Quality assurance chemist vs quality assurance specialist

The differences between quality assurance chemists and quality assurance specialists can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a quality assurance specialist has an average salary of $63,443, which is higher than the $59,242 average annual salary of a quality assurance chemist.

The top three skills for a quality assurance chemist include lab equipment, R and HPLC. The most important skills for a quality assurance specialist are GMP, patients, and FDA.

Quality assurance chemist vs quality assurance specialist overview

	Quality Assurance Chemist	Quality Assurance Specialist
Yearly salary	$59,242	$63,443
Hourly rate	$28.48	$30.50
Growth rate	6%	6%
Number of jobs	66,457	83,505
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 83%	Bachelor's Degree, 58%
Average age	42	44
Years of experience	-	4

What does a quality assurance chemist do?

Quality Assurance Chemists generally offer pay of around $54K per year and require strong skills in analysis and instrumentation and general knowledge of chemistry, attention to detail, and various organizational skills. Also, they must be able to investigate and analyze problems whenever they crop up. This career choice requires a bachelor's or advanced degree in chemistry, depending on the industry, and will often be offered in pharmaceutical fields, where standard duties consist of the measurement and testing of lab materials and products according to industry standards.

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.

Quality assurance chemist vs quality assurance specialist salary

Quality assurance chemists and quality assurance specialists have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Quality Assurance Chemist	Quality Assurance Specialist
Average salary	$59,242	$63,443
Salary range	Between $42,000 And $82,000	Between $41,000 And $97,000
Highest paying City	East Windsor, NJ	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	Virginia	Rhode Island
Best paying company	Clariant	Apple
Best paying industry	Finance	Pharmaceutical

Differences between quality assurance chemist and quality assurance specialist education

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

	Quality Assurance Chemist	Quality Assurance Specialist
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 83%	Bachelor's Degree, 58%
Most common major	Chemistry	Business
Most common college	University of Southern California	Stanford University

Quality assurance chemist vs quality assurance specialist demographics

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

	Quality Assurance Chemist	Quality Assurance Specialist
Average age	42	44
Gender ratio	Male, 60.1% Female, 39.9%	Male, 42.8% Female, 57.2%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 7.9% Unknown, 4.6% Hispanic or Latino, 9.4% Asian, 18.2% White, 59.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%	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	5%	11%

Differences between quality assurance chemist and quality assurance specialist duties and responsibilities

Quality assurance chemist example responsibilities.

Plan, manage, and maintain laboratory's SPC and TQM programs.
Assist FDA and ISO audits as required.
Operate, programme and troubleshot four HPLC instruments as well as two GC instruments.
Analyze liquid and solid generic pharmaceutical products for quality assurance using HPLC and GC methods.
Operate multi-samplers, high-performance liquid chromatography units and titration units.
Generate in excel and LIMS final reports for clients.

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.

Quality assurance chemist vs quality assurance specialist skills

Common quality assurance chemist skills

Lab Equipment, 15%
R, 5%
HPLC, 5%
Analytical Methods, 4%
ISO, 4%
Test Results, 4%

Common quality assurance specialist skills

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

Quality Assurance Chemist vs. similar jobs

Quality Assurance Chemist related careers

Quality Assurance Chemist related jobs

What similar roles do

Zippia Careers
Life, Physical, and Social Science Industry
Quality Assurance Chemist
Quality Assurance Chemist vs Quality Assurance Specialist

Updated January 8, 2025

Browse life, physical, and social science jobs