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Senior software tester vs software quality engineer

The differences between senior software testers and software quality 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 senior software tester and a software quality engineer. Additionally, a software quality engineer has an average salary of $99,902, which is higher than the $88,967 average annual salary of a senior software tester.

The top three skills for a senior software tester include java, test scripts and regression. The most important skills for a software quality engineer are software quality, java, and python.

Senior software tester vs software quality engineer overview

Senior Software TesterSoftware Quality Engineer
Yearly salary$88,967$99,902
Hourly rate$42.77$48.03
Growth rate--
Number of jobs197,882279,437
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 65%Bachelor's Degree, 69%
Average age4444
Years of experience44

Senior software tester vs software quality engineer salary

Senior software testers and software quality engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.

Senior Software TesterSoftware Quality Engineer
Average salary$88,967$99,902
Salary rangeBetween $68,000 And $115,000Between $73,000 And $136,000
Highest paying CityCupertino, CASan Francisco, CA
Highest paying stateCaliforniaCalifornia
Best paying companyLinkedInApple
Best paying industryTechnologyTechnology

Differences between senior software tester and software quality engineer education

There are a few differences between a senior software tester and a software quality engineer in terms of educational background:

Senior Software TesterSoftware Quality Engineer
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 65%Bachelor's Degree, 69%
Most common majorComputer ScienceComputer Science
Most common collegeMassachusetts Institute of TechnologyMassachusetts Institute of Technology

Senior software tester vs software quality engineer demographics

Here are the differences between senior software testers' and software quality engineers' demographics:

Senior Software TesterSoftware Quality Engineer
Average age4444
Gender ratioMale, 48.6% Female, 51.4%Male, 67.3% Female, 32.7%
Race ratioBlack 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 Percentage11%11%

Differences between senior software tester and software quality engineer duties and responsibilities

Senior software tester example responsibilities.

  • Work in an agile scrum methodology where requirements are broken down to user stories.
  • Create test cases and test steps for each user stories assign for testing in JIRA.
  • Perform unit and system tests on UNIX platform of CAS.
  • Verify that eXLC process is actively utilize throughout the SDLC process.
  • Report, document and followed-up on the change requests using the defect-tracking tool JIRA.
  • Help UAT testing team during critical functionality testing for fare quotes, pricing discount and ticketing.
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Software quality engineer example responsibilities.

  • Manage logging issues, defects in JIRA and provide status reports to the management in status meetings and weekly status report.
  • Work with scrum master and developer leads to optimize resource allocation for accelerating user story delivery process.
  • Perform backend testing and write SQL queries for the validation purpose.
  • Perform test for functionality, GUI, end-to-end, system, configuration and backend utilizing web server.
  • Install, remove, configure, and maintain UNIX, LINUX, AIX operating system software on servers.
  • Create, edit and maintain functional regression test script for Java portal systems and successfully execute manually.
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Senior software tester vs software quality engineer skills

Common senior software tester skills
  • Java, 12%
  • Test Scripts, 5%
  • Regression, 5%
  • Test Results, 5%
  • QA, 5%
  • Apache Tomcat, 5%
Common software quality engineer skills
  • Software Quality, 7%
  • Java, 7%
  • Python, 6%
  • Software Development, 6%
  • Test Cases, 5%
  • C++, 5%

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