How to source and screen Software Engineer candidates

Title variants to search

Cover all 4 when searching boards and your own database.

• Software Engineer
• Software Developer
• Software Development Engineer
• Application Engineer

Starter Boolean search string

Paste into a job board or resume database, then add location and work authorization.

("Software Engineer" OR "Software Developer" OR "Software Development Engineer" OR "Application Engineer") AND ("One main language" AND "Data structures and algorithms" AND "REST APIs")

Google resume X-ray string

Replace City and ST with your target location.

(intitle:resume OR intitle:cv) ("Software Engineer" OR "Software Developer" OR "Software Development Engineer" OR "Application Engineer") ("One main language" OR "Data structures and algorithms" OR "REST APIs") ("City" OR "ST") -job -jobs -sample -template -hiring

LinkedIn Recruiter variant

Operators in uppercase; the NOT group removes junior and recruiter profiles.

("Software Engineer" OR "Software Developer" OR "Software Development Engineer" OR "Application Engineer") AND ("One main language" OR "Data structures and algorithms" OR "REST APIs") AND NOT (intern OR trainee OR recruiter)

Demand in the job feed

MatchWire's job feed (snapshot, November 1, 2026) holds 3,102 postings under these titles, and Full-time is the most common job type (78.7% of postings that state one). States with the most, counting only state and title pairs with at least 5 postings:

• California: 698 postings
• New York: 205 postings
• Texas: 161 postings
• Massachusetts: 132 postings
• Washington: 125 postings

Must-have skills

For software engineer roles, a candidate who cannot speak to these is rarely a fit.

• One main language (Java, Python, C#, Go or JavaScript)
• Data structures and algorithms
• REST APIs
• SQL or NoSQL databases
• Git and code review

Nice-to-have skills

Rank candidates who already meet the must-haves.

• Cloud (AWS, Azure or GCP)
• Docker
• CI/CD
• Unit and integration testing
• Microservices

Screening questions

Hands-on experience versus keyword matching.

• Which language and framework did you ship to production last, and what did it do?
• How do you decide what to unit test and what to integration test?
• Describe a bug that took you a long time to find and how you found it.

Before you run these strings

Test each string on a small result set first. Operator rules are in the Boolean search cheat sheet and the Dice Boolean search guide.

Where automation helps

MatchWire matches each new software engineer posting to your consultants by rule and drafts a tailored resume for the matches you queue. Try the free match test.

Frequently asked questions