Quality assurance technician vs quality associate

The differences between quality assurance technicians and quality associates can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a quality associate has an average salary of $50,300, which is higher than the $40,027 average annual salary of a quality assurance technician.

The top three skills for a quality assurance technician include food safety, GMP and lab equipment. The most important skills for a quality associate are patients, QA, and quality system.

Quality assurance technician vs quality associate overview

	Quality Assurance Technician	Quality Associate
Yearly salary	$40,027	$50,300
Hourly rate	$19.24	$24.18
Growth rate	3%	3%
Number of jobs	81,534	60,168
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 52%	Bachelor's Degree, 62%
Average age	45	38
Years of experience	4	-

What does a quality assurance technician do?

Quality assurance is an essential part of a company that offers products and services. It is critical that the company's output remains consistent and up to par with community standards. It is the assistant quality assurance manager's role to inspect, monitor, and evaluate the quality of every product. The goal is to establish customer satisfaction and trust. The assistant quality assurance manager works with the head manager and helps generate reports of daily activities for executive evaluations.

What does a quality associate do?

A quality associate is responsible for ensuring that a new product meets standards for usage and operating. You will perform various tasks that include assisting in identifying quality problems and improving operational processes, writing, disseminating, and maintaining quality documentation and manuals, and verifying logs and databases to monitor and flag quality issues and improvements. In addition, you are responsible for supporting document control and quality audits, reviewing reports and validation protocols, and investigating and diagnosing quality complaints.

Quality assurance technician vs quality associate salary

Quality assurance technicians and quality associates have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Quality Assurance Technician	Quality Associate
Average salary	$40,027	$50,300
Salary range	Between $26,000 And $60,000	Between $31,000 And $80,000
Highest paying City	Baltimore, MD	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	Hawaii	Connecticut
Best paying company	SMTC	JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Best paying industry	Technology	Health Care

Differences between quality assurance technician and quality associate education

There are a few differences between a quality assurance technician and a quality associate in terms of educational background:

	Quality Assurance Technician	Quality Associate
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 52%	Bachelor's Degree, 62%
Most common major	Biology	Biology
Most common college	Purdue University	Stanford University

Quality assurance technician vs quality associate demographics

Here are the differences between quality assurance technicians' and quality associates' demographics:

	Quality Assurance Technician	Quality Associate
Average age	45	38
Gender ratio	Male, 57.6% Female, 42.4%	Male, 44.8% Female, 55.2%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 9.5% Unknown, 4.9% Hispanic or Latino, 16.8% Asian, 8.2% White, 59.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%	Black or African American, 9.4% Unknown, 6.2% Hispanic or Latino, 16.7% Asian, 11.6% White, 55.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.1%
LGBT Percentage	6%	8%

Differences between quality assurance technician and quality associate duties and responsibilities

Quality assurance technician example responsibilities.

Track and manage CAPA's.
Train test personnel and manage QC test technicians in a fast pace environment.
Train newly hire technicians and used strong math and computing skill for data entry and records.
Approve NCR investigations and CAPA records.
Assist math, reading and other product teams with testing and reporting of any issues find during new product development.
Perform quality control experiments such as HPLC favor testing for the company's main ingredient produce within their leading product.

Quality associate example responsibilities.

Manage document control including initiating and revising procedures, QA approval and implementation of documents.
Participate in all regulatory, corporate and internal audit activities to include FDA, DEA, OSHA and ISO.
Create slideshow for meeting with PowerPoint.
Maintain all quality documents including PPAP, FMEA, etc.
Provide management with update PowerPoint graphs monthly, quarterly and yearly.
Chart review for compliance for local policies, TJC and CMS.

Quality assurance technician vs quality associate skills

Common quality assurance technician skills

Food Safety, 9%
GMP, 7%
Lab Equipment, 5%
Quality Products, 4%
Quality Standards, 4%
HACCP, 4%

Common quality associate skills

Patients, 10%
QA, 5%
Quality System, 5%
Quality Specifications, 5%
Product Quality, 4%
Customer Service, 4%

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Quality Assurance Technician vs Quality Associate

Updated January 8, 2025

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