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Lead test technician vs senior quality assurance engineer

The differences between lead test technicians and senior 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 lead test technician and a senior quality assurance engineer. Additionally, a senior quality assurance engineer has an average salary of $106,802, which is higher than the $81,566 average annual salary of a lead test technician.

The top three skills for a lead test technician include java, QA and test strategy. The most important skills for a senior quality assurance engineer are QA, java, and python.

Lead test technician vs senior quality assurance engineer overview

Lead Test TechnicianSenior Quality Assurance Engineer
Yearly salary$81,566$106,802
Hourly rate$39.21$51.35
Growth rate--
Number of jobs51,060254,258
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 61%Bachelor's Degree, 69%
Average age4444
Years of experience44

What does a lead test technician do?

Lead test technicians are professionals who are responsible for leading a group of test professionals to test products and report their findings to engineers or product developers. These technicians are required to design and develop test plans and procedures so that they can validate the requirements of products. They are required to use various test equipment as well as to conduct maintenance to ensure the product's functionality and quality. Lead test technicians must also gather and analyze user feedback to improve the overall user experience and satisfaction.

What does a senior quality assurance engineer do?

A senior quality assurance engineer oversees the testing procedures conducted in software development, ensuring technical accuracy and efficiency. They are primarily responsible for working alongside software designers and quality engineers, reviewing quality control reports, inspecting specifications, and devising particular test procedures. Moreover, it is also essential to troubleshoot issues and identify any inconsistencies or bugs. As someone with more experience in the team, they must supervise and serve as a mentor to the younger quality assurance engineers in the joint effort to develop efficient software.

Lead test technician vs senior quality assurance engineer salary

Lead test technicians and senior quality assurance engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.

Lead Test TechnicianSenior Quality Assurance Engineer
Average salary$81,566$106,802
Salary rangeBetween $65,000 And $101,000Between $82,000 And $138,000
Highest paying CitySan Francisco, CASan Mateo, CA
Highest paying stateNew HampshireCalifornia
Best paying companyMacy'sThe Citadel
Best paying industryAutomotiveTelecommunication

Differences between lead test technician and senior quality assurance engineer education

There are a few differences between a lead test technician and a senior quality assurance engineer in terms of educational background:

Lead Test TechnicianSenior Quality Assurance Engineer
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 61%Bachelor's Degree, 69%
Most common majorElectrical EngineeringComputer Science
Most common collegeStanford UniversityMassachusetts Institute of Technology

Lead test technician vs senior quality assurance engineer demographics

Here are the differences between lead test technicians' and senior quality assurance engineers' demographics:

Lead Test TechnicianSenior Quality Assurance Engineer
Average age4444
Gender ratioMale, 70.3% Female, 29.7%Male, 68.0% Female, 32.0%
Race ratioBlack 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 Percentage11%11%

Differences between lead test technician and senior quality assurance engineer duties and responsibilities

Lead test technician example responsibilities.

  • Track and update the progress of the project documents in SharePoint and manage the metrics.
  • Develop, manage a high performance, distribute QA organization - including testing management at remote locations.
  • Develop API testing tools and test suites to improve testing accuracy, automation and performance.
  • Used SOAPUI to test the webServices.
  • Execute testing strategy for testing federal web service requests and responses using SOAPUI.
  • Used selenium for cloud application testing and run the automation cloud on the system.
  • Show more

Senior quality assurance engineer example responsibilities.

  • Design and manage test paths using ruby.
  • Manage, design and operate the staging lab used for regression, capacity, stress, performance, and UI testing.
  • Manage onsite and offshore resources by communicating acceptance time frames and testing requirements.
  • Maintain coordination between onsite and offshore very smooth with daily status calls and achieve timely and quality deliverable.
  • Debug daily sanity test automation runs and fix, develop/enhancing automation scripts using python base on feature requirement.
  • Project involve adding and changing data validation rules implement in java.
  • Show more

Lead test technician vs senior quality assurance engineer skills

Common lead test technician skills
  • Java, 7%
  • QA, 6%
  • Test Strategy, 6%
  • Selenium, 5%
  • Test Cases, 5%
  • Test Environment, 4%
Common senior quality assurance engineer skills
  • QA, 9%
  • Java, 7%
  • Python, 6%
  • Test Automation, 5%
  • API, 4%
  • Regression, 4%

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