Junior quality assurance tester vs quality assurance specialist

The differences between junior quality assurance testers and quality assurance specialists 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 specialist. Additionally, a quality assurance specialist has an average salary of $63,443, 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 specialist are GMP, patients, and FDA.

Junior quality assurance tester vs quality assurance specialist overview

	Junior Quality Assurance Tester	Quality Assurance Specialist
Yearly salary	$62,660	$63,443
Hourly rate	$30.12	$30.50
Growth rate	-	6%
Number of jobs	92,642	83,505
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 63%	Bachelor's Degree, 58%
Average age	44	44
Years of experience	4	4

What does a junior quality assurance tester do?

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.

What does a quality assurance specialist do?

A quality assurance specialist is an individual who is responsible for monitoring, inspecting, and proposing measures to correct and improve a company's product. Quality assurance specialists need to outline quality assurance policies and procedures, making sure that quality standards are assured. It is important that a quality assurance specialist should have strong attention to detail and is excellent in data collection. This work may require a minimum of bachelor's degree and certification to get certified.

Junior quality assurance tester vs quality assurance specialist salary

Junior quality assurance testers and quality assurance specialists have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Junior Quality Assurance Tester	Quality Assurance Specialist
Average salary	$62,660	$63,443
Salary range	Between $42,000 And $93,000	Between $41,000 And $97,000
Highest paying City	Burlingame, CA	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	California	Rhode Island
Best paying company	Cnsi	Apple
Best paying industry	Insurance	Pharmaceutical

Differences between junior quality assurance tester and quality assurance specialist education

There are a few differences between a junior quality assurance tester and a quality assurance specialist in terms of educational background:

	Junior Quality Assurance Tester	Quality Assurance Specialist
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 63%	Bachelor's Degree, 58%
Most common major	Computer Science	Business
Most common college	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Stanford University

Junior quality assurance tester vs quality assurance specialist demographics

Here are the differences between junior quality assurance testers' and quality assurance specialists' demographics:

	Junior Quality Assurance Tester	Quality Assurance Specialist
Average age	44	44
Gender ratio	Male, 49.1% Female, 50.9%	Male, 42.8% Female, 57.2%
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%

Differences between junior quality assurance tester and quality assurance specialist duties and responsibilities

Junior quality assurance tester example responsibilities.

Manage departmental inventory and troubleshoot testing, reporting and inventory issues.
Install Java add-ins for QTP for application under test.
Perform end to end testing using production data and log the defects in JIRA.
Experience with testing GUI components with positive and negative test cases.
Analyze the gap between actual and expect results and report bugs using JIRA application.
Execute UNIX/ Linux commands to traverse around the directories and view the log files.

Quality assurance specialist example responsibilities.

Manage all NDT relate gauges to ensure calibrations requirements are meet.
Provide employee training and manage all NDT certification records per ASNT SNT-TC-1A.
Lead the HACCP team to ensure full compliance with regulatory and industrial food safety standards.
Manage product and environmental sampling for chemical and microbial analysis to meet HACCP requirements.
Lead cross functional project team to build user-friendly windows base customer support applications which interface with the OmniPlan/OmniPlus mainframe application.
Execute quality processes in tissue banking and medical device, FDA requirements 21 CFR 1271 and 21 CFR 820.

Junior quality assurance tester vs quality assurance specialist skills

Common junior quality assurance tester skills

QA, 8%
Manual Test Cases, 7%
Regression, 6%
SQL Server, 5%
Test Plan, 5%
Web Application, 4%

Common quality assurance specialist skills

GMP, 6%
Patients, 5%
FDA, 5%
CAPA, 4%
Corrective Action, 4%
CFR, 4%

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Junior Quality Assurance Tester vs Quality Assurance Specialist

Updated January 8, 2025

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