Quality assurance vs cyber security analyst

The differences between quality assurances and cyber security analysts can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 2-4 years to become a quality assurance, becoming a cyber security analyst takes usually requires 4-6 years. Additionally, a cyber security analyst has an average salary of $88,422, which is higher than the $51,313 average annual salary of a quality assurance.

The top three skills for a quality assurance include test cases, food handling and java. The most important skills for a cyber security analyst are incident response, windows, and SIEM.

Quality assurance vs cyber security analyst overview

	Quality Assurance	Cyber Security Analyst
Yearly salary	$51,313	$88,422
Hourly rate	$24.67	$42.51
Growth rate	-	32%
Number of jobs	69,366	64,387
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 47%	Bachelor's Degree, 61%
Average age	44	42
Years of experience	4	6

What does a quality assurance do?

The primary role of quality assurance specialists is to inspect the quality system's implementation and perform quality assurance audits. They are responsible for monitoring and recording results from procedures and processes within manufacturing industries. They are also responsible for some other tasks, including keeping up-to-date manufacturing and auditing documentation, training less experienced QA team members, and creating standard operating procedures. To be a quality assurance specialist, you must have a high school diploma, organizational skills, and strong attention to detail.

What does a cyber security analyst do?

A cybersecurity analyst is responsible for planning and carrying out security measures to protect a company's computer networks and systems. They constantly keep tabs on threats and monitor their organization's networks for any security breaches. Their tasks involve installing computer programs or software and encryption, reporting breaches or weak spots, exploring new IT trends, educating the company's information security team on security. They also do simulate security attacks to find possible network and system vulnerabilities.

Quality assurance vs cyber security analyst salary

Quality assurances and cyber security analysts have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Quality Assurance	Cyber Security Analyst
Average salary	$51,313	$88,422
Salary range	Between $28,000 And $92,000	Between $66,000 And $117,000
Highest paying City	Cupertino, CA	Los Angeles, CA
Highest paying state	California	Oregon
Best paying company	Meta	Neighborly
Best paying industry	Finance	Automotive

Differences between quality assurance and cyber security analyst education

There are a few differences between a quality assurance and a cyber security analyst in terms of educational background:

	Quality Assurance	Cyber Security Analyst
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 47%	Bachelor's Degree, 61%
Most common major	Business	Computer Information Systems
Most common college	Stanford University	California State University - Bakersfield

Quality assurance vs cyber security analyst demographics

Here are the differences between quality assurances' and cyber security analysts' demographics:

	Quality Assurance	Cyber Security Analyst
Average age	44	42
Gender ratio	Male, 55.8% Female, 44.2%	Male, 78.5% Female, 21.5%
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, 9.2% Unknown, 6.1% Hispanic or Latino, 9.0% Asian, 9.6% White, 65.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4%
LGBT Percentage	11%	9%

Differences between quality assurance and cyber security analyst duties and responsibilities

Quality assurance example 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.

Cyber security analyst example responsibilities.

Ensure all requirements are met to successfully achieve an ATO before release.
Leverage this same site-to-site VPN technology to automate and secure transactions between FMC and its business partners.
Lead technical implementation through multiple projects to reduce the cardholder data environment and ultimately reduce the scope of PCI relate environments.
Log analysis & managing the accuracy of DLP identification to lowering/avoiding false positives and negatives.
Review and manage the security and information assurance capabilities of database applications, database structure and architecture.
Implement a manage endpoint encryption solution utilizing TrendMicro MobileArmor to secure university workstations against sensitive data loss.

Quality assurance vs cyber security analyst skills

Common quality assurance skills

Test Cases, 6%
Food Handling, 6%
Java, 5%
Selenium, 4%
Data Entry, 4%
Test Procedures, 4%

Common cyber security analyst skills

Incident Response, 8%
Windows, 6%
SIEM, 5%
DOD, 5%
Linux, 4%
Security Events, 4%

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Quality Assurance vs Cyber Security Analyst

Updated January 8, 2025

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