Careers Spotlights
Salesforce Developer
How much do Developers make?
| Junior pay band | Senior pay band | Contract rate | |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States ($) | 100,000-129,000 | 129,000-178,000+ | 94-161 (p/h) |
| United Kingdom (£) | 42,250-79,750 | 79,750-99,250+ | 522-804 (p/d) |
| Germany (€) | 60,000-75,000 | 75,000-94,750+ | 533-767 (p/d) |
Junior pay band
| United States ($) | 100,000 - 129,000 |
| United Kingdom (£) | 42,250 - 79,750 |
| Germany (€) | 60,000 - 75,000 |
Senior pay band
| United States ($) | 129,00 - 178,000 + |
| United Kingdom (£) | 79,750 - 99,250 + |
| Germany (€) | 75,000 - 94,750 + |
Contract rate
| United States ($) | 94 - 161 (p/h) |
| United Kingdom (£) | 522 - 804 (p/d) |
| Germany (€) | 533 - 767 (p/d) |
of Developers are satisfied with their job, up from 63% in our last study
of Developers are satisfied with their salary, down from 77% in our last survey
Permanent Developers work an average of 41 hours per week
Freelance Developers work an average of 33 hours per week
What factors impact your earning potential as a Developer?
| Important | Neutral | Unimportant | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Years of technical experience with Salesforce | 99% | 1% | 0% |
| Years of experience in IT | 92% | 7% | 1% |
| Exposure to large projects | 91% | 7% | 3% |
| Salesforce certifications | 87% | 13% | 0% |
| Becoming a Salesforce product specialist (e.g. working with Salesforce Industries [Vlocity], CPQ, FSL, Sales and Service Cloud) | 84% | 15% | 1% |
| College/University degree(s) | 73% | 22% | 5% |
| Specific vertical industry experience | 72% | 21% | 7% |
| Years of experience working for an end user | 55% | 41% | 4% |
| Years of experience working for a partner organization | 50% | 43% | 7% |
Years of technical experience with Salesforce
| Important | Neutral | Unimportant |
|---|---|---|
| 99% | 1% | 0% |
Years of experience in IT
| Important | Neutral | Unimportant |
|---|---|---|
| 92% | 7% | 1% |
Exposure to large projects
| Important | Neutral | Unimportant |
|---|---|---|
| 91% | 7% | 3% |
Salesforce certifications
| Satisfied | Neutral | Dissatisfied |
|---|---|---|
| 87% | 13% | 0% |
Becoming a Salesforce product specialist (e.g. working with Salesforce Industries [Vlocity], CPQ, FSL, Sales and Service Cloud)
| Important | Neutral | Unimportant |
|---|---|---|
| 84% | 15% | 1% |
College/University degree(s)
| Important | Neutral | Unimportant |
|---|---|---|
| 73% | 22% | 5% |
Specific vertical industry experience
| Important | Neutral | Unimportant |
|---|---|---|
| 72% | 21% | 7% |
Years of experience working for an end user
| Important | Neutral | Unimportant |
|---|---|---|
| 55% | 41% | 4% |
Years of experience working for a partner organization
| Important | Neutral | Unimportant |
|---|---|---|
| 50% | 43% | 7% |
What steps should you take to become a Developer?
Education
An obvious starting point for what you may need is qualifications, and 84% of Developers hold at least a Bachelor's degree. However, only 73% consider a degree to be an essential factor when it comes to increasing earning potential, and even less (22%) consider that a degree is needed to work with Salesforce.
Certification
Salesforce certifications are a great way of expanding your skill set, as well as offering a way to verify them to potential employers.
Of the Developers that participated in this guide, 91% of them are certified, and 85% believe that certifications help candidates stand out in a competitive job market.
As you look at your own future career path working with the world’s leading CRM, it’s worth keeping in mind that Salesforce’s support for professionals is extensive to say the least. Trailhead is a comprehensive resource that will help your development, with many courses tailored to specific skill sets and roles within the ecosystem.
What’s more, the challenge of collecting more badges as you progress through the platform should serve as extra incentive—and once you’ve completed those, there are eight different certification options for Salesforce Developers.
First up is Platform Developer I, which will verify your ability to develop and deploy customer interfaces and workflows. Then, the Platform Developer II cert will take an even deeper dive into the role. There are also another six app and specialism-specific certifications that will help Developers master different areas of Salesforce programming, including:
- Javascript Developer I
- Marketing Cloud Developer
- B2C Commerce Developer
- Industries CPQ Developer
- Omnistudio Developer
- System Architect
- Application Architect
What Salesforce certifications do Developers hold?
Roles that can lead on to becoming a Developer
Jobs related to systems administration are also common. Here are a few roles that can lead you into Salesforce development:
- JavaScript Developer
- Junior Software Developer
- Salesforce Administrator
- QA/UAT Tester
What skills and experience should Developers have?
- Ability to design and prototype solutions, primarily on the Salesforce platform using Apex programming language and Lightning, Lightning Web Components, and Salesforce Unit Testing
- In-depth understanding of application, data, and infrastructure architecture disciplines
- Comfortable using Visualforce, Native, SOQL, and MySQL
- Knowledge of IDEs such as VS Code, Sublime, Eclipse, as well as APEX Data loader and Force.com IDE
- Familiarity with Agile development methodology and continuous deployment tools such as GitHub, Jenkins, SourceTree
- Understand web technologies such as JavaScript, CSS, HTML5, XML, JavaScript, JSON, and/or Ajax
- In-depth knowledge of Salesforce Programming and Administration
- Ability to perform/coordinate QA and testing both in Salesforce and other applications
- Requirements gathering and documentation skills
- Experience with customizing objects, fields, record types, page layouts, validation rules, workflows (and successor options that replace them), process builder, email alerts, approval processes, list views, reports and dashboards
- Time-management and project management skills
- Great verbal and written communication skills, particularly around technical documentation
- Proficiency with modern IDEs (VSCode, IntelliJ) and SCM tools (Git, SVN)
- Understanding of relational databases, data modeling, and SQL
- Ability and desire to learn new technologies and development tools
- A creative mindset to apply innovative approaches to software design
What are the opportunities for progression for a Developer?
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Our key findings report contains highlights from this year’s Careers and Hiring Guide, plus our salary tables allow you to compare your salary or benchmark your teams’ salaries no matter their role in the Salesforce ecosystem.
Our key findings report contains highlights from this year’s Careers and Hiring Guide, plus our salary tables allow you to compare your salary or benchmark your teams’ salaries no matter their role in the Salesforce ecosystem.
