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Software project leader vs software test engineer

The differences between software project leaders and software test 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 software project leader and a software test engineer. Additionally, a software project leader has an average salary of $109,474, which is higher than the $85,338 average annual salary of a software test engineer.

The top three skills for a software project leader include software development, project management and scrum. The most important skills for a software test engineer are python, java, and test automation.

Software project leader vs software test engineer overview

Software Project LeaderSoftware Test Engineer
Yearly salary$109,474$85,338
Hourly rate$52.63$41.03
Growth rate21%-
Number of jobs247,780243,382
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 71%Bachelor's Degree, 70%
Average age3944
Years of experience44

Software project leader vs software test engineer salary

Software project leaders and software test engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.

Software Project LeaderSoftware Test Engineer
Average salary$109,474$85,338
Salary rangeBetween $84,000 And $142,000Between $63,000 And $115,000
Highest paying CityCupertino, CASan Mateo, CA
Highest paying stateCaliforniaCalifornia
Best paying companyBoston Consulting GroupApple
Best paying industryManufacturingTelecommunication

Differences between software project leader and software test engineer education

There are a few differences between a software project leader and a software test engineer in terms of educational background:

Software Project LeaderSoftware Test Engineer
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 71%Bachelor's Degree, 70%
Most common majorComputer ScienceComputer Science
Most common collegeMassachusetts Institute of TechnologyCalifornia State University - Long Beach

Software project leader vs software test engineer demographics

Here are the differences between software project leaders' and software test engineers' demographics:

Software Project LeaderSoftware Test Engineer
Average age3944
Gender ratioMale, 75.1% Female, 24.9%Male, 68.6% Female, 31.4%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 4.6% Unknown, 4.9% Hispanic or Latino, 8.4% Asian, 29.8% White, 52.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%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 Percentage8%11%

Differences between software project leader and software test engineer duties and responsibilities

Software project leader example responsibilities.

  • Lead daily scrum meetings, organize and chair scrums with cross-functional teams to deliver the product goals and deliverables.
  • Maintain mature java-base web application design to automate highly detail engineering requests for the DoD.
  • Provide guidance and support to scrum team members, remove impediments and assist teams to maximize productivity.
  • Develop excellent debugging, analytical and programming skills.
  • Create the architecture framework for dynamically setting properties and property types for oracle using reflection.
  • Design enterprise software, including requirements analysis, software architecture, user interface, and database schema.
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Software test engineer example responsibilities.

  • Balance risk, regulatory impact and business needs to achieve efficient and effective solutions for QC process improvement.
  • Manage entire Linux virtual machine farm utilizing KVM and Virt-Manager
  • Manage test case defect management reporting utilizing JIRA and Bugzilla
  • Develop UI automation test infrastructure using python and selenium.
  • Design test scripts using Java and participate in automation code-reviews.
  • Involve in integrating the test suites to Jenkins to execute them automatically after every successful deployment.
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Software project leader vs software test engineer skills

Common software project leader skills
  • Software Development, 15%
  • Project Management, 9%
  • Scrum, 8%
  • C, 6%
  • C++, 6%
  • Java, 6%
Common software test engineer skills
  • Python, 9%
  • Java, 7%
  • Test Automation, 6%
  • C++, 6%
  • C #, 6%
  • Regression, 4%

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