Front-End Developer Career Path: Skills, Roles, and Tips to Build Your Front-End Development Career

A front-end developer career path can be straightforward for many professionals. You can start working as a front-end developer once you develop the core base of skills needed to fill this role on a development team. You may start in entry-level roles, and as you gain experience, you may find more opportunities for which you qualify. 

Explore what your front-end developer career path could look like at three different experience levels and what types of jobs and work you may be qualified to do. 

What is front-end development? 

Front-end development refers to the design of the front end of a website, software program, or other development project, which is also known as the client side. This type of development is the version of the project that the end user will interact with, such as the finished video game or software interface.

As a front-end developer, you’ll specialize in bringing this product to life. You’ll work with other developers who create the back end, also known as the server side. 

What is a front-end developer career path?

To become a front-end developer, you will need to develop the skills to be successful as well as gain experience in the field. While you are still learning or developing that skill set and experience, you can find work with teams that need junior front-end developers. For example, a large and complex project may have many simple tasks that senior developers can delegate to new developers while more experienced developers troubleshoot bigger problems. 

As you gain skills and experience in the field, you may qualify for jobs that allow you to demonstrate leadership. Eventually, you can manage teams of developers and spend less time doing the activities junior developers do. 

Front-end development skills

As a front-end developer, you will need to know the technical skills required to code the front end of a development project, the creative and design skills needed to create beautiful interfaces users can use on different kinds of devices, and the workplace skills that make it possible to work successfully in a team. 

Front-end development skills include: 

• Programming languages like CSS, HTML, and JavaScript

• UI/UX design

• Version control 

• Frameworks like Bootstrap, Tailwind, or Sass

• Java frameworks like React, Vue, or Angular

• Responsive web design

• Problem-solving skills

Entry-level roles in front-end development

Once you’ve finished your education, you can start looking for an entry-level job on a front-end development team. Two job titles to search for include junior front-end developer and UI/UX developer. 

Junior front-end developer

Average annual salary in the US (Glassdoor): $77,769 [1] 

Job outlook (projected growth from 2023 to 2033): 8 percent [2] 

As a junior front-end developer, you will help to create and design specific aspects of the interface and interactive components of a website, software, or development project. You will often work with more experienced developers to design and code user interfaces. You may also work on testing and debugging. 

UI/UX designer 

Average annual salary in the US (Glassdoor): $86,298 [3] 

Job outlook (projected growth from 2023 to 2033): 8 percent [2] 

As a UI/UX designer, you will consider the end user and what they need to have an enjoyable and easy experience with your product. You will also consider how the user will want to use the project and find ways to make it easier for them to accomplish their goals. 

Mid-level front-end development roles

As you gain experience in the field, you may qualify for jobs with more responsibility. These can also include a higher salary. At this level, you’ll look for job openings like front-end developer and full-stack developer. 

Front-end developer

Average annual salary in the US (Glassdoor): $86,827 [4] 

Job outlook (projected growth from 2023 to 2033): 8 percent [2] 

As a front-end developer, you design and create user interfaces for a development project with which the end user will interact. You will use principles like UX design to create meaningful and enjoyable experiences on websites and in other development projects like software, video games, and mobile apps. You will write the code of websites using programming languages like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, as well as test, debug, and ultimately monitor the analytics of the project. 

Full-stack developer (front-end focused)

Average annual salary in the US (Glassdoor): $91,831 [5]

Job outlook (projected growth from 2023 to 2033): 8 percent [2] 

As a full-stack developer, you will have the skills to work both on the front end and back end of development projects. You may become a full-stack developer by adding skills like database management and server-side programming languages like JavaScript, Python, Ruby, and PHP. 

Advanced front-end development roles

Eventually, you may gain enough experience to qualify for leadership roles on development teams. Two potential advanced front-end developer roles include senior front-end developer and front-end architect. 

Senior front-end developer

Average annual salary in the US (Glassdoor): $117,645 [6]

Job outlook (projected growth from 2023 to 2033): 8 percent [2] 

As you gain experience in front-end development, you may become a senior front-end developer or a senior front-end engineer. In this role, you’ll take a leadership position to work with other department heads and manage the cross-departmental and big-picture issues a development team encounters. At this point in your career, you’ll have the opportunity to work on complex technical problems. 

Front-end architect

Average annual salary in the US (Glassdoor): $135,113 [7] 

Job outlook (projected growth from 2023 to 2033): 8 percent [2]  

As a front-end architect, you will help create and maintain front-end technologies and develop solutions that other professionals can use in developing the front end of a website, software, or other project. You can become a leader in the front-end development field and help set and maintain industry standards and best practices. 

Start your front-end developer career path on Coursera

Front-end developers work on the front end or client side of development projects. If you want to start your front-end developer career, you can get started on Coursera. For example, you can begin with the Meta Front-End Developer Professional Certificate to earn a suite of job-ready skills in as little as seven months. You can also build specialized skills with the Google UX Design Professional Certificate to prepare for a career as a UX designer.