How to hire a senior quality assurance analyst

How to hire a senior quality assurance analyst, step by step

Here's a step-by-step senior quality assurance analyst hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a senior quality assurance analyst job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new senior quality assurance analyst
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a senior quality assurance analyst do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   First, determine the employments status of the senior quality assurance analyst you need to hire. Certain senior quality assurance analyst 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 senior quality assurance analyst's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, senior quality assurance analysts 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 senior quality assurance analyst salaries for various roles:

   Type of Senior Quality Assurance Analyst	Description	Hourly rate
   Senior Quality Assurance Analyst	Senior Quality Assurance Analysts analyze software programs to ensure high quality and eliminante programming problems. They plan, document, evaluate, and track testing results to keep software programs free from defects.	$35-56
   Test Analyst	The duties of a test analyst depend on one's line of work or industry of employment. In the information technology setting, a test analyst is responsible for testing computer software or hardware to ensure its quality before being released in the market... Show more	$26-42
   Business Analyst/Quality Analyst	A business analyst/quality analyst is responsible for evaluating business outputs and operational processes to ensure that everything adheres to the quality standards and business regulations. Business analysts/quality analysts support senior management in determining solutions to improve the company's services and provide the highest satisfaction for the customers and clients... Show more	$27-46

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • QA
   • Manual Test Cases
   • Regression
   • Test Scripts
   • Selenium Web
   • Java
   • Status Reports
   • Test Results
   • Jira
   • PL/SQL
   • Test Data
   • Scrum
   • UAT
   • Data Warehouse

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Manage daily scrum meetings, encourage team members attending and delivering effective status update.
   • Manage special projects requiring data integrity analysis and editing while tracking process in SharePoint.
   • Manage released versions of content using a dedicate SharePoint site to interact with development teams.
   • Manage release testing cycles for Java web-base sales rep/station order management system develop for the television advertising industry.
   • Follow scrum methodology which is an iterative and incremental agile software development framework for managing software projects and product.
   • Support portal client functional, regression, system, integration and UAT testing along with enhance web services and database changes.

   More senior quality assurance analyst duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your senior quality assurance analyst job description helps attract top candidates to the position. A senior quality assurance analyst salary can be affected by several factors, such as geography, experience, seniority, certifications, and the prestige of the hiring company.

   For example, the average salary for a senior quality assurance analyst in New Mexico may be lower than in California, and an entry-level senior quality assurance analyst usually earns less than a senior-level senior quality assurance analyst. Additionally, a senior quality assurance analyst with certifications may command a higher salary, and working for a well-known company or start-up may also impact an employee's pay.

   Average senior quality assurance analyst salary

   $93,563yearly

   $44.98 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level senior quality assurance analyst salary

   $74,000 yearly salary

   Updated January 19, 2026

   Average senior quality assurance analyst salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$116,183	$56
   2	Washington	$106,142	$51
   3	New Jersey	$102,692	$49
   4	New York	$102,395	$49
   5	District of Columbia	$100,374	$48
   6	Virginia	$97,021	$47
   7	Massachusetts	$96,577	$46
   8	Delaware	$96,027	$46
   9	Rhode Island	$95,813	$46
   10	Pennsylvania	$93,493	$45
   11	Illinois	$93,341	$45
   12	North Carolina	$93,169	$45
   13	Arizona	$92,964	$45
   14	Minnesota	$90,644	$44
   15	Texas	$90,498	$44
   16	Ohio	$89,391	$43
   17	Michigan	$89,167	$43
   18	Colorado	$88,271	$42
   19	Georgia	$87,930	$42
   20	Missouri	$87,157	$42

   Average senior quality assurance analyst salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Riot Games	$129,122	$62.08	1
   2	Pacific Investment Management Company LLC	$125,792	$60.48	3
   3	Starbucks	$122,002	$58.65	12
   4	Open Systems Technologies	$119,954	$57.67	3
   5	CME Group	$119,941	$57.66	3
   6	Barclays	$119,565	$57.48	3
   7	Instinet Incorporated	$118,941	$57.18
   8	Dotdash	$118,301	$56.88
   9	American Tower	$118,120	$56.79
   10	Cantaloupe	$116,479	$56.00
   11	Bed Bath & Beyond	$116,417	$55.97
   12	Koch Industries	$116,110	$55.82	5
   13	Epic Games	$114,976	$55.28	4
   14	The NPD Group	$114,880	$55.23
   15	NYISO	$113,691	$54.66
   16	Citi	$113,130	$54.39	26
   17	Thoughtworks	$112,894	$54.28
   18	Netflix	$112,598	$54.13
   19	Slalom	$112,081	$53.89	13
   20	R/GA	$111,286	$53.50

