How to hire a quality assurance analyst

How to hire a quality assurance analyst, step by step

Here's a step-by-step quality assurance analyst hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a quality assurance analyst job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new quality assurance analyst
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a quality assurance analyst do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   Before you start hiring a quality assurance analyst, identify what type of worker you actually need. Certain positions might call for a full-time employee, while others can be done by a part-time worker or contractor.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   A quality assurance analyst's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, quality assurance analysts from different industries or fields will have radically different experiences and will bring different viewpoints to the role. You also need to consider the candidate's previous level of experience to make sure they'll be comfortable with the job's level of seniority.

   The following list breaks down different types of quality assurance analysts and their corresponding salaries.

   Type of Quality Assurance Analyst	Description	Hourly rate
   Quality Assurance Analyst	A Quality Assurance Analyst tests software and other computer applications to ensure that there are no defects and that it is made to meet the company's standards. They also recommend program improvements and corrections to programmers.	$27-44
   Tester	The role of technical testers is to test computer software for defects, bug errors, or any issues that may come across by an end-user. They mainly conduct product testing and prepare reports about any problems or recommendations for improvements... Show more	$20-47
   Software Tester	The responsibility of software testers involves the quality assurance of software development and deployment. Software testers conduct manual and automated tests to make sure that the software is developed for its purpose... Show more	$29-48

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • QA
   • Regression
   • Manual Test Cases
   • Test Scripts
   • Test Results
   • Java
   • Selenium Webdriver
   • Status Reports
   • Jira
   • Test Data
   • Scrum
   • PL/SQL
   • Data Warehouse
   • User Acceptance

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Develop processes within JIRA to manage the testing and weekly releases of new content for the Ralph Lauren content management system.
   • Work with providers and Medicare or Medicaid entities to validate EDI transaction sets.
   • Design test cases to rigorously test complex Medicare reimbursement funding and co-pay scenarios dealing with prescriptions.
   • Prepare test documents such as test scenarios, test conditions and test scripts on TFS with respect to the requirements.
   • Involve in preparation of API test plan and test data for all the return values base on the input data.
   • Perform testing of pharmaceutical industry web application for functionality develop in Java and HTML.

   More quality assurance analyst duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your quality assurance analyst job description is one of the best ways to attract top talent. A quality assurance analyst can vary based on:

   • Location. For example, quality assurance analysts' average salary in vermont is 24% less than in california.
   • Seniority. Entry-level quality assurance analysts 39% less than senior-level quality assurance analysts.
   • Certifications. A quality assurance analyst with certifications usually earns a higher salary.
   • Company. Working for an established firm or a new start-up company can make a big difference in a quality assurance analyst's salary.

   Average quality assurance analyst salary

   $73,532yearly

   $35.35 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level quality assurance analyst salary

   $57,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 23, 2025

   Average quality assurance analyst salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$89,401	$43
   2	Washington	$83,296	$40
   3	District of Columbia	$79,583	$38
   4	New Jersey	$77,451	$37
   5	Virginia	$76,025	$37
   6	New York	$74,556	$36
   7	Massachusetts	$74,294	$36
   8	Delaware	$73,916	$36
   9	Illinois	$72,099	$35
   10	Arizona	$72,062	$35
   11	North Carolina	$71,973	$35
   12	Ohio	$71,482	$34
   13	Minnesota	$71,403	$34
   14	Pennsylvania	$71,235	$34
   15	Indiana	$71,177	$34
   16	Texas	$70,951	$34
   17	Michigan	$69,630	$33
   18	Georgia	$69,186	$33
   19	Nebraska	$69,061	$33
   20	Missouri	$68,688	$33

   Average quality assurance analyst salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Meta	$116,827	$56.17	88
   2	Blackboard	$115,277	$55.42
   3	Google	$111,609	$53.66	61
   4	Apple	$109,132	$52.47	201
   5	American Tower	$109,115	$52.46
   6	Square	$105,533	$50.74
   7	AEA Investors	$104,917	$50.44
   8	Twitter	$104,667	$50.32
   9	Wachovia Securities	$104,571	$50.27
   10	Bed Bath & Beyond	$104,122	$50.06
   11	Ross Stores	$103,317	$49.67	4
   12	Bloomberg	$103,198	$49.61	12
   13	TD Ameritrade	$103,191	$49.61
   14	eBay	$102,796	$49.42	2
   15	JCPenney	$102,655	$49.35
   16	Barclays	$102,462	$49.26
   17	Intuit	$101,993	$49.04	20
   18	Bon-Ton	$101,744	$48.92
   19	Molina Healthcare	$101,205	$48.66	492
   20	Novartis	$100,645	$48.39	16

