Tired of coding? 20+ non-technical careers for Software Engineers seeking a change

It’s common to find advice on transitioning into technical careers, but what about moving away from a software engineering career? Developers may consider non-technical paths for various reasons—exhaustion or burnout, not aligned with a changing industry landscape (the rise of conversational AI, the growing diversity of tools to handle, the switch to DevOps…), boredom, lack of growth opportunities in technical roles, or simply a desire for something different.

In this article, I’ll explore non-technical career opportunities that leverage a development or IT background. I’ll outline potential roles along with their pros and cons to help you navigate this shift.

I used the word “non-technical” to qualify jobs that don’t involve hands-on technical implementation, contrary to coding. Some of those jobs are still in the technical field.

Life after software development: Non-coding jobs where your skills still shine

This post focuses on non-coding, non-engineering jobs where your former experience has direct value. If none of them appeals to you, I would advise you to list transferable experience as well as strengths that you could prove in your technical career and search for careers where these are useful. Any professional experience is valuable and is an opportunity to demonstrate soft skills and inter-personal skills.

Don’t really want to drop coding? If the content of the job itself is not what makes you change, also think about the opportunities to use your coding skills in a different environment. Maybe the rhythm of software engineering in corporate is not for you, but your technical skills allow you to develop websites as a freelancer. Or you don’t have enough challenge anymore in software, and you could move to another field like data or automation.

However, if you really want to leave code behind, here are a few leads on how to move away from a tech career. I listed all the jobs I could find with some pros and cons. Take into account that these are highly influenced by my own needs and expectations in a career, I’m curious to know if you relate!

Some jobs are totally non-technical, others might still involve some hands-on depending on the size and organization of the team/company.

Teacher (at school)

You can teach computer science or related topics at school. It can happen in different types of schools and at different levels.

Your experience has a lot of value. You didn't level up "for nothing".
Can be performed part time.
Can be performed after office hours (evening/weekend education for adults).
Knowledge sharing and mentoring.
Your work has an impact, it’s socially rewarding.
Work-life balance, fixed schedules.
Pretty stable job. There’s little chance the computer science cursus will disappear soon!
Less stressful than “productive” jobs.

How to keep up with technology and deliver up-to-date courses if you don’t code anymore?
Depending on the level at which you teach, you might have to deal with teenagers and adapt your communication and behavior accordingly.
Might require additional degrees.
Rarely possible in remote.
Administrative work (prepare course supports, make evaluations and report on the results…)
Might be difficult to find a full-time job.
Probably a lower salary (depending on your experience level, the kind of school you teach at…) and less perks.
Being a (good) teacher requires a lot of practice and learning specific techniques. You probably won’t feel comfortable in the position before a few years.
Limited autonomy (national program, school constraints…).
Transitioning from a corporate job to education is a big change (and the other way around too), the culture is totally different.
It takes a lot of energy to speak to an audience for such a long period ever day.

Trainer (online)

Training people online can look like:

content creation (educational blog or video channel, publishing content on dedicated training platforms…)
group live classes
individual class/support/mentoring

Very flexible schedule and workload.
Meaningful work.
Your former experience has a big value.
Knowledge sharing and mentoring.
If you succeed, content creation can bring a passive income.
Remote work.
Part time work.
Creativity.
A lot of freedom (but taking into account the expectations from the audience will help you grow).
You can keep up with new technologies and create the training program that you think is best without limitations.
More motivating to keep up with tech news since you’re not limited to the national or school program.

