2027 Salary Guide · Technology
Software quality assurance analysts and testers, the BLS occupation that includes QA engineers, earned a median of $104,300 in May 2025, or $50.14 an hour. That projects to about $111,000 for 2027. Unlike many tech titles, this one has a direct BLS match, and the biggest pay split within it is between manual testing and engineers who write automated test frameworks.
Title check
O*NET lists "Quality Engineer" as a reported title for software QA, and manufacturers use the same title for a different job. Check which one a posting means before comparing pay.
Tests software, writes automated tests and reports defects to developers. BLS: Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers, median $104,300.
Controls the quality of physical products and production processes. BLS reports these engineers under Industrial Engineers, median $102,440.
Software postings mention test automation tools, bug trackers and CI pipelines. Manufacturing postings mention inspection, ISO quality systems, root-cause methods and production lines.
Local pay
The San Francisco Bay Area ($134,630) and New York ($130,540) lead, with Baltimore and Seattle close behind near $130,000. Charlotte has the lowest median in our table, $81,990, even though it has about 3,900 QA jobs, more than many higher-paying metros. New York is the largest market, with about 11,460.
| Metro area | Median | 10th – 90th | Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|
| San Francisco Bay Area | $134,630 +29% | $75,100 – $205,990 | 5,880 |
| New York City | $130,540 +25% | $75,490 – $181,330 | 11,460 |
| Baltimore | $129,880 +25% | $80,350 – $169,930 | 2,670 |
| Seattle | $129,690 +24% | $74,880 – $210,190 | 6,650 |
| Washington, DC | $126,350 +21% | $81,360 – $175,240 | 8,460 |
| Denver | $123,690 +19% | $80,590 – $169,990 | 3,620 |
| Boston | $122,210 +17% | $68,050 – $168,030 | 6,050 |
| Los Angeles | $122,210 +17% | $60,660 – $170,880 | 7,200 |
| San Diego | $120,210 +15% | $62,380 – $169,350 | 2,280 |
| Raleigh | $110,800 +6% | $65,970 – $170,750 | 1,760 |
| Metro area | Median | 10th – 90th | Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portland | $109,760 +5% | $56,760 – $195,910 | 1,550 |
| Atlanta | $105,800 +1% | $70,400 – $151,960 | 5,270 |
| Chicago | $105,580 +1% | $67,010 – $152,900 | 5,010 |
| Dallas-Fort Worth | $103,210 -1% | $61,090 – $154,010 | 8,840 |
| Austin | $103,070 -1% | $59,900 – $162,320 | 3,340 |
| Providence | $102,750 -1% | $78,870 – $153,280 | 440 |
| Philadelphia | $102,740 -1% | $63,240 – $144,470 | 2,650 |
| Detroit | $102,390 -2% | $64,880 – $137,600 | 2,140 |
| Minneapolis-St. Paul | $102,130 -2% | $66,370 – $138,570 | 2,190 |
| Buffalo | $101,880 -2% | $54,990 – $160,980 | 340 |
| Phoenix | $100,740 -3% | $63,630 – $143,000 | 3,160 |
| Albany | $100,690 -3% | $64,140 – $136,490 | 430 |
| Miami | $100,050 -4% | $54,410 – $150,390 | 1,960 |
| Tampa | $98,870 -5% | $60,010 – $153,150 | 1,930 |
| Houston | $98,690 -5% | $51,800 – $147,360 | 2,420 |
| Hartford | $96,160 -8% | $45,950 – $159,210 | 510 |
| Nashville | $95,280 -9% | $65,450 – $126,790 | — |
| Pittsburgh | $82,900 -21% | $56,140 – $125,390 | 830 |
| Charlotte | $81,990 -21% | $64,990 – $133,940 | 3,900 |
BLS metro estimates, May 2025. Percent compares the metro median with the national median. "Jobs" is BLS estimated employment in the metro; blank where BLS does not publish it.
