---
title: "Mobile App Developer"
description: "Builds apps for iPhone and Android phones and tablets, from the screens users tap to the code that syncs data and handles offline use."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/mobile-app-developer"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Mobile App Developer

**Category:** Computer and Mathematical · **SOC code:** 15-1254 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 15-1254.00

Builds apps for iPhone and Android phones and tablets, from the screens users tap to the code that syncs data and handles offline use.

Also advertised as: iOS Developer; Android Developer; Mobile Developer; Mobile Software Engineer; React Native Developer.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $92,650 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $44.54/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $48,100 to $162,290, with the middle half between $64,230 and $126,230
- **Total US employment:** 70,190
- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's
- **Preparation required:** Some preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +3.8% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 5,300 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 11/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 70,190 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $48,100 |
| 25th | $64,230 |
| 50th (median) | $92,650 |
| 75th | $126,230 |
| 90th | $162,290 |
| Mean (average) | $98,770 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| WA | $130,440 | $121,892 | 4,430 |
| VA | $128,380 | $126,978 | 4,590 |
| CA | $119,570 | $107,993 | 7,320 |
| DC | $114,690 | $104,358 | 430 |
| MD | $112,690 | $107,366 | 1,960 |
| MO | $103,750 | $114,241 | 1,160 |
| MN | $101,020 | $102,433 | 1,200 |
| UT | $100,170 | $101,321 | 1,280 |
| NY | $98,580 | $91,345 | 3,990 |
| MA | $98,470 | $93,110 | 1,940 |
| MI | $98,470 | $102,342 | 1,580 |
| RI | $98,140 | $95,952 | Not published by BLS |
| NC | $96,610 | $102,421 | 2,030 |
| NJ | $95,180 | $87,478 | 2,250 |
| WI | $90,630 | $96,318 | 1,180 |

30 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 45 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/mobile-app-developer/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/mobile-app-developer.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 87,400 in the 2025–2035 base year to 90,600 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 3,300 jobs, or +3.8%. About as fast as average: 3.8% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 5,300 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Some preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| Bachelor's Degree | 45.8% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 16.7% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 16.7% |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 8.3% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 4.2% |
| Some College Courses | 4.2% |

## What the work involves

- Build app screens from design files
- Write app code in Swift, Kotlin or a cross-platform framework
- Connect apps to backend APIs and handle offline data
- Test on multiple devices and operating system versions
- Submit releases through the App Store and Google Play
- Monitor crash reports and fix bugs
- Improve app speed, battery use and accessibility

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Critical Thinking — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Programming — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Analysis — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Analysis — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Evaluation — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Computers and Electronics — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Communications and Media — importance 3.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Design — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Deductive Reasoning — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Inductive Reasoning — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Investigative (I), Conventional (C), Artistic (A).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| I — Investigative | 5.31 |
| C — Conventional | 5.03 |
| A — Artistic | 3.81 |
| R — Realistic | 2.98 |
| E — Enterprising | 2.96 |
| S — Social | 2.22 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| INTJ | 84.3 |
| ISTJ | 72.8 |
| INTP | 69.8 |
| ISTP | 68.6 |
| INFJ | 60.4 |

Best-fitting types: INTJ. The bank also flags this occupation as introvert-friendly, meaning O\*NET work-context ratings put it low on public contact and performing for the public.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Web Developer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/web-developer) — median $92,650
- [Web Designer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/web-designer) — median $104,000
- [Web Administrator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/web-administrator) — median $116,580
- [Software Developer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/software-developer) — median $135,980
- [Computer Programmer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/computer-programmer) — median $100,390
- [Database Administrator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/database-administrator) — median $104,620
- [Computer Systems Engineers/Architect](https://nuecareer.com/careers/computer-systems-engineers-architect) — median $116,580
- [Database Architect](https://nuecareer.com/careers/database-architect) — median $139,500
- [Search Marketing Strategist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/search-marketing-strategist) — median $78,760
- [Blockchain Engineer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/blockchain-engineer) — median $116,580

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/mobile-app-developer