Requires public speech skills (except if you stick to written content or individual training).
A lot of competition: you have to find something to differentiate from others.
Might be difficult to find customers if you don’t have a solid network or can’t find a way to be visible on the web.
Variable income.
Big effort to get started (especially on content creation), keep effort on the long run to give your project a chance. It also means a long period before securing incomes.
No company perks (health insurance and the like).
Might require a bit less preparation than teaching at school (you choose what you want to teach, you don’t have to stick to the national program, you don’t have to share students results with the school administration…).
Requires a lot of self-organization to stick to a schedule, plan new deliveries in advance, manage inconsistent incomes, program your communications online…
Most content creation jobs require to be very active on social media or use other techniques to keep the audience engaged and get new followers. If you’re not interested in community management at first, it quickly becomes a hassle.
Might require investing in addition technical tools and software for recording and editing (for video content).
Social isolation, you might miss team collaboration.
Creating video content is much more time consuming than you might think.

Trainer (in training centers/bootcamps/corporate)

You can also work as a trainer in a company, either to train engineers internally, or to provide training for adults in training centers or bootcamps.

Can be part time.
Knowledge sharing and mentoring.
You might have to travel a lot 🙂
Networking opportunities, meeting a lot of people face-to-face.
Can be combined with other missions or other tasks.
Teaching to adults is easier than teaching to children. The engagement is higher.
Keep up with new technologies and participate in the elaboration of the training program (or at least influence it).
Short-term commitment: trainings and bootcamps have a limited duration, which feels nice for people who crave closure.
Chance to work on different type of technologies.
More motivating to keep up with tech news since you’re not limited to the national or school program.

No or little remote opportunities.
Requires good speech skills.
You might have to travel a lot 🙁
Difficult to find a full-time job doing only this.
No or little feeling of achievement at the end of a training journey (except if you actually see your students succeed and improve).
Classes preparation (you have to like writing documentation, creating presentations, preparing exercises…).
Adapt to students with very different levels (refrain from rushing it with people who have the most knowledge and leaving others behind).
The pressure of being able to answer students’ questions, and teaching people who sometimes have more knowledge than you in some fields.
Often, you’ll have to teach more than you “comfort” technologies because training companies have to offer a wide catalog.

Technical writer

A technical writer can work on producing different supports, like user manuals, internal technical documentation, knowledge bases, SOPs… The exact content of the job is different from one company or mission to another, but in any case, you need to love writing and have a lot of empathy to adapt to your target audience.

Unique combination of the love of writing and the passion for technical concepts.
Great job when you like long focus sessions.
Opportunity to discover a lot of concepts and products.
Opportunity to meet and collaborate with a lot of people.
Opportunity to work on many different kind of missions.
Former technical experience is an asset.
Concrete work with concrete output and closure.
Opportunity for freelancing and part-time.
Opportunity for remote work.
Less stressful than engineering.
Good balance between alone time and collaboration.

Important feedback loop: being able to take criticism and adapt.
Requires to be able to talk to different people to gather the necessary information. Interview skills.
Unrecognized job (not the job where the results are most visible and where you have a chance to shine).
Rarely a full-time job, easier to find in big companies (otherwise those tasks are often part of the job description of people implementing the solutions).
Depending on the variety of documents to produce and solutions to cover, it might become monotonous working in-company. Especially if most of your time is dedicated to revisions.
Not so much creativity. Those technical texts have to follow guidelines imposed by the company.

Scrum Master

If you’ve worked in Agile environments, you know the roles of Scrum Master and Product owner. For the role of Scrum Master, it’s your experience of working in agility, more than your technical experience, that will have an impact.

Satisfy a craving for organization.
Creativity (designing the rituals/ceremonies).
Opportunities for freelancing or part-time.
The Scrum Master can take on a variety of tasks, not limited to organizing events. There are opportunities for coaching and process improvements. See the Scrum.org definition of the Scrum Master role*.
Opportunity to take some leadership and drive the team success.
Problem-solving skills applied to people interactions and processes.
Building strong relationships with the teams you work with.
Less stressful than an engineering position.
Opportunity to grow to other positions like Agile coach or Project manager.

