So which is it – is it software developer, or software engineer.
Probably either? Although to me “developer” sounds like a chemical and engineer sounds like an … engineer.
If you look on Google Trends, in the UK there’s parity between the two, but if you look worldwide, “engineer” beats “developer” by about 50%.
What doesn’t register at all is “computer programmer”. Weirdly, “coder” does register, but about half of the hits that you get for developer or engineer.
Personally, I like engineer, but PERSONALLY, both my parents and my granddad were mechanical engineers, so I like the constancy of being the third generation of that.
But “engineer” talks to what the job is like in the way that “developer” doesn’t.
This is one of the reasons why I’m not keen on people saying AI can “write software”, because writing software is actually not the job to be done. Software is a mass of complex interlocking parts that have to work in concert. It’s an engine, in the traditional sense, you have to be an engineer to build it.