWS Certified Developer – Associate for a role on AWS, and give the year, since cloud exams expire.
Projects
Use a projects line when you have little commercial experience or when a side project uses the stack the employer wants. Say what it does, what you built it with and one number, such as users or stars. Leave out tutorial clones.
More example bullet points
Strong Software Engineer CVs lead with measurable impact. Here are examples of the kind of bullets that make recruiters stop scrolling:
Built and shipped a real-time notification system serving 2M+ users, reducing delivery latency from 12s to under 200ms
Led migration from monolithic architecture to microservices, cutting deployment time from 4 hours to 15 minutes
Mentored 3 junior developers through code reviews and pair programming, all promoted within 18 months
Common Software Engineer CV mistakes
- Listing every language and tool you have ever opened, so nothing stands out.
- Describing tasks ('fixed bugs, wrote features') with no system, scale or result.
- Writing 'full stack' or 'senior' without evidence of the ownership that goes with it.
- Linking a GitHub profile full of empty forks and unfinished tutorials.
- Using a two-column design with icons and skill bars that applicant tracking systems read badly.
Full guide
Software Engineer CV guide: what recruiters actually look for →
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How to tailor your Software Engineer CV for each application
Every Software Engineer job posting is different. The skills they prioritize, the seniority they expect, the setting — all of it shapes what your CV should emphasize. A CV that gets an interview at one employer can miss at another, even for the same job title.
The fastest way to tailor your CV is to paste the job description into NextCV. The AI reads the posting, maps it to your experience, and rewrites your bullets to match what the employer is scanning for. 1 free preview, no signup required — you only pay when you want a clean PDF download. Sign up free for 3 more.
Software Engineer CV FAQ
How long should a software engineer CV be?
Two pages is right for most UK engineers with more than two years of experience. Graduates and juniors should keep to one page. If you pass two pages, cut older roles, since employers care most about the last five years and the stack you used.
Should I list every programming language I know?
No. List the ones you can write production code in and mark lighter ones as working knowledge. A short, honest list that matches the job advert is stronger than a long one, because interviewers will pick any item and ask you about it.
Do I need a degree to be a software engineer in the UK?
Not always. Many employers hire on skills, and apprenticeships and bootcamps are common routes. Without a degree, lead with experience, shipped projects and a public portfolio. Large companies and some regulated sectors may still ask for a degree, so check the advert.
Are AWS certifications worth putting on a CV?
Yes if they match the role. AWS Certified Developer – Associate suits engineers building on AWS. List the exact name and year. They support, but do not replace, evidence that you have built and run things in production.
How do I write a CV with no commercial experience?
Lead with projects, internships, open source and your degree. Describe what each project does, the stack and a result such as users or tests passing. Link two or three repositories with clear READMEs, and tailor the skills list to the advert.