We have all witnessed the consequences of quality failures. The explosion of NASA Shuttle Challenger, resulting in the death of all 7 astronauts. The BP Deepwater Horizon rig explosion, resulting in 4 million oil barrels leaking into the Mexican Gulf. Although quality assurance does not seem to be discussed in shareholder's meetings, it should remain at the forefront of how a company leads an operation.
The primary role of a quality assurance lead is to oversee the testing of a product or service to ensure adherence to industry and the organization's standards. They are involved in developing testing plans, creating risk mitigation strategies, and liaising with the product team in suggesting process improvements.
Different industries will require different degrees for a quality assurance lead. For example, working in a food production facility will require a science-related degree, whereas working to maintain the TikTok platform will require an IT degree. A quality assurance lead earns an average of $39 per hour and generally works 40 hours a week.
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a quality assurance lead. For example, did you know that they make an average of $40.01 an hour? That's $83,231 a year!
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a quality assurance lead, we found that a lot of resumes listed 26.9% of quality assurance leads included test scripts, while 8.6% of resumes included qa, and 6.1% of resumes included business process. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the quality assurance lead job title. But what industry to start with? Most quality assurance leads actually find jobs in the technology and finance industries.
If you're interested in becoming a quality assurance lead, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 49.7% of quality assurance leads have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 27.3% of quality assurance leads have master's degrees. Even though most quality assurance leads have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a quality assurance lead. When we researched the most common majors for a quality assurance lead, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on quality assurance lead resumes include associate degree degrees or high school diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a quality assurance lead. In fact, many quality assurance lead jobs require experience in a role such as quality assurance analyst. Meanwhile, many quality assurance leads also have previous career experience in roles such as test engineer or quality assurance engineer.