Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between quality assurances and 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 quality assurance and a quality assurance engineer. Additionally, a quality assurance engineer has an average salary of $82,215, 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 quality assurance engineer are java, python, and regression.
| Quality Assurance | Quality Assurance Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $51,313 | $82,215 |
| Hourly rate | $24.67 | $39.53 |
| Growth rate | - | - |
| Number of jobs | 69,366 | 243,536 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 47% | Bachelor's Degree, 71% |
| Average age | 44 | 44 |
| Years of experience | 4 | 4 |
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.
A Quality Assurance Engineer's role is to oversee the overall production and ensure that the product is cost-efficient and aligns with the company's standards. The responsibility mainly revolves around conducting activities that examine and scrutinize the condition of a product or service to identify issues and come up with possible solutions to resolve the issue or attain stronger customer satisfaction. Furthermore, the Quality Assurance Engineer must also ensure that the product adheres to the government regulations and market guidelines.
Quality assurances and quality assurance engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Quality Assurance | Quality Assurance Engineer | |
| Average salary | $51,313 | $82,215 |
| Salary range | Between $28,000 And $92,000 | Between $61,000 And $109,000 |
| Highest paying City | Cupertino, CA | San Mateo, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | California |
| Best paying company | Meta | The Citadel |
| Best paying industry | Finance | Technology |
There are a few differences between a quality assurance and a quality assurance engineer in terms of educational background:
| Quality Assurance | Quality Assurance Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 47% | Bachelor's Degree, 71% |
| Most common major | Business | Computer Science |
| Most common college | Stanford University | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Here are the differences between quality assurances' and quality assurance engineers' demographics:
| Quality Assurance | Quality Assurance Engineer | |
| Average age | 44 | 44 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 55.8% Female, 44.2% | Male, 69.5% Female, 30.5% |
| 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, 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 | 11% | 11% |