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The differences between senior quality specialists and quality associates can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a senior quality specialists has an average salary of $90,969, which is higher than the $50,300 average annual salary of a quality associate.
The top three skills for a senior quality specialists include continuous improvement, quality standards and data collection. The most important skills for a quality associate are patients, QA, and quality system.
| Senior Quality Specialists | Quality Associate | |
| Yearly salary | $90,969 | $50,300 |
| Hourly rate | $43.74 | $24.18 |
| Growth rate | 10% | 3% |
| Number of jobs | 58,771 | 60,168 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 61% | Bachelor's Degree, 62% |
| Average age | 42 | 38 |
| Years of experience | 4 | - |
Senior quality specialists are in charge of overseeing and optimizing quality control procedures, ensuring smooth workflow and efficiency. They typically perform research and analysis to identify the best manufacturing practices, identify the strengths and weaknesses of existing processes, providing solutions on vulnerable areas, and coordinating different teams to optimize operations. Furthermore, as senior quality specialists, it is essential to lead and serve as a mentor to junior specialists, all while implementing the company's policies and regulations, including its vision and mission.
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.
Senior quality specialists and quality associates have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Senior Quality Specialists | Quality Associate | |
| Average salary | $90,969 | $50,300 |
| Salary range | Between $70,000 And $117,000 | Between $31,000 And $80,000 |
| Highest paying City | Palo Alto, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | Washington | Connecticut |
| Best paying company | SAP | JPMorgan Chase & Co. |
| Best paying industry | Pharmaceutical | Health Care |
There are a few differences between a senior quality specialists and a quality associate in terms of educational background:
| Senior Quality Specialists | Quality Associate | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 61% | Bachelor's Degree, 62% |
| Most common major | Business | Biology |
| Most common college | New York University | Stanford University |
Here are the differences between senior quality specialists' and quality associates' demographics:
| Senior Quality Specialists | Quality Associate | |
| Average age | 42 | 38 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 50.1% Female, 49.9% | Male, 44.8% Female, 55.2% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 4.7% Unknown, 3.9% Hispanic or Latino, 11.6% Asian, 10.0% White, 69.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% | 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 | 4% | 8% |