Quality Assurance Analyst
Impact: Quality assurance, Risk mitigation, Customer satisfaction
Ensures the quality of software, products, and systems by developing and implementing testing plans, creating test cases and scripts, documenting findings, and tracking resolutions. Focuses on preventing defects and ensuring products meet functional requirements and industry standards.
What the day looks like
- People interaction
- Moderate
- Team vs solo
- Team-oriented
- Client facing
- Sometimes
- Impact visibility
- High
- Travel
- Minimal
- Schedule flexibility
- Moderate
- Remote work
- Hybrid
- Typical work hours
- 40 hours/week
- Stress level
- Moderate
At a glance
- Median salary
- $84,483
- Entry-level
- $42,000 - $65,000
- Senior
- $120,000 - $175,000
- Growth by 2033
- 15% (much faster than average)
- Demand
- Growing Fast
- Freelance potential
- Moderate
- Salary growth potential
- High
- Typical student debt
- $20,000 - $40,000
Skills you'll use
Hard skills
- Software testing
- Test case creation
- Programming
- Quality control
- Data analysis
Soft skills
- Detail orientation
- Problem-solving
- Communication
- Collaboration
Technical complexity: High
How to get there
- Minimum education
- Bachelor's Degree
- Licensing
- No
- Years to mid-career
- 5
- Years to senior
- 10
- Career switching
- Moderate
Where this career leads
How people arrive here
Where you can go from here
Typical progression
- Quality Engineer, QA Manager, Project Manager, DevOps Engineer
Future outlook
- Automation probability
- 15% - low risk due to relationship and judgment components
- AI disruption risk
- Low
- Demand trend
- Growing Fast
How people feel about it
- Overall satisfaction
- 3.5/10
- Meaning
- 3.8/10
- Work-life balance
- 3.2/10
- Prestige
- 6.5/10
- Social perception
- High