How to hire a quality assurance specialist

How to hire a quality assurance specialist, step by step

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

What does a quality assurance specialist do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   First, determine the employments status of the quality assurance specialist you need to hire. Certain quality assurance specialist roles might require a full-time employee, whereas others can be done by part-time workers or contractors.

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

   Here's a comparison of quality assurance specialist salaries for various roles:

   Type of Quality Assurance Specialist	Description	Hourly rate
   Quality Assurance Specialist		$19-46
   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
   Quality Assurance Team Leader	A quality assurance (QA) team leader is a professional who is responsible for managing a team of engineers from the quality assurance department of an organization to participate in the overall QA planning and activities. QA team leaders are required to play the key role as a member of the project management team to ensure that the product exceeded user expectations... Show more	$36-60

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • GMP
   • Patients
   • FDA
   • CAPA
   • Corrective Action
   • CFR
   • Continuous Improvement
   • Quality Standards
   • ISO
   • Management System
   • QC
   • PowerPoint
   • Quality System
   • Excellent Organizational

   Check all skills

   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.

   More quality assurance specialist duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in the quality assurance specialist job description is a good way to get more applicants. A quality assurance specialist salary can be affected by several factors, such as the location of the job, the level of experience, education, certifications, and the employer's prestige.

   For example, the average salary for a quality assurance specialist in South Dakota may be lower than in Rhode Island, and an entry-level engineer typically earns less than a senior-level quality assurance specialist. Additionally, a quality assurance specialist with lots of experience in the field may command a higher salary as a result.

   Average quality assurance specialist salary

   $63,443yearly

   $30.50 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level quality assurance specialist salary

   $41,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 28, 2025

   Average quality assurance specialist salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$82,999	$40
   2	Maryland	$82,609	$40
   3	Massachusetts	$77,495	$37
   4	District of Columbia	$76,437	$37
   5	Virginia	$72,908	$35
   6	New York	$72,748	$35
   7	Pennsylvania	$72,724	$35
   8	Washington	$68,906	$33
   9	North Carolina	$64,701	$31
   10	New Mexico	$62,549	$30
   11	Texas	$61,866	$30
   12	Michigan	$61,704	$30
   13	Minnesota	$59,600	$29
   14	Ohio	$58,617	$28
   15	Arizona	$57,053	$27
   16	Illinois	$56,323	$27
   17	Wisconsin	$52,805	$25
   18	Florida	$52,698	$25
   19	Kentucky	$50,347	$24
   20	Colorado	$47,835	$23

   Average quality assurance specialist salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Apple	$114,319	$54.96	76
   2	Agilent Technologies	$107,833	$51.84	2
   3	Thomson Reuters	$106,617	$51.26	1
   4	Citi	$102,523	$49.29	6
   5	Five9	$102,326	$49.20
   6	Evonik	$101,869	$48.98	2
   7	Genentech	$101,647	$48.87	14
   8	First Republic Bank	$100,559	$48.35
   9	Psc Biotech	$100,336	$48.24	2
   10	FUJIFILM Medical Systems USA	$100,129	$48.14	26
   11	Bloomberg	$99,907	$48.03	3
   12	BNY Mellon	$98,375	$47.30	10
   13	Covanta	$97,736	$46.99
   14	AbbVie	$97,727	$46.98	43
   15	Western Alliance Bank	$97,615	$46.93	7
   16	CyberCoders	$97,343	$46.80
   17	ICU Medical	$97,333	$46.79	9
   18	Bristol-Myers Squibb	$97,217	$46.74	66
   19	Sagarsoft	$96,212	$46.26
   20	TD Bank	$96,126	$46.21	28

4. Writing a quality assurance specialist job description

   A good quality assurance specialist job description should include a few things:

   • Summary of the role
   • List of responsibilities
   • Required skills and experience

   Including a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager is also appreciated by candidates. Here's an example of a quality assurance specialist job description:

   Quality assurance specialist job description example

   **Looking for an Exciting Career Move? It is Waiting for You at BAE Systems!**
   
   **BAE Systems,** a **top-ten prime contractor** to the U.S. Department of Defense,enables the U.S. government to transform data into intelligence and provides engineering, integration and sustainment support for critical military platforms and systems. Intelligence & Security provides services and products to the Department of Defense, the intelligence community, federal law enforcement officials, and troops deployed around the world. We have more than 80 locations across the U.S. and in Afghanistan, Djibouti, Germany, Japan, Korea, Thailand and the United Kingdom.
   
   At **BAE Systems** , we promote a strong, collaborative culture and provide our employees with the tools, skills and training they need to succeed. We are all about trust, camaraderie and a shared ambition to lead the world in defense technologies and national security services. We offer flexible work environment to support the balance in your life and keep you performing at your best. Be a part of a company that is part of the community; driven to improve our future and protect our freedom.
   
   We are seeking to hire a **Quality Analyst** . The ideal candidate will be responsible for the QA program and processes. Review and provide feedback to the Government on the documents and deliverables ensuring that quality assurance requirements adhere to the best commercial practices and are in compliance with the applicable DoD/NSA standards. Establish and manage quality control standards to ensure professional, accurate, complete, and timely review and delivery of SE documentation.
   
   **Required Education, Experience, & Skills**
   
   Eight (8) years experience in conducting quality assurance of systems and software processes on contracts of similar scope, type, and complexity is required. Experience in government systems and software engineering evaluation, including formal and informal audits and technical reviews, is required.
   
   A Bachelor s degree may substitute for four (4) years of work experience.
   
   Shall also possess the following capabilities:
   
   + Define, review, propose and develop process improvements for the SE Document Review and Preparation process
   
   + Perform Data Quality analysis of deliverables and documents.
   
   + Establish and maintain a process for evaluating system and software to include associated documentation
   
   + Monitor the level of quality throughout the system and software life cycle.
   
   + Establish and manage quality control standards to ensure professional, accurate, complete, and timely review and delivery
   
   + Conduct formal and informal reviews at pre-determined points throughout the development life
   
   **Quality Assurance Specialist II**
   
   **77842BR**
   
   EEO Career Site Equal Opportunity Employer. Minorities . females . veterans . individuals with disabilities . sexual orientation . gender identity . gender expression

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   There are a few common ways to find quality assurance specialists 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.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your quality assurance specialist job on Zippia to find and recruit quality assurance specialist candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites such as dice, engineering.com, stack overflow, it job pro.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   To successfully recruit quality assurance specialists, 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.

   Remember to include a few questions that allow candidates to expand on their strengths in their own words. Asking about their unique skills might reveal things you'd miss otherwise. At this point, good candidates can move on to the technical interview.

   While interviews are great, you will only sometimes learn enough from a conversation with a quality assurance specialist applicant. In those cases, having candidates complete a test project can go a long way in figuring out who's the most likely to succeed in the role. If you aren't a technical person and don't know how to design an appropriate test, you can ask someone else on the team to create it or take a look at these websites to get a few ideas:

   • 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 specialist

   Once you've found the quality assurance specialist candidate you'd like to hire, it's time to write an offer letter. This should include an explicit job offer that includes the salary and the details of any other perks. Qualified candidates might be looking at multiple positions, so your offer must be competitive if you like the candidate. Also, be prepared for a negotiation stage, as candidates may way want to tweak the details of your initial offer. Once you've settled on these details, you can draft a contract to formalize your agreement.

   It's equally important to follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that the position has been filled.

   After that, you can create an onboarding schedule for a new quality assurance specialist. Human Resources and the hiring manager should complete Employee Action Forms. Human Resources should also ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc., and that new employee files are 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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How much does it cost to hire a quality assurance specialist?