Technical skills don’t translate here: the Scrum master is guardian of a structure, their technical knowledge shouldn’t interfere (neutrality of the facilitator).
Requires facilitation skills.
A lot of time spent organizing scrum events (meeting everyone’s agenda, booking rooms, making sure everybody is on-site…).
Rarely a full-time position in companies.
Rarely opportunities for remote or hybrid (except if targeting companies working so).
The role is blurry in most organizations and not used to the fullest.
The team(s) need to be on board with Agile principles and recognize they need support, otherwise the Scrum Master might end up working against the team or seeing no result to their initiatives.
Some employers might require Scrum certifications (which are not free).
Leading without authority is not easy.**
This position might be regarded as “not so crucial” compared to hands-on engineering.

*What is a Scrum Master? (scrum.org)

**On developing leadership skills as an engineer

Product Owner

In an Agile framework, the Product Owner is the link between the needs of the user and the technical team that creates the solution to meet them. They help shaping the vision of the product and balance user requests with technical limitations. With a background in IT, it’s easier for them to understand the concerns expressed by the software team.

Great job for people with a passion for planning and organization.
You talk with a lot of people 🙂
You get to learn about the business as well as the technical side.
A role recognized by the requesters when well executed.
Transferable skills, possibility to grow to a Product Manager, Project Manager or a similar role.
Ownership of the solution: the Product Owner is the one to set the cursor and define the shape of the final product.

Some people say it’s not a super rewarding job and the impact of what you do is not really visible.
You talk with a lot of people 🙁
Conflict management, especially when the “client” is not satisfied or demands unmeetable deliveries. You are the interface for the better and the worse. You also have to stand your grounds when you made a decision and one of the parties is refusing it.
Lots of meetings.
Can be stressful, especially when the deadlines can’t be met.
Working on long term solutions, lack of closure.

Agile Coach

The Agile Coach is an expert in agility with a coaching mindset. They observe silently how Agile is implemented at a company or in a team, then use coaching techniques to help the team improve some aspects. As a coach, they have a neutral posture, a technical background is not super relevant here, but experience in working in Agile teams is.

Opportunity for a part-time job and freelancing.
Taste for coaching, mentorship and process improvement.
Leadership without authority.
Networking.
Technical background has absolutely no value, only your knowledge and experience in Agile has.

Difficult to find a full-time job in this position, not a good plan if you want a fixed contract with a company.
Rarely possible to do remote (only if you find fully remote companies).
Coaching is often taken more seriously if you have a certification.
Difficult or even impossible if the team doesn’t adhere to Agile principles, and this coaching was forced onto them.
Deal with resistance to change.
Leadership without authority is not easy.**
Results are uncertain and difficult to predict. What defines a successful coaching? Their implementation can also be slow, and you don’t always get to see the results.
Generally a consulting or freelance job, which requires travelling to different companies.

**On developing leadership skills as an engineer

Tech recruiter

Imagine, as a software engineer, being contacted by recruiters who actually know that JavaScript and Java are two different things and that you get many bs messages from bad recruiters every week? A background in tech could be a great way to better assess profiles, to ace interviews and to establish a good contact with candidates.

Doing interviews is fun.
The research part until you find the One.
Opportunity for remote job.
Opportunity for part-time or freelancing.
Opportunity for a full time job in big companies with a lot of technical teams.
Your technical background can make a great Tech recruiter from you. This is a strong asset, especially for an in-house job.
Rewarding when you get a match, especially for positions that are difficult to fill in.
Networking.

Phone calls.
Meetings.
Chasing candidates who think you’re just another bad recruiter.
Being ghosted by candidates.
If working freelance, the remuneration model might not be great (commission).
Competing with very low priced recruiters from overseas and automated solutions backed by AI that overflow the market.
Limiting in terms of career evolution possibilities.
Your intuitions on a good or bad candidate can be difficult to convey.
Monotony, except if you’re driven by the new contacts you make and love discussing with new people.

Process Optimization consultant

In this role, you’ll want to assess current processes and coach or advise the team on how to improve them. This job makes a lot of sense if you specialize in Process Optimization in IT teams and departments.

