The salary of a Quality Assurance Engineer I in the United States varies depending on several factors, including experience, location, education level, marketing trend and company sizes.
As of April 01, 2025, the average hourly pay of Quality Assurance Engineer I in the United States is $36. While Salary.com is seeing that Quality Assurance Engineer I salary in the US can go up to $43 or down to $30, but most earn between $33 and $40. Salary.com shows the average base salary (core compensation), as well as the average total cash compensation for the job of Quality Assurance Engineer I in the United States.
| Annual Salary |
Monthly Pay |
Weekly Pay |
Hourly Wage |
|
| 75th Percentile | $40 | $3 | $1 | $0 |
| Average | $36 | $3 | $1 | $0 |
| 25th Percentile | $33 | $3 | $1 | $0 |
As of April 01, 2025, Salary.com is seeing that an entry-level Quality Assurance Engineer I with under 1 year experience makes about $75,235. With less than 2 years of experience, a mid-level Quality Assurance Engineer I makes around $75,940. After 2-4 years, the Quality Assurance Engineer I pay rises to about $77,569. Those senior Quality Assurance Engineer I with 5-8 years of experience earn roughly $77,895, and those Quality Assurance Engineer I having 8 years or more experience is expected to earn about $78,112 on average.
| Levels | Salary |
|---|---|
| Entry Level Quality Assurance Engineer I | $75,235 |
| Intermediate Level Quality Assurance Engineer I | $75,940 |
| Senior Level Quality Assurance Engineer I | $77,569 |
| Specialist Level Quality Assurance Engineer I | $77,895 |
| Expert Level Quality Assurance Engineer I | $78,112 |
| Entry Level | 1% |
| Mid Level | 0% |
| Senior Level | 2% |
| Top Level | 3% |
| Experienced | 3% |
Salaries in the United States can vary significantly from state to state due to a multitude of factors, including cost of living, local economic conditions, and industry presence.
For example, as of April 01, 2025, the average yearly salary of Quality Assurance Engineer I is $83,522 in California and in Massachusetts, the average annual salary goes to $82,409. While in New Jersey, a Quality Assurance Engineer I earns $82,076 per year.
What Am I Worth?
Salaries in the United States can vary significantly from city to city due to a multitude of factors, including cost of living, local economic conditions, and industry presence.
For example, as of April 01, 2025, the average yearly salary of Quality Assurance Engineer I in San Francisco, CA is $94,570 and in New York, NY, the average annual salary goes to $87,755. While a Quality Assurance Engineer I earns $84,454 per year in Boston, MA.
For those exploring the changing dynamics of Quality Assurance Engineer I salaries, Salary.com offers detailed insights through our Job Trending in CA Labor Market analysis. As of April 01, 2025, our research highlights a notable shift in Quality Assurance Engineer I compensation over the past six years. For instance, the median salary has moved from $66,167 in 2023 to about $66,532 in 2024 (for a comprehensive analysis of Quality Assurance Engineer I salary trends, click here). It's crucial to consider several elements, including geographical location, experience level, industry demand, and economic development, as they play a significant role in influencing salary variations.
Salary.com job board provides millions of Quality Assurance Engineer I information for you to search for. Click on search button below to see Quality Assurance Engineer I job openings or enter a new job title here.
Here are companies hiring for Quality Assurance Engineer I and their salaries, click below for more details.
| Core Compensation | ||||
| Core Compensation | Median | % of Total | ||
| Base Salary | $75,723 | 70.1% | ||
| Bonus | $0 | 0.0% | ||
| Value of Benefits | ||||
| Core Compensation | Median | % of Total | ||
| Social Security | $5,793 | 5.4% | ||
| 401K/403B | $3,180 | 2.9% | ||
| Disability | $1,514 | 1.4% | ||
| Healthcare | $8,352 | 7.7% | ||
| Pension | $4,089 | 3.8% | ||
| Time Off | $9,320 | 8.6% | ||
| Total Compensation | $107,972 | 100% | ||
| Degree Level | % of user with this level of education |
|---|---|
| No Diploma | 0.3% |
| High School | 8.8% |
| Associates | 8.8% |
| Bachelors | 59.6% |
| Masters | 21.7% |
| Doctorate | 0.8% |
What Am I Worth?
Performs inspections and sets quality assurance testing models for analysis of raw materials, materials in process, and finished products. Assists in developing quality control policies and evaluates production limitations. Requires a bachelor's degree. Typically reports to a supervisor or manager. Typically requires 0-2 years of related experience. Works on projects/matters of limited complexity in a support role. Work is closely managed.
Specify the abilities and skills that a person needs in order to carry out the specified job duties. Each competency has five to ten behavioral assertions that can be observed, each with a corresponding performance level (from one to five) that is required for a particular job.
Analysis: Analysis is the process of considering something carefully or using statistical methods in order to understand it or explain it.
Software Development: Software development is the process of conceiving, specifying, designing, programming, documenting, testing, and bug fixing involved in creating and maintaining applications, frameworks, or other software components. Software development is a process of writing and maintaining the source code, but in a broader sense, it includes all that is involved between the conception of the desired software through to the final manifestation of the software, sometimes in a planned and structured process. Therefore, software development may include research, new development, prototyping, modification, reuse, re-engineering, maintenance, or any other activities that result in software products. Software can be developed for a variety of purposes, the three most common being to meet specific needs of a specific client/business (the case with custom software), to meet a perceived need of some set of potential users (the case with commercial and open source software), or for personal use (e.g. a scientist may write software to automate a mundane task). Embedded software development, that is, the development of embedded software, such as used for controlling consumer products, requires the development process to be integrated with the development of the controlled physical product. System software underlies applications and the programming process itself, and is often developed separately.
Scrum: Using an agile process for managing the lifecycle development of software products.