4. Writing a senior quality assurance analyst job description

   A senior quality assurance analyst job description should include a summary of the role, required skills, and a list of responsibilities. It's also good to include a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager. Below, you can find an example of a senior quality assurance analyst job description:

   Senior quality assurance analyst job description example

   Responsible for the planning, integration, test casing, scripting and execution of all testing to ensure proper coverage;Schedules and leads test deliverables review sessions as necessary;Work on multiple projects/systems as a project team member and are considered to be a subject matter expert for a single project/system. These projects are of moderate to high complexity within one or more development environments; Collaborate with the BSA and Development teams in the analysis and review of business objectives and requirements to ensure requirements are testable; Actively participate in the review of architectural and technical design specifications;Develop, document and maintain the test data, data validation, end to end testing flows.;Conducts testing using HNB manual and/or automated test processes and reports results;May run database queries in order to supply data validation within test scripts; Updates test cases based upon approved change requests;Works with BSAs and Development teams on defect analysis and triage; Assigns defect severity, and manages defects throughout the project;Works with colleagues and project managers to meet established target dates and completion of activities/deliverables under changing conditions;Creates test status reports per project guidelines;Creates test results and test summary deliverables to ensure production implementation readiness; Creates and facilitates review of the Test Strategy with the project team; Identifies any potential quality issues per defined processes and escalates potential quality issues immediately to management;Collects testing sign-off from all testing participants, including cross-impacted application teams;Ensures all aspects of testing, such as manual execution, regression, automation and performance testing, is completed; Collaborates with Project Test Lead on estimating the test efforts;Collaborates with the project team to support UAT efforts as needed; Maintains the regression test bed to meet changing requirements; Participates in off-hour production releases as needed;Supports the project's warranty period as needed;Works under moderate supervision with some latitude for independent judgement and problem solving;Provides mentorship to junior team members as needed; Understands and follows the project lifecycle methodology consistently.
   Basic Qualifications:
   Bachelor's degree.Minimum of 5 years of QA testing experience; 2 of those years being in an agile approach role
   
   #LI-Remote
   #LI-AB2
   
   Workplace Type:
   
   Compensation Range:
   
   The compensation range represents the low and high end of the base compensation range for this position. Actual compensation will vary and may be above or below the range based on various factors including but not limited to location, experience, and performance. Colleagues in this position are also eligible to participate in an applicable incentive compensation plan. In addition, Huntington provides a variety of benefits to colleagues, including health insurance coverage, wellness program, life and disability insurance, retirement savings plan, paid leave programs, paid holidays and paid time off (PTO).
   
   Huntington is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer and is committed to providing equal employment opportunities for all regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, gender identity and expression, genetic information, or any other basis protected by local, state, or federal law.
   
   Tobacco-Free Hiring Practice: Visit Huntington's Career Web Site for more details.
   
   Agency Statement: Huntington does not accept solicitation from Third Party Recruiters for any position

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   There are a few common ways to find senior quality assurance analysts 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 senior quality assurance analyst job on Zippia to find and recruit senior quality assurance analyst candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   During your first interview to recruit senior quality assurance analysts, engage with candidates to learn about their interest in the role and experience in the field. During the following interview, you'll be able to go into more detail about the company, the position, and the responsibilities.

   You should also ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match the ideal candidate profile you developed earlier. Candidates good enough for the next step can complete the technical interview.

   If your interviews with senior quality assurance analyst applicants aren't enough to make a decision, you should also consider including a test project. These are often the best, most straightforward, and least bias-prone ways of determining who will likely succeed in the role. If you 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 senior quality assurance analyst

   Once you've found the senior quality assurance analyst 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.

   Once that's done, you can draft an onboarding schedule for the new senior quality assurance analyst. Human Resources should complete Employee Action Forms and ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc. They should also ensure that new employee files are created for internal recordkeeping.

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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