Quality assurance specialist vs quality assurance consultant

The differences between quality assurance specialists and quality assurance consultants 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 specialist and a quality assurance consultant. Additionally, a quality assurance consultant has an average salary of $86,486, which is higher than the $63,443 average annual salary of a quality assurance specialist.

The top three skills for a quality assurance specialist include GMP, patients and FDA. The most important skills for a quality assurance consultant are QA, manual test cases, and regression.

Quality assurance specialist vs quality assurance consultant overview

	Quality Assurance Specialist	Quality Assurance Consultant
Yearly salary	$63,443	$86,486
Hourly rate	$30.50	$41.58
Growth rate	6%	-
Number of jobs	83,505	91,395
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 58%	Bachelor's Degree, 63%
Average age	44	44
Years of experience	4	4

What does a quality assurance specialist do?

A quality assurance specialist is an individual who is responsible for monitoring, inspecting, and proposing measures to correct and improve a company's product. Quality assurance specialists need to outline quality assurance policies and procedures, making sure that quality standards are assured. It is important that a quality assurance specialist should have strong attention to detail and is excellent in data collection. This work may require a minimum of bachelor's degree and certification to get certified.

What does a quality assurance consultant do?

A quality assurance consultant specializes in recommending and optimizing quality-control procedures ensuring efficiency and smooth workflow. They typically conduct research and analysis to identify the strengths and weaknesses of current quality control operations, implement solutions on problem areas, review policies and regulations, and coordinate with other staff to gather necessary data, analyzing them to find new opportunities for improvement. Furthermore, as a quality assurance consultant, it is essential to recommend solutions in adherence to the company's policies and regulations, including its mission and vision.

Quality assurance specialist vs quality assurance consultant salary

Quality assurance specialists and quality assurance consultants have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Quality Assurance Specialist	Quality Assurance Consultant
Average salary	$63,443	$86,486
Salary range	Between $41,000 And $97,000	Between $67,000 And $110,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	Redwood City, CA
Highest paying state	Rhode Island	New Hampshire
Best paying company	Apple	Southern California Edison
Best paying industry	Pharmaceutical	Finance

Differences between quality assurance specialist and quality assurance consultant education

There are a few differences between a quality assurance specialist and a quality assurance consultant in terms of educational background:

	Quality Assurance Specialist	Quality Assurance Consultant
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 58%	Bachelor's Degree, 63%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	Stanford University	Stanford University

Quality assurance specialist vs quality assurance consultant demographics

Here are the differences between quality assurance specialists' and quality assurance consultants' demographics:

	Quality Assurance Specialist	Quality Assurance Consultant
Average age	44	44
Gender ratio	Male, 42.8% Female, 57.2%	Male, 57.9% Female, 42.1%
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%

Differences between quality assurance specialist and quality assurance consultant duties and responsibilities

Quality assurance specialist example 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.

Quality assurance consultant example responsibilities.

Build management within TFS and deployment with a globalize development team in a manage system.
Manage QC oversight for multiple contract manufacturers.
Develop UAT strategy identify numerous show stopper defects and manage corrective actions for each defect.
Perform performance and stress tests using Jmeter.
Aid in optimization of website architecture / UI UX
Test the application using TalkBack on android devices.

Quality assurance specialist vs quality assurance consultant skills

Common quality assurance specialist skills

GMP, 6%
Patients, 5%
FDA, 5%
CAPA, 4%
Corrective Action, 4%
CFR, 4%

Common quality assurance consultant skills

QA, 10%
Manual Test Cases, 5%
Regression, 5%
SQL Server, 5%
Test Scripts, 4%
Selenium Webdriver, 4%

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Quality Assurance Specialist vs Quality Assurance Consultant

Updated January 8, 2025

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