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The differences between quality assurance team leaders and software testers 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 software tester. Additionally, a quality assurance team leader has an average salary of $97,476, which is higher than the $78,580 average annual salary of a software tester.
The top three skills for a quality assurance team leader include QA, regression and manual test cases. The most important skills for a software tester are test results, regression, and test scripts.
| Quality Assurance Team Leader | Software Tester | |
| Yearly salary | $97,476 | $78,580 |
| Hourly rate | $46.86 | $37.78 |
| Growth rate | - | - |
| Number of jobs | 131,886 | 208,853 |
| Job satisfaction | - | 5 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 64% | Bachelor's Degree, 68% |
| 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.
The responsibility of software testers involves the quality assurance of software development and deployment. Software testers conduct manual and automated tests to make sure that the software is developed for its purpose. They remove the issues and bugs within a product before deployment to users. Their responsibilities include software and systems analysis, risk mitigation, and software-related issue prevention. They should have skills in automation, programming, social networking, logical thinking, and mobile and web technology.
Quality assurance team leaders and software testers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Quality Assurance Team Leader | Software Tester | |
| Average salary | $97,476 | $78,580 |
| Salary range | Between $75,000 And $126,000 | Between $61,000 And $100,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | Sunnyvale, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | New Hampshire |
| Best paying company | Netflix | Nordstrom |
| Best paying industry | Automotive | Technology |
There are a few differences between a quality assurance team leader and a software tester in terms of educational background:
| Quality Assurance Team Leader | Software Tester | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 64% | Bachelor's Degree, 68% |
| 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 software testers' demographics:
| Quality Assurance Team Leader | Software Tester | |
| Average age | 44 | 44 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 58.1% Female, 41.9% | Male, 62.1% Female, 37.9% |
| 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% |