Software Engineer CV Example & Guide (2026)
A free, recruiter-ready software engineer CV example formatted for the UK — A4 sizing, a personal profile, and achievement-led bullet points. Edit it in one click.
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How to write a software engineer CV (UK)
Open with a short personal profile, then prove your impact with achievement-led bullet points — each one a result, not a duty. Keep it to two A4 pages, list experience in reverse-chronological order, and mirror the language in the job advert so it passes any applicant tracking system.
Example bullet points to adapt
- Led migration of a Django monolith to 14 containerized microservices, reducing average deploy time from 45 minutes to 13 minutes and enabling 30+ daily releases.
- Designed an event-driven order pipeline on AWS (SQS, Lambda, DynamoDB) processing 12M requests/day at 99.98% uptime.
- Cut p95 checkout latency from 810ms to 140ms by introducing read replicas and a Redis caching layer, lifting conversion 4.2%.
- Mentored 4 mid-level engineers through structured code reviews and pairing, with 2 promoted to senior within 18 months.
- Established a CI/CD pipeline in GitHub Actions with automated testing that reduced production rollbacks by 38%.
- Built a React/TypeScript analytics dashboard adopted by 320 enterprise clients, increasing daily active usage 26%.
- Developed REST and GraphQL APIs serving 2.5M monthly users with sub-200ms median response times.
- Raised backend test coverage from 54% to 89%, reducing escaped defects by 41% quarter over quarter.
Key skills for a software engineer CV
Software Engineer CV FAQs
What should a software engineer CV include in the UK?
A UK software engineer CV leads with a short personal profile, then work experience in reverse-chronological order with achievement-led bullet points, key skills, and education. Keep it to two A4 pages, and you don’t need a photo, date of birth, or marital status.
CV or resume — what’s the difference?
In the UK and most of Europe, “CV” is the standard term for the 1–2 page document you send with a job application (what Americans call a resume). Our builder uses A4 sizing and UK conventions when you choose this format.
How long should my CV be?
Two A4 pages is the UK norm. Lead with your strongest, most relevant achievements so a recruiter sees your value in the first half-page.
How long should a software engineer resume be?
One page is ideal for engineers with under 10 years of experience; two pages are acceptable for senior or staff roles with a long project history. Recruiters skim, so prioritize recent, high-impact work over an exhaustive list of every project. Cut older internships once you have several years of full-time experience.
Should I list every programming language I know?
List the languages and frameworks you can confidently discuss in an interview, and group them by proficiency or category. Padding the list with tools you touched once dilutes the signal and invites questions you can't answer. Mirror the exact language names from the job posting so the ATS matches them.