Personally, this sounds like a dream job, it’s something I enjoy doing while working in a software team.
Potential for freelancing and part time.
Potential for a full-time in a consulting firm.
Networking opportunities, meeting a lot of teams in the tech field.
Discovering many ways of working, team configurations, tools…
A technical background is a solid asset.
Coaching and mentoring.
Use your analytics skills.
Tech watch is still useful.
Your job has an impact (on the team productivity, developer experience, satisfaction from stakeholders…).

Maybe you don’t get to see the actual implementation after you gave your recommendations (depends if you’re working freelance or not, what’s the scope of your mission…), hence a lack of closure.
Mostly happens on-site (except if company is fully remote).
Few or no full-time opportunities in-house.
A bit of paperwork, especially if you’re working in consulting (PowerPoints, reports…)
If the team is not committed to the process, it’s impossible to do your job. You’ll make it until the assessment phase but will be stuck there.
Managing resistance to change.
When freelancing or consulting, customers require measurable results fast.
As a freelancer or consultant, you’ll have to travel to different places for your missions.

IT Training manager (a.k.a Learning and Development manager)

The training manager assesses needs in training, designs a training roadmap, implements training programs… for employees. They choose the right mix between different kind of trainings, choose providers, create programs and define who needs to be trained on what. If there are in-house trainers (see the role of trainer above), they also lead them.

Tech watch is still useful.
A technical background is an asset, especially if related to the technologies used at the company.
Stay up-to-date with new technologies.
Not as stressful as an engineering position. As you’re managing a department that is not business critical (compared to a financial management position for example), it’s probably not as stressful as many other management jobs.

A lot of paperwork and bureaucracy
Only a job you can find in very big company, I don’t think there’s a lot of job offers for this.
Not very rewarding, difficult to feel impact, measure success or get a sense of closure.
The management aspects: budgeting, reporting…

Writer for technical books, magazines or other publications

This means either writing a whole book or writing articles as a freelance (for magazines, webzines, company blogs…).

Combining a passion for writing and tech.
Opportunity for freelancing and part time.
Can totally be done remotely and at your own pace.
Motivation to keep up with technologies.
Your background is definitely useful.
Creativity.
Finishing writing an article or book gives a great sense of accomplishment and closure.
Knowledge sharing.
Great for people who thrive in alone work and introspection.

Find a way to differentiate from all the content being published online already.
If self-publishing a book, this also means working on the marketing of said book.
Maybe difficult to stay relevant on the longer term if you’re not practicing anymore.
Writing a book takes a lot of time, you need self-management skills to take the project to the end, especially if working on your own.
Requires empathy for the audience, which means simplifying things and being able to detect what is common knowledge or not. Especially difficult when you have a long experience and a strong expertise.
Isolation.

Tech marketer

This consists of taking any job in the marketing umbrella in a team dedicated to a technical product. It could also be a freelance activity (community manager or SEO writer specialized in technical products).

Creativity.
Opportunity for freelancing and part time.
Can be done remotely.
Opportunity for full-time in-house job or in a marketing services company.

Not many jobs available for in-house software engineering products related marketing (limited to big SW companies).

IT Project manager

A project manager is responsible for the planning, risk assessment, actual implementation, budget and supervision of a project. An IT project manager does exactly that but focuses on projects related to software, infrastructure, ops… or other IT related topics.

A lot of networking and working with different profiles, either technical or not.
A job with good visibility.
Opportunity for freelancing or in-house, usually full time or close to full time.
Working in project mode offers closure and a sense of accomplishment (in comparison to a Product Owner following a product on the long term for example).
Working on different types of projects, with technical and business discovery.
Leadership position with a good authority.
People management 🙂

Meetings meetings meetings.
Conflict management.
Budgeting.
Be careful not to make assumptions or try to change the direction of the project based on your former experience: although your background might help you get a 360° vision on an IT project, it’s not your role anymore to give your opinion about technical decisions. Your role is now to make sure you raise the right concerns and have the right people around the table.
Stressful. Things rarely go as planned.
A lot of reporting and paperwork.
People management 🙁

Quality Assurance engineer

The QA engineer is responsible for assessing the quality of the software solution and make sure it meets requirements, regulations and so on. This title encompasses different jobs and tasks: writing tests scenarios, actually testing, reviewing requirements and regulations, implementing automated tests…

Contrary to the testers, QA engineers focus more on workflows and processes. However, the limit between the two roles is thin in some companies. Sometimes both roles even merge in smaller ones.

