How to hire a quality assurance

How to hire a quality assurance, step by step

Here's a step-by-step quality assurance 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 job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new quality assurance
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a quality assurance do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   The quality assurance hiring process starts by determining what type of worker you actually need. Certain roles might require a full-time employee, whereas part-time workers or contractors can do others.

   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's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, quality assurances 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.

   This list presents quality assurance salaries for various positions.

   Type of Quality Assurance	Description	Hourly rate
   Quality Assurance		$13-44
   Quality Analyst	Pumpers are individuals who take responsibility for setting the pumping system controls for product maximization. Their job requires them to set density, concentration, rate, and pressure... Show more	$26-44
   Engineer Lead Quality Assurance Lead	Engineer Lead Quality Assurance Leads are responsible for managing the designing and operations of hardware or software testing. Their duties include developing testing plans, implement risk mitigation strategies, communicate process improvements to cross-teams such as marketing and engineering, resolve the conflict between teams, and ensures product or software adheres to the organization and industry standards... Show more	$40-68

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Test Cases
   • Food Handling
   • Java
   • Selenium
   • Data Entry
   • Test Procedures
   • Jira
   • Regression
   • Quality Standards
   • GMP
   • Test Results
   • Test Scripts
   • C #
   • Management System

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Participate in weekly scrum meetings with project leads and the QA team to track and report overall progress.
   • Manage the logistics requirements, handling, processing, and repairing of avionics equipment and avionics support equipment.
   • Champion use of detail bug tracking (JIRA) and strict release methodology to achieve field stability and maintainability.
   • Experience in working with product teams, product owners and scrum masters to compose and manage integrate project plans.
   • Manage all ALM relate issues, user requests and customize the defect templates to cater to various project needs.
   • Provide support for different environments including DEV, QA, UAT, staging, and production.

   More quality assurance duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your quality assurance job description is a great way to entice the best and brightest candidates. A quality assurance salary can vary based on several factors:

   • Location. For example, quality assurances' average salary in alaska is 53% less than in california.
   • Seniority. Entry-level quality assurances earn 70% less than senior-level quality assurances.
   • Certifications. A quality assurance with a few certifications under their belt will likely demand a higher salary.
   • Company. Working for a prestigious company or an exciting start-up can make a huge difference in a quality assurance's salary.

   Average quality assurance salary

   $51,313yearly

   $24.67 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level quality assurance salary

   $28,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 15, 2025

   Average quality assurance salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$73,163	$35
   2	Maryland	$64,376	$31
   3	New Jersey	$63,201	$30
   4	District of Columbia	$60,104	$29
   5	Arizona	$59,854	$29
   6	Massachusetts	$59,833	$29
   7	Texas	$57,351	$28
   8	Michigan	$57,127	$27
   9	New York	$56,269	$27
   10	Illinois	$55,694	$27
   11	North Carolina	$51,694	$25
   12	Minnesota	$50,291	$24
   13	Pennsylvania	$48,580	$23
   14	Rhode Island	$46,226	$22
   15	Colorado	$45,054	$22
   16	Ohio	$44,142	$21
   17	Florida	$43,908	$21
   18	New Hampshire	$42,958	$21
   19	Washington	$42,385	$20
   20	Oregon	$41,686	$20

   Average quality assurance salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Meta	$132,767	$63.83	81
   2	Apple	$128,130	$61.60	112
   3	Cohesity	$127,808	$61.45
   4	Eli Lilly and Company	$118,582	$57.01	26
   5	Bristol-Myers Squibb	$116,529	$56.02	15
   6	Janssen	$110,596	$53.17
   7	Amd	$107,583	$51.72	6
   8	Barclays	$105,906	$50.92
   9	TIBCO Software	$99,839	$48.00
   10	Credit Suisse	$99,434	$47.80
   11	Nisum	$98,487	$47.35
   12	Morgan Stanley	$97,603	$46.92	11
   13	Bayer	$96,845	$46.56	9
   14	Thomson Reuters	$95,475	$45.90	2
   15	JPMorgan Chase & Co.	$95,459	$45.89	84
   16	FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies	$93,620	$45.01	17
   17	State Street	$92,377	$44.41	5
   18	Pfizer	$91,839	$44.15	14
   19	Virtusa	$91,805	$44.14	17
   20	NetApp	$90,644	$43.58	2

