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The differences between quality assurance team leaders 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 team leader and a quality assurance engineer. Additionally, a quality assurance team leader has an average salary of $97,476, which is higher than the $82,215 average annual salary of a quality assurance engineer.
The top three skills for a quality assurance team leader include QA, regression and manual test cases. The most important skills for a quality assurance engineer are java, python, and regression.
| Quality Assurance Team Leader | Quality Assurance Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $97,476 | $82,215 |
| Hourly rate | $46.86 | $39.53 |
| Growth rate | - | - |
| Number of jobs | 131,886 | 243,536 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 64% | Bachelor's Degree, 71% |
| Average age | 44 | 44 |
| Years of experience | 4 | 4 |
A quality assurance (QA) team leader is an individual 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. They must develop and implement QA processes and supervise daily QA activities to maximize quality and productivity. QA team leaders must also prepare and report audited results to the organization's site senior management.
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 assurance team leaders and quality assurance engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Quality Assurance Team Leader | Quality Assurance Engineer | |
| Average salary | $97,476 | $82,215 |
| Salary range | Between $75,000 And $126,000 | Between $61,000 And $109,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | San Mateo, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | California |
| Best paying company | Netflix | The Citadel |
| Best paying industry | Automotive | Technology |
There are a few differences between a quality assurance team leader and a quality assurance engineer in terms of educational background:
| Quality Assurance Team Leader | Quality Assurance Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 64% | Bachelor's Degree, 71% |
| Most common major | Computer Science | Computer Science |
| Most common college | Stanford University | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Here are the differences between quality assurance team leaders' and quality assurance engineers' demographics:
| Quality Assurance Team Leader | Quality Assurance Engineer | |
| Average age | 44 | 44 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 58.1% Female, 41.9% | 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% |