Test automation lead vs test manager

The differences between test automation leads and test managers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both a test automation lead and a test manager. Additionally, a test manager has an average salary of $92,297, which is higher than the $89,324 average annual salary of a test automation lead.

The top three skills for a test automation lead include java, scrum and jira. The most important skills for a test manager are QA, project management, and java.

Test automation lead vs test manager overview

	Test Automation Lead	Test Manager
Yearly salary	$89,324	$92,297
Hourly rate	$42.94	$44.37
Growth rate	-	-
Number of jobs	43,456	27,489
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 63%	Bachelor's Degree, 65%
Average age	44	44
Years of experience	4	4

Test automation lead vs test manager salary

Test automation leads and test managers have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Test Automation Lead	Test Manager
Average salary	$89,324	$92,297
Salary range	Between $69,000 And $115,000	Between $71,000 And $119,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	Washington	California
Best paying company	Citi	Meta
Best paying industry	Utilities	Automotive

Differences between test automation lead and test manager education

There are a few differences between a test automation lead and a test manager in terms of educational background:

	Test Automation Lead	Test Manager
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 63%	Bachelor's Degree, 65%
Most common major	Computer Science	Business
Most common college	University of Pennsylvania	Stanford University

Test automation lead vs test manager demographics

Here are the differences between test automation leads' and test managers' demographics:

	Test Automation Lead	Test Manager
Average age	44	44
Gender ratio	Male, 78.0% Female, 22.0%	Male, 71.7% Female, 28.3%
Race ratio	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%	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 Percentage	11%	11%

Differences between test automation lead and test manager duties and responsibilities

Test automation lead example responsibilities.

Enter the defects into JIRA and manages the resolution and documentation of these defects.
Perform inter-departmental audits documenting ISO compliant results with associate corrective action requests in order to achieve company-wide certification.
Used JIRA for creating and tracking defects.
Establish connection between automation scripts and PostgreSQL / DB2 to validate UI applications.
Involve in writing functional test cases in java language for every feature of product.
Coordinate communication between QA, development, BA's, UAT, and upper management throughout the entire QA cycle.

Test manager example responsibilities.

Lead test team in delivery of the NAS windows product within the project schedule.
Manage and implement a successful peer-base HIV counseling & testing program for gay/bisexual men.
Lead weekly integration testing status meetings with testing team, PMO, CIO, and CFO.
Manage execution of manual and automate test cases for functional, performance, load, integration, UAT and infrastructure testing.
Create XML billing input files for the expected products in UNIX environment.
Verify the requirements in JIRA and assign test cases to the team base on the release.

Test automation lead vs test manager skills

Common test automation lead skills

Java, 8%
Scrum, 5%
Jira, 5%
QA, 4%
Automation Framework, 4%
API, 4%

Common test manager skills

QA, 5%
Project Management, 5%
Java, 5%
Test Plan, 4%
UAT, 4%
Test Cases, 4%