4. Writing a quality assurance analyst job description

   A job description for a quality assurance analyst role includes a summary of the job's main responsibilities, required skills, and preferred background experience. Including a salary range can also go a long way in attracting more candidates to apply, and showing the first name of the hiring manager can also make applicants more comfortable. As an example, here's a quality assurance analyst job description:

   Quality assurance analyst job description example

   The IAM QA Analyst will be responsible to understand the SIAM (Synchrony Identity and Access Management)portal functionality, workflows, application onboarding process and will be responsible to automate the current manual testing procedure to fully automated one using UFT. And he/she will also be responsible for training the team members in testing automation.
   Roles & Responsibilities:
   Should have hands on experience in working on Identity Management technologies preferably SailPoint. Sound knowledge in preparing test data, test scripts and preparation of automated tests within the data driven automation framework.Working closely with Development team to understand the enhancements and new functionalities being implemented.Working closely with Business Analysts to understand the new applications being onboarding on to Identity and Access Management platform and define automated test cases accordingly in UFT.Work cross functionally in an Agile/Scrum environment alongside with development team Responsible to drive testing automation across various Identity management applications such as Sailpoint, SecZetta NE Profile etc.Available on weekends for any release, for testing workflows and functionality whenever necessary.Responsible for documenting defects identified during testing in ALM. Testing experience with good knowledge in QTP/UFT for functional, smoke, performance and regression testing.
   
   Qualifications/Requirements:
   Bachelor's degree in any discipline Minimum 2-4 years of experience in IAM TestingMinimum 1+ year of working knowledge with any Identity and Access Management tool Knowledge on Agile frameworks (Scrum/Kanban) For Internal Applicants: Understand the criteria or mandatory skills required for the role, before applying.Inform your Manager or HRM before applying for any role on Workday.Ensure that your Professional Profile is updated (fields such as Education, Prior experience, Other skills) and it is mandatory to upload your updated resume (Word or PDF format) Must not be any corrective action plan (First Formal/Final Formal, PIP) Employees who have completed 18 months in the organization and 12 months in current role and level are only eligible.Existing Level 5,6 & 7 are eligible to apply, will be considered for Level 8 if selected
   
   Desired Skills:
   Excellent troubleshooting communication skills; highly motivated and demonstrate high level of initiative Good knowledge on Active Directory, SSO LDAP and UNIX platforms.Familiarity with identity management provisioning systems (e.g. Sailpoint) Excellent interpersonal skills with ability to influence team members, management and external groups Ability to integrate into a large team, support team goals, above average team player, and take direction from technical lead and other leadership.
   
   Grade Level: 08
   
   Job Family Group:
   Information Technology

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   To find the right quality assurance analyst for your business, consider trying out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important sources of talent for any company is its existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and current employees and ask if they know or have worked with quality assurance analysts they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit quality assurance analysts who meet your education requirements.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter now have more than 3.5 billion users, and you can use social media to reach potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your quality assurance analyst job on Zippia to find and attract quality quality assurance analyst candidates.
   • Use niche websites such as dice, engineering.com, stack overflow, it job pro.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Recruiting quality assurance analysts requires you to bring your A-game to the interview process. The first interview should introduce the company and the role to the candidate as much as they present their background experience and reasons for applying for the job. During later interviews, you can go into more detail about the technical details of the job and ask behavioral questions to gauge how they'd fit into your current company culture.

   Remember to include a few questions that allow candidates to expand on their strengths in their own words. Asking about their unique skills might reveal things you'd miss otherwise. At this point, good candidates can move on to the technical interview.

   While interviews are great, you will only sometimes learn enough from a conversation with a quality assurance analyst applicant. In those cases, having candidates complete a test project can go a long way in figuring out who's the most likely to succeed in the role. If you aren't a technical person and don't know how to design an appropriate test, you can ask someone else on the team to create it or take a look at these websites to get a few ideas:

   • TestDome
   • CodeSignal
   • Testlify
   • BarRaiser
   • Coderbyte

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new quality assurance analyst

   Once you've found the quality assurance analyst candidate you'd like to hire, it's time to write an offer letter. This should include an explicit job offer that includes the salary and the details of any other perks. Qualified candidates might be looking at multiple positions, so your offer must be competitive if you like the candidate. Also, be prepared for a negotiation stage, as candidates may way want to tweak the details of your initial offer. Once you've settled on these details, you can draft a contract to formalize your agreement.

   It's also good etiquette to follow up with applicants who don't get the job by sending them an email letting them know that the position has been filled.

   Once that's done, you can draft an onboarding schedule for the new quality assurance analyst. Human Resources should complete Employee Action Forms and ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc. They should also ensure that new employee files are created for internal recordkeeping.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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