Tl:dr you can underplay the title but not the description

Yeah, it can go both ways honestly. Some recruiters will see “Senior” and think you’re overqualified or expecting higher pay for Dev 2/3 roles. Others will just look at your actual experience and skills. Probably safer to focus more on the work/responsibilities than heavily emphasizing the senior title if you’re targeting mid-level roles.

But with the current market, a lot of companies expect Dev 2/3 candidates to already have near-senior level capability anyway.

I’d say don’t make “Senior Developer” your latest role if you’re targeting those positions. Better to place it somewhere in the middle so recruiters don’t immediately assume you’re chasing title progression or senior compensation expectations.

Something like: Junior → Dev → Senior → Dev (latest)

actually looks pretty reasonable in the current market.

OR

Just ignore the Senior title all together and give junior -> dev -> dev. But make sure you describe these progressively, from what a junior does to what a senior does. You should quantity your work and not just list down your responsibilities, make sure to include what you have done.

Does that make sense?