Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between junior quality assurance testers and quality assurance engineers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both a junior quality assurance tester and a quality assurance engineer. Additionally, a quality assurance engineer has an average salary of $82,215, which is higher than the $62,660 average annual salary of a junior quality assurance tester.
The top three skills for a junior quality assurance tester include QA, manual test cases and regression. The most important skills for a quality assurance engineer are java, python, and regression.
| Junior Quality Assurance Tester | Quality Assurance Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $62,660 | $82,215 |
| Hourly rate | $30.12 | $39.53 |
| Growth rate | - | - |
| Number of jobs | 92,642 | 243,536 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 63% | Bachelor's Degree, 71% |
| Average age | 44 | 44 |
| Years of experience | 4 | 4 |
A junior quality assurance tester is responsible for facilitating different quality assurance, such as integration and performance testing of software systems. They handle the communication process between stakeholders and clients and resolve issues like bugs, viruses, and other unwanted software. They also develop and maintain a collaborative partnership with different agencies and software developers. They usually work with a supervising quality assurance tester and with other business groups to complete testing.
A Quality Assurance Engineer's role is to oversee the overall production and ensure that the product is cost-efficient and aligns with the company's standards. The responsibility mainly revolves around conducting activities that examine and scrutinize the condition of a product or service to identify issues and come up with possible solutions to resolve the issue or attain stronger customer satisfaction. Furthermore, the Quality Assurance Engineer must also ensure that the product adheres to the government regulations and market guidelines.
Junior quality assurance testers and quality assurance engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Junior Quality Assurance Tester | Quality Assurance Engineer | |
| Average salary | $62,660 | $82,215 |
| Salary range | Between $42,000 And $93,000 | Between $61,000 And $109,000 |
| Highest paying City | Burlingame, CA | San Mateo, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | California |
| Best paying company | Cnsi | The Citadel |
| Best paying industry | Insurance | Technology |
There are a few differences between a junior quality assurance tester and a quality assurance engineer in terms of educational background:
| Junior Quality Assurance Tester | Quality Assurance Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 63% | Bachelor's Degree, 71% |
| Most common major | Computer Science | Computer Science |
| Most common college | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Here are the differences between junior quality assurance testers' and quality assurance engineers' demographics:
| Junior Quality Assurance Tester | Quality Assurance Engineer | |
| Average age | 44 | 44 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 49.1% Female, 50.9% | Male, 69.5% Female, 30.5% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 6.2% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 8.8% Asian, 12.0% White, 67.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5% | Black or African American, 6.2% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 8.8% Asian, 12.0% White, 67.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5% |
| LGBT Percentage | 11% | 11% |