For job seekers
The same QA engineer title can describe a manual tester or a developer who writes test frameworks. These details usually tell you which.
Postings that require Java, Python, JavaScript or C# for test code are automation roles.
Building and maintaining a test framework is engineering work; executing test cases in a test management tool is manual testing.
If your tests gate releases automatically, you are closer to DevOps and SDET work, which sits higher in the range.
Load, performance and security testing are specialties that fewer QA candidates have.
Pay distribution
This is a direct match: BLS Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers. Manual testing roles cluster in the lower half; automation engineers and SDETs make up most of the upper half, and the top tenth earns more than $167,010.
Typical for the QA Engineer title: $80,310 to $133,180 (25th to 75th percentile of Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers)
| Percentile | BLS, May 2025 | 2027 planning estimate |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $61,440 | $65,500 |
| 25th percentile | $80,310 | $85,500 |
| Median | $104,300 | $111,000 |
| 75th percentile | $133,180 | $141,500 |
| 90th percentile | $167,010 | $177,500 |
Career ladder
BLS does not split testers by type or seniority. These levels map common QA career stages onto the BLS percentiles as a planning guide.
About $61,440 to $80,310 (10th to 25th percentile)
Writes and runs test cases, logs defects and checks fixes. O*NET found 26% of respondents said an associate's degree is enough for new hires, so this is an accessible entry point.
About $80,310 to $133,180 (25th to 75th percentile)
Builds automated tests for the user interface and APIs, and maintains the test suite as the product changes.
About $133,180 to $167,010+ (75th to 90th percentile)
Designs the test architecture, owns quality gates in the release pipeline, or leads a QA team. Many SDETs later move into software development roles.
Outlook
BLS projects faster than average growth for software QA analysts and testers, 5% to 6% from 2025 to 2035, with about 10,700 openings a year in an occupation of about 187,600 people.
BLS Employment Projections via O*NET OnLine. Projections cover Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers as a whole.
Compare
Software engineers and DevOps engineers have a higher BLS median, which is why moving from QA automation into development is a common pay step. Manufacturing quality engineers are reported under Industrial Engineers and earn close to the QA median, despite doing very different work.
| Role | BLS median | 2027 estimate | Outlook |
|---|---|---|---|
| QA Engineer | $104,300 | $111,000 | Faster than average |
| Software Engineer | $135,980 | $144,500 | Much faster than average |
| DevOps Engineer | $135,980 | $144,500 | Much faster than average |
| Quality Engineer | $102,440 | $109,000 | Much faster than average |
| Business Analyst | $105,850 | $112,500 | Much faster than average |
FAQ
BLS reports QA engineers within Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers, whose median was $104,300 in May 2025. The middle half earned $80,310 to $133,180. Projected two years forward at 3.1% a year, the 2027 planning median is about $111,000.
The BLS median of $104,300 a year works out to $50.14 an hour. Dividing the 10th and 90th percentiles by 2,080 hours gives about $29.54 to $80.29 an hour. Contract QA roles are often quoted hourly, and contract rates usually build in the cost of benefits.
BLS does not separate them, but automation roles require programming skills and usually sit in the middle and upper parts of the range, roughly $80,310 to $133,180 and above. Manual testing roles more often sit in the lower half. Moving from manual to automated testing is one of the most common ways QA professionals raise their pay.
An SDET (software development engineer in test) writes test frameworks and tooling. BLS reports SDETs with other QA analysts and testers, and this guide places them around the 75th to 90th percentile, $133,180 to $167,010, because the role overlaps with software development.
Not always; it depends on whether the job tests software or physical products. In software, the titles are often interchangeable. In manufacturing, a quality engineer manages product and process quality, a job BLS reports under Industrial Engineers, with a May 2025 median of $102,440. Software QA engineers are reported separately, with a median of $104,300. Check whether a posting mentions code and test automation or production lines and inspection.
Careerscape's technology recruiters screen QA candidates for manual, automation and SDET work, on contract, contract-to-hire or direct hire.
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