Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between junior testers and senior quality assurance testers 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 tester and a senior quality assurance tester. Additionally, a senior quality assurance tester has an average salary of $93,770, which is higher than the $70,002 average annual salary of a junior tester.
The top three skills for a junior tester include test results, test scripts and manual test cases. The most important skills for a senior quality assurance tester are test cases, QA, and regression.
| Junior Tester | Senior Quality Assurance Tester | |
| Yearly salary | $70,002 | $93,770 |
| Hourly rate | $33.65 | $45.08 |
| Growth rate | - | - |
| Number of jobs | 44,154 | 81,916 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 60% | Bachelor's Degree, 65% |
| Average age | 44 | 44 |
| Years of experience | 4 | 4 |
A junior tester has strong critical thinking skills and is very much familiar with automation. They must be a team player; they work with others to create and test out a software program. They monitor and report issues, like system bugs, and help to fix them. Most of the time, a junior tester works at a company that is related to software, web application, java games, or video games.
A senior quality assurance tester manages junior quality assurance staff. They test documents, lead testing procedures, and ensure customer satisfaction. They also work with an engineering development team to make updates to software.
Junior testers and senior quality assurance testers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Junior Tester | Senior Quality Assurance Tester | |
| Average salary | $70,002 | $93,770 |
| Salary range | Between $52,000 And $93,000 | Between $73,000 And $118,000 |
| Highest paying City | Arlington, VA | Seattle, WA |
| Highest paying state | Virginia | New Hampshire |
| Best paying company | QSSI | Sagarsoft |
| Best paying industry | Start-up | Technology |
There are a few differences between a junior tester and a senior quality assurance tester in terms of educational background:
| Junior Tester | Senior Quality Assurance Tester | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 60% | Bachelor's Degree, 65% |
| Most common major | Computer Science | Computer Science |
| Most common college | California State University - Long Beach | Stanford University |
Here are the differences between junior testers' and senior quality assurance testers' demographics:
| Junior Tester | Senior Quality Assurance Tester | |
| Average age | 44 | 44 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 59.2% Female, 40.8% | Male, 56.4% Female, 43.6% |
| 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% |