QA Engineer Salary in 2026: What 200+ Job Posts Actually Pay
Based on 1,183 open QA and software testing jobs tracked by QA Job Board on November 5, 2026. 203 of them published a salary.
Salary surveys ask people what they earn. Job posts tell you what companies are willing to pay right now. We looked at every open QA, SDET and software testing job on QA Job Board that included a pay range, converted it to an annual USD figure and grouped it by role and seniority.
The short answer
The median advertised salary for a QA role is $110,000 per year. The middle half of jobs pay between $82,000 and $135,000.
Keep two things in mind when you read these numbers:
- Only 17% of QA job posts show a salary. Most of those come from US companies and US-wide remote roles, where pay transparency laws require it. That pulls the numbers up.
- All figures are converted to USD per year using approximate exchange rates. Hourly and monthly rates are annualised.
QA salary by seniority
| Level | Lower range (25th pct.) | Median | Upper range (75th pct.) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Junior | $70,000 | $85,000 | $98,000 |
| Mid-level | $72,000 | $100,000 | $114,000 |
| Senior | $99,000 | $119,000 | $135,000 |
| Lead / Manager | $110,000 | $139,000 | $158,000 |
The biggest jump comes when you move from mid-level to senior: about $19,000 at the median. Moving into a lead or manager role adds another $20,000.
QA salary by role
| Role | Median salary | Middle 50% range |
|---|---|---|
| Test Manager | $162,000 | $155,000 β $176,000 |
| Senior QA Engineer | $125,000 | $115,000 β $145,000 |
| Test Engineer | $117,000 | $99,000 β $125,000 |
| QA Automation Engineer | $108,000 | $88,000 β $115,000 |
| QA Engineer | $100,000 | $73,000 β $120,000 |
| SDET | $100,000 | $82,000 β $185,000 |
| QA Analyst | $75,000 | $65,000 β $98,000 |
Some groups are small. For example, the SDET figures come from 15 job posts and the Test Manager figures from 8. The SDET range is the widest of any role. Its upper end comes from big-tech and security companies that pay SDETs like software engineers.
What pushes a QA salary up
1. Automation instead of manual testing
QA Analyst roles are often manual-first, and their median is about $33,000 lower than QA Automation Engineer roles. Selenium and Playwright are the two tools employers ask for most. Selenium appears in 29% of QA job descriptions and Playwright in 25%. See our breakdown of in-demand QA tools.
2. Owning quality, not just running tests
Lead and manager roles earn the most. That is not only because they manage people. These jobs ask candidates to own test strategy, CI pipelines and release quality.
3. Domain knowledge
Security, fintech and healthcare companies often pay above the median. The highest-paying remote QA employer this week was a cybersecurity company. Its QA and SDET roles had a median advertised salary of $184,000.
Remote QA salaries
Most QA jobs on our board are remote. Remote does not always mean "work from anywhere", though. Many US companies hire remotely only within the US and pay US rates. Companies that hire worldwide or across Latin America, Eastern Europe or Asia often pay local rates or contractor day rates. Before you apply, check the location limits on each job.
How to use these numbers
- In a salary negotiation, anchor at the 75th percentile for your level if you have automation experience.
- When you look for a job, filter for roles that publish pay. They are usually more serious about hiring.
- When you plan your career, remember that moving from manual testing into automation or SDET work is the fastest way to raise your pay in QA.
Browse open roles that match your level: Senior QA Engineer jobs, QA Automation Engineer jobs, SDET jobs and all remote QA jobs.
Hiring QA engineers? Job posts that show a salary get more qualified applicants. Post your QA job on QA Job Board from $99.
Methodology
QA Job Board collects open QA and testing jobs every day from company career pages (Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby, SmartRecruiters) and remote job sources. This report uses jobs posted in the last 45 days that were still open on November 5, 2026. Duplicate posts are removed. Salaries are the midpoint of each advertised range, converted to USD per year with approximate exchange rates. Values below $8,000 or above $400,000 are excluded as data errors.