Free Access No Registration Updated: 2026-06-01

QA Engineer Career Market Report 2026

6,841 active jobs. 1,813 companies. Median salary $100K. Data from Greenhouse, Lever, Workday, Ashby, SmartRecruiters, Workable, and 14 additional ATS sources. Last computed: 2026-06-01.

6,841
Active Job Openings
1,813
Companies Hiring
$100K
Median Salary (US)
74%
With Salary Data

About This Report

The QA Engineer market data on this page is updated daily from 800,000+ active job postings across 20 ATS platforms.

Greenhouse Lever Workday Ashby SmartRecruiters Workable + 14 more ATS sources

Salary: Extracted via NLP. Only USD $5K-$3M included. Skills: Named entity recognition, noise-filtered (generic soft skills excluded). Experience: Inferred from title + description. Coverage: 74% of positions include salary data.

Key Findings

Median salary: $100K in the US

Middle 50% of salaries range from $75K to $165K.

Remote roles pay 10% below the US national median

Remote positions in this field tend to be at companies with lower average pay scales, or reflect geographic salary adjustments.

Quality