Great job for meticulous, detail-driven, analytical people. Did you enjoy doing code reviews and testing edge cases as a developer?
Can take many different forms depending on the sector and company size.
Can be a bit “hands-on technical” if you’re tasked to implement automation tools and frameworks for testing.
Gives you access to some niche sectors like pharmaceuticals, medical, aerospace…
Taste for a job well done and getting satisfaction from allowing flawless products.
Less stressful than a software engineer job (they’re the ones being stressed by the bugs you find and having to fix them quick!).

It gets repetitive after a while (for in-house positions).
You need to learn a lot of rules and regulations (especially for highly regulated sectors like pharmaceuticals, medical, banking, financial markets, aerospace…).
Not very recognized compared to software engineers.
Less sense of “accomplishment” than creating a feature, less closure.
Conflicting relationship with the development team.
Uneven workload distribution: Q.A. engineers often give it all during qualification and validation periods, then are a bit on standby in-between.

Tester

The Software Tester focuses on writing tests scenarios, assessing test coverage, writing tests, implementing tests, executing some tests manually… Everything related to software tests!

You like to test corner cases and searching for bugs motivates you? You like doing code reviews and testing other developer’s job, searching for THE bug?

Rarely a dedicated job, smaller companies rely on their developers to test the solution. In other cases, testing and QA both fall in the same service.
It gets boring after a while, except if your company has a great variety of applications to test and the testing team covers several or all of them.
Developers won’t like you.
If you want to get your hands totally off the code, it’s not the best job.

Solution Architect

The Solution Architect designs systems and advises on services and structures to implement. They have knowledge in software, not limited to the backend/frontend/database part, but also in alternative storage and communication services, Cloud services, infrastructure, networking, security…

They don’t only design new solutions, they also advise or make decisions when a new component has to be added to an existing solution. Theoretically, they’re not responsible for the implementation of the solution.

If you hold a full-time position as an actual Architect, you get to work with different teams and discover different solutions. Great for variety seekers.
Most people you’ll talk to will be technical people.
Tech watch and technical background are useful.
Role with influence and leadership.

Rarely a clearly separated role. I’ve often seen Solution Architects actually being Tech Leads and Senior developers, still coding. Only bigger companies dedicate a position to the role of Architect.
Requires more than software knowledge, either upfront or learning on the job.

Field application engineer

A Field application engineer collaborates closely with the customer and the engineering team, and all roles in between. They’re specialists with deep knowledge of the technical product(s). They assist the sales team (or other positions in the company with similar needs) by bringing their technical skills.

They can be in charge of assessing the current situation of a customer and give advice based on this. The salesperson brings expertise in the catalog offer, prices, sales conditions, while the FAE brings expertise on feasibility, technical limitations, attention points…

In software, they would translate the needs and requirements to the development team. The role sometimes encompasses some kind of aftersales service (troubleshooting, training, customization, documentation) and they sometimes also participate in the on-site implementation and testing.

You get to travel a lot 🙂
Technical background is a solid asset (even mandatory).
A lot of networking, inside and outside of the company.
A taste for problem solving and solution design.
Keep on doing some technical work.

You get to travel a lot 🙁
Some companies work on commission-based salary since the FAE plays a role in landing a sale.
You’re expected to build up expertise on the company’s product. Depending on the product, it might be difficultly transferable to other companies or jobs.
Requires communication skills to talk with the client.

