Back-End Developers in China: Average Salary and Job Description

Back-end Developer in China Average Salary and JD - TeamedUp China

Today we’re going through a great set of nearly 3 million job data points on roles for Back-end Developers in China!

Our data today comes from two of the largest Chinese Job Boards. That’s BOSS Zhipin (BOSS直聘) and Zhilian Zhaopin (智联招聘).

These large platforms seem to have the most relevant and abundant data points when it comes to the modern Chinese job markets. We’ll be sure to include the number of data points we have for each statistic we pull out. We’ll also be updating this annually to keep up with the newest salary data out there – this data was last checked (by a real human) in April 2024.

So let’s dive into some neat data on Back-end Developers in China! First, we’ll look at a standard Job Description, then on to average salary data coverage.

Common Items on a Back-end Developer Job Description

Job Responsibilities & Requirements in China as listed from real top firms. These are translated and edited from original Chinese, but not auto-generated.

Example A: JD.com, one of China’s top e-commerce firms.

Job Responsibilities:

1. Responsible for the technical research and development and architecture of JD.com’s promotion platform, which mainly includes core marketing systems such as promotions and coupons;

2. Systematic analysis of business needs, and propose technical research and reliable design solutions;

3. Design based on demand A system with high scalability, high performance, security and stability;

4. Can realize business requirements with high quality, track and research technologies to apply to products;

5. Guide R&D engineers in their product development and technical research work, and solve various technical problems. , forming a good R&D atmosphere and improving the overall technical level of the team.


Job requirements:

1. Bachelor’s degree or above, more than 3 years of Java development experience, and architecture design experience are preferred;

2. Ability to reasonably apply common distributed technologies and solve problems;

3. Proficient in network programming, familiar with HTTP, TCP/IP Protocol;

4. Proficient in common open source frameworks and middleware such as Spring, Spring Cloud, MyBatis, ElasticSearch, Kafka, Dubbo, Redis, etc.;

5. Have a deep understanding of the basic theory and internal implementation mechanism of the database, be able to apply MySQL proficiently, and have practical experience Database design experience with large amounts of data;

6. Familiar with caching technology, website optimization, server optimization, cluster technology processing, website load balancing, system performance tuning and other advanced software programming technologies;

7. Good logical thinking ability, familiar with business abstraction and Data model design, with strong ability to analyze and solve problems, and dare to face challenges;

8. Broad knowledge, broad thinking, strong innovation ability, sensitivity to new technologies and willingness to devote to the exploration and development of new technologies. Research.

 

In case you’re interested, we covered salaries at JD.com in more depth here: Average Salary at JingDong (JD.com 京东) in China.

 

Example B: Huawei, large Telecom & Internet Group.

Job Responsibilities:

1. Responsible for Huawei Cloud security service module design or feature design;

2. Responsible for writing the service core code and being able to independently complete end-to-end delivery.

Job Requirements:

1. Familiar with at least one programming language in C/C++/Java/Go/Python/JS;

2. Understand common microservice development frameworks, such as Spring Boot, and have some experience in the development and use of distributed applications Priority;

3. Familiar with design patterns, object-oriented programming, common data structures and algorithms, proficient in using common development tools such as Maven, Git, IDE;

4. Familiar with mainstream databases (Mysql, MongoDB, Redis)

5. Have cloud services or information security Applicants with relevant experience are preferred

 

We’ve checked out Huawei salaries in more depth here: Average Salary at Huawei (华为) in China (2024).

 

Example C: Weibo, the long-standing popular social media app.

