Software QA Engineer / Tester
What Does a Professional in this Career Do?
A Software QA Engineer or Tester designs and runs in-depth diagnostic tests to evaluate software and check for problems before new products are marketed. Pilots software and applies tests to check for errors and glitches.
Job Outlook
There were 1447 Software QA Engineer / Tester job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 39738 in the United States.
In combination with other careers in the Software QA Engineer / Tester industry, which includes the Software QA Engineer / Tester career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2016:
Salary
Many new Software QA Engineer / Tester jobs have salaries estimated to be in the following ranges, based on the requirements and responsibilities listed in job postings from the past year.
National
The average estimated salary in the United States for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $113,567.
State
The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $109,020.
Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Software QA Engineer / Tester postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $98,152.
Education and Experience
Posted Software QA Engineer / Tester jobs typically require the following level of education. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list education requirements.
| Education Level | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Associate's Degree | 0% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 57.04% |
| Master's Degree | 13.75% |
| Doctoral Degree | 2.33% |
| Other | 3.22% |
Posted Software QA Engineer / Tester jobs typically require the following number of years of experience. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.
| Years of Experience | Percentage |
|---|---|
| 0 to 2 years | 15.7% |
| 3 to 5 years | 50.71% |
| 6 to 8 years | 22.54% |
| 9+ years | 11.06% |
Skills
Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Software QA Engineer / Tester positions expect applicants to have as well as the most common skills that distinguish individuals from their peers. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is also listed.
Baseline Skills
A skill that is required across a broad range of occupations, including this one.
- Safety Assurance (39.69%)
- Communication (38.86%)
- Quality Assurance (28.32%)
- Problem Solving (25.63%)
- Management (24.04%)
- Troubleshooting (Problem Solving) (20.39%)
- Detail Oriented (14.83%)
- Planning (13.21%)
- Leadership (12.9%)
- Operations (11.47%)
Defining Skills
A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.
- Test Tools (10.37%)
- Cucumber (Software) (10.4%)
- Agile Methodology (39.07%)
- Software Testing (27.3%)
- Java (Programming Language) (28.44%)
- Automation (64.68%)
- Test Automation (59.66%)
- JIRA (23.14%)
- Functional Testing (9.26%)
- Computer Science (36.92%)
- Code Coverage (9.2%)
- Python (Programming Language) (33.44%)
- Selenium (Software) (29.72%)
- Manual Testing (8.9%)
- Software Quality (SQA/SQC) (17.81%)
- Performance Testing (13.43%)
- Test Planning (42.39%)
- Regression Testing (17.15%)
- Test Engineering (21.52%)
- Scenario Testing (8.8%)
- Test Execution Engine (9.97%)
- Test Case (8.81%)
- Postman API Platform (10.11%)
- API Testing (10.43%)
Necessary Skills
A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.
- Workflow Management (7.45%)
- Git (Version Control System) (13.22%)
- Azure DevOps (6.55%)
- Acceptance Testing (6.8%)
- Continuous Improvement Process (8.19%)
- Systems Engineering (10.25%)
- JavaScript (Programming Language) (16.12%)
- Application Programming Interface (API) (19.74%)
- Software Development (20.23%)
- Business Requirements (6.75%)
- Amazon Web Services (10.01%)
- C# (Programming Language) (11.36%)
- Microsoft Azure (7.04%)
- Version Control (9.34%)
- Continuous Integration (11.78%)
- C++ (Programming Language) (8.61%)
- Software Development Life Cycle (12.02%)
- Computer Engineering (7.48%)
- Integration Testing (8.34%)
- DevOps (11.38%)
- Debugging (17.64%)
- Linux (10.06%)
- Operating Systems (5.44%)
- Systems Development Life Cycle (11.03%)
- Scalability (8.56%)
- RESTful API (6.65%)
- SQL (Programming Language) (23.83%)
- System Testing (10.92%)
- Project Management (11.79%)
- CI/CD (21.32%)
- User Story (6.85%)
- Scripting (18.08%)
- Scrum (Software Development) (17.84%)
- Software Engineering (15.12%)
- Web Services (7.16%)
- Test Data (10.91%)
- Jenkins (16.33%)
- Programming Languages (8.03%)
Distinguishing Skills
A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.
- Gherkin (Scripting Language) (2.35%)
- REST Assured (5.65%)
- Selenium Webdriver (4.84%)
- Behavior-Driven Development (6.9%)
- Bug Tracking And Management (4.51%)
- Exploratory Testing (1.9%)
- Apache JMeter (9.27%)
- Defect Tracking (4.94%)
- Load Testing (3.98%)
- Test Design (3.12%)
- HP Loadrunner (4.68%)
- SoapUI (5.2%)
- Junit (6.19%)
- Test Management (3.91%)
- Robot Framework (1.12%)
- Test Management Tools (4.51%)
- Test Strategy (7.29%)
- Test Probe (2.49%)
- Appium (7.04%)
- TestNG (7.23%)
- Playwright (Software Testing) (4.3%)
Salary Boosting Skills
A professional who wishes to excel in this career path may consider developing the following highly valued skills. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is listed.
- Java (Programming Language) (41.76%)
- Computer Science (54.22%)
- Python (Programming Language) (49.11%)
- Test Design (4.58%)
- Test Strategy (10.71%)
Alternative Job Titles
Sometimes employers post jobs with Software QA Engineer / Tester skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:
- Test Engineer
- Software Test Engineer
- Test Automation Engineer
- Software Development Engineer in Test
- Quality Assurance Engineer
- Quality Assurance Automation Engineer
- Automation Tester
- Software Quality Assurance Consultant
- Software Tester
- Quality Assurance Analyst
Similar Occupations
If you are interested in exploring occupations with similar skills, you may want to research the following job titles. Note that we only list occupations that have at least one corresponding NC State Online and Distance Education program.
- Automation Engineer
- Software Developer / Engineer
- Application Developer / Engineer
- Process Quality Engineer
Common Employers
Here are the employers that have posted the most Software QA Engineer / Tester jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.
United States
- Apple (708)
- Cognizant Technology Solutions (519)
- Eliassen Group (478)
- Insight Global (441)
- Actalent (420)
- Randstad (400)
- Concentrix (348)
- GovCIO (325)
- Kforce (323)
- Infosys (310)
North Carolina
- Genesis10 (61)
- Cognizant Technology Solutions (49)
- Infosys (42)
- Randstad (31)
- First Citizens Bank (28)
- Actalent (27)
- Epic Games (24)
- Kforce (22)
- Insight Global (21)
- Truist Financial (18)
NC State Programs Relevant to this Career
If you are interested in preparing for a career in this field, the following NC State Online and Distance Education programs offer a great place to start!
All wages, job posting statistics, employment trend projections, and information about skill desirability on this page represents historical data and does not guarantee future conditions. Data is provided by and downloaded regularly from Lightcast. For more information about how Lightcast gathers data and what it represents, see Lightcast Data: Basic Overview on Lightcast's Knowledge Base website.