UX designer

The job of a UX designer if often misunderstood. UX design is not UI, graphic design or frontend development. UX does encompass UI design, but not only. Tasks in UX are very diverse: market research, interviews with users, design thinking, marketing and branding, accessibility, usability testing…

The UX designer is user-centric, their goal is to make sure the user’s needs are met and the solution will actually be useful, usable and used!

Opportunity for freelancing and part time.
Close contact with the end-users, possibility to use design thinking, collective intelligence, workshop facilitation…
Very visible impact.
Important role, crucial to make sure the solution is right.
Collaboration with different technical and non-technical roles in the company.
Creativity.
You hesitated between a career in marketing and in IT? This sorts it out.

Many companies advertise UX jobs but don’t know what it means: they’re actually looking for a frontend developer or designer.
Rarely a full-time position.
Lack of understanding or recognition in “classic” development teams.
Your technical background is maybe less relevant here, except if you have an experience in frontend/design or had opportunities to work in co-creation with end-users in your developer’s career.

Design thinking facilitator

Very close to the role of UX designer, but limited to the design thinking phases: the moments when you gather users in a room and use techniques to discover what they need or don’t, their expectations, make them test regularly to get early feedback.

To get valuable feedback and information from the users, the Design thinking facilitator organizes workshops and adopts the right posture and tools not to influence participants.

Close contact with end-users.
Organizing workshops is fun.
Opportunity for freelancing and part time.

Rarely a full-time in-house job. You’ll have to either cover several roles, work as a freelancer or work in a consulting firm.
Generally on-site.
Not a lot of closure or feeling of achievement.

Web designer

The Web designer focuses on the visuals of (and sometimes interactions with) the application. They design mockups, graphics, visuals, animations, page designs, graphic charter, icons and logos. The Web designer is not a frontend developer, although some might decide to broaden their skillset by also implementing HTML and CSS.

Opportunity for freelancing and part time.
Creativity.
Opportunity for remote work.
Experience in frontend development can be an asset.

Rarely a full-time job on its own (except if working in consulting or a service company).
Frustrations if you don’t implement yourself and notice in the end that developers didn’t follow the guidelines or changed a lot of things without discussing it with you.

No-code/Low-code developer

Well, it has the name “developer” on it but… Technically, LC/NC developers aren’t supposed to write code (or very little). If you’re tired about writing code in the setup of big, complicated applications, or you grew tired of writing http calls and CRUD on a database, but you still love the algorithmic part and putting pieces together, you might actually enjoy No-code/Low-code.

A very popular No-code/Low-code solution is the Microsoft Power Platform (Power Apps, Power Automate and the likes), but there are many other providers out there.

Reduced technical complexity 🙂
Experience in software development in useful. No-code/Low-code relies on the same logic than development (data structures, statements, loops…) but you implement it without writing the code yourself. This kind of thinking process is really well developed in people who worked in software.
Depending on the scope of your function, you might still have opportunities to work on the deployment of the solutions.
Opportunity for freelancing and part-time.
Opportunity for full-time in-house or consulting.
Opportunity for remote work.

Reduced technical complexity 🙁
Code developers will think less of you. You shouldn’t care but it’s worth keeping this in mind.

The manager of almost any of the above (or of software engineers)

It’s usually the way out for many people with years of experience. It’s not always the right one though. Being a manager is not for everyone, and companies don’t always give a proper training and support for new managers.

The job is totally different, the way to measure achievements is way more abstract than in engineering, you have to develop strong inter-personal skills, it’s stressful…

A great leader should also allow their team to make their decisions. Coming from a technical background, you might have to refrain your tendency to make the technical decisions and let the team or tech lead take the lead on that, which is not that easy to do.

Although management is often the default way out of software engineering and other technical positions, don’t accept it just because the opportunity is given to you, really consider all aspects of it, and dig in the above list if you need a change and to step away from coding!

Are you thinking about other non-technical careers I haven’t mentioned? Drop a comment to let us know!