4. Writing a quality assurance job description

   A job description for a quality assurance 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 job description:

   Quality assurance job description example

   In our kitchens, we focus on fresh and simple ingredients. Our Quality Team Members unite in a fast-paced kitchen to prepare delicious menu items accurately to ensure that our Hospitality Team Members consistently deliver excellence in customer service with the care that we at Chick-fil-A are known for.
   
   Your role, as Quality Kitchen Team Member is to quickly serve high-quality, safe, accurate orders all day every day. Our shared goal is to be the most caring company in the world.
   Maintain a caring, compassionate, and professional attitude Maintain a sense of urgency, flexibility and remain positive under stress Speak with a smile, communicate well with Customers, Team Members, and Leaders Must be self-sufficient, dependable, and work well without direction, once trained Consistently abide by set rules of conduct such as dress code, phone, and attendance Must take initiative to complete training and follow all recipes and procedures Must follow all safety, OSHA, Health Dept and Chick-fi-A policies and procedures Effectively perform duties and take initiative in the restaurant Must accept correction and be willing to change Needs to be able to quickly and proficiently adopt shorthand language used to identify products Needs to be proficient with the restaurant’s electronic resources including iPads, registers, CFA app, and any other technology platforms
   Benefits: Flexible schedules Sunday off Discounted meals Competitive wages Positive work environment College scholarship Workforce and leadership development
   
   REQUIREMENTS
   Values and acts with honesty and integrity A self-starter who requires little oversight Able to lift up to 50 lbs. consistently Walking or standing for duration of shift Able to withstand outdoor elements (heat | cold) Able to multi-task Must be 17 or older
   
   ABOUT THE COMPANY
   Working with Chick-fil-A offers the opportunity for teamwork and leadership development in a fast-paced environment. This is a place to work hard, have fun and make an extraordinary impact -- a place you’re proud to work that will benefit you for the long term. Our restaurants are locally owned and operated by franchised Operator, F. Keys Hayes. Team Member employment opportunities include positions on the hospitality team, quality team and leadership roles.
   Creating a positive and productive place to work is important to us. We are ordinary people striving to serve guests, co-workers and communities well.

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   There are a few common ways to find quality assurances for your business:

   • Promoting internally or recruiting from your existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals from friends, family members, and current employees.
   • Attend job fairs at local colleges to meet candidates with the right educational background.
   • Use social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to recruit passive job-seekers.

   To find quality assurance candidates, you can consider the following options:

   • Post your job opening on Zippia or other job search websites.
   • Use niche websites that focus on engineering and technology jobs, such as dice, engineering.com, stack overflow, it job pro.
   • Post your job on free job posting websites.

6. Interview candidates

   To successfully recruit quality assurances, your first interview needs to engage with candidates to learn about their interest in the role and experience in the field. You can go into more detail about the company, the role, and the responsibilities during follow-up interviews.

   You should also ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match the ideal candidate profile you developed earlier. Candidates good enough for the next step can complete the technical interview.

   Sometimes, it's not enough to interview quality assurance candidates, so you can ask them to do a test project. If you are not a technical person and don't know what a test project should be, you can use these websites:

   • 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

   Once you've selected the best quality assurance candidate for the job, it's time to write an offer letter. In addition to salary, this letter should include details about the benefits and perks you offer the candidate. Ensuring that your offer is competitive is essential, as qualified candidates may be considering other job opportunities. The candidate may wish to negotiate the terms of the offer, and you should be open to discussion. After you reach an agreement, the final step is formalizing the agreement with a contract.

   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.

   To prepare for the new employee's start date, you can create an onboarding schedule and complete any necessary paperwork, such as employee action forms and onboarding documents like I-9 forms, benefits enrollment, and federal and state tax forms. Human Resources should also ensure that a new employee file is created.

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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