Job Responsibilities:

1. Responsible for the development and design of high-concurrency financial module functions such as Weibo payment platform;

2. Responsible for the development of financial derivative projects such as Weibo Blue V;

3. Responsible for writing design documents, And sort out common technologies;

4. Solve technical problems and optimize complex architecture designs;

Job requirements:

1. Bachelor’s degree or above in computer or related majors;

2. Have more than 3 years of JAVA or PHP development experience, at least 3 years More than 2 years of software development experience in Internet companies;

3. Familiar with Linux/UNIX and other operating systems, proficient in socket network programming and multi-process, multi-thread related knowledge;

4. Familiar with the database design, storage planning and optimization of at least one common RDBMS and other skills, preferably MySQL;

5. Proficient in at least one high-level development language (C, Python, Perl, go, java, etc.), familiar with TCP/IP, data structure;

6. Familiar with at least one NoSQL principle and its use , proficiency in Redis is especially preferred;

7. Have strong code review and program debugging capabilities;

8. Have good and standardized technical document writing habits, and master the use of mainstream configuration management tools such as git and svn;

9. Can withstand greater pressure , sense of responsibility, strong communication and coordination skills, and team spirit;

Average Salary Data on Back-end Developers in China

Back-end Developers

Nationwide in China, April 2024

Average Salary: ¥22,711 RMB ($3,139 USD) per month

Median Salary: ¥21,139 RMB ($2,922 USD) per month

Job Data Points: 2,943,974

Back-end Developers in China - Average Salary Distribution - TeamedUp China

In a sample size of 2,943,974 jobs, the average salary for a Back-end Developer in China was ¥22,711 RMB ($3,139 USD) per month. The median salary from this set was ¥21,139 RMB ($2,922 USD) per month. 

This is a nationwide data set and it’s important to note that different cities in China command different levels of compensation. For more on that, check out our breakdown of the Top 10 Highest-Paying Cities in China.

We also like to point out that salary data from local job sites is mostly for Chinese-speaking positions. developer salaries in China with English or other foreign language requirements are often firmly higher than the average. 

More Salary Data on Back-end Developer Talent in China!

Average Salary by Location for Back-end Developers in China
Back-end Developers in China - Salary by Region - TeamedUp China

A who’s-who of China’s main business-hub mega-cities fill out the list here: Hongkong, Macao, Shanghai, Beijing, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Guangzhou are all familiar hubs.

Sanya at #7 continues the trend we’re seeing – a lot of tech work migrating to this tropical island beach city. 

Demand by City for Back-end Developers in China
Back-end Developers in China - Demand by Region - TeamedUp China

This chart takes BOSS Zhipin’s recent amount of Back-end Developer jobs posted by city in China. It’s no surprise to see most of China’s large business hubs – Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Chengdu,   etc – at the top. Top graduates originate from the massive University ecosystems here. The competition for great talent is also centered around these megacities.

Since back-end development is needed in many enterprises, job openings trend with the overall city populations of China. A reflection of almost every business in every major Chinese city needing this function.

Educational Requirements for Back-end Developers in China
Back-end Developers in China - Education Requirements - TeamedUp China

Here we’ve got a distribution of the education requirements for positions across China.

73% of positions required an undergraduate degree. Another 21.1% required a two-year technical degree or above, and 1.3% of positions in the data set required a master’s degree.

Experience Requirements for Back-end Developers in China
Back-end Developers in China - Demand by Experience - TeamedUp China

And here we have a breakdown of the experience required for Back-end Developer positions.

45.9% of jobs listed have 3-5 years of experience required. Another 21.8% and 17.7% of positions required 5-10 and 1-3 years of experience, respectively. 1.4% of jobs posted accepted less than 1 year of experience. 

It is also important to note that these requirements are the ones advertised by companies on BOSS Zhipin’s platforms. We don’t have the data to extract exactly how closely hiring managers stick to these requirements when assessing candidates. Simply put – jobs listing a 3-5 years of experience requirement may, in reality, consider candidates with less experience. 

References

The two main sources of data for this series on individual job salaries in China are local HR companies BOSS Zhipin and Zhilian Zhaopin. They are both among China’s biggest job portals and have some of the largest amounts of local, first-hand, public data points. It’s important to note that the data most often reflects recruited salaries, or the publicly listed salary information that companies advertise on their platforms. 

More coverage and further sources can be found in the Salary Guides section of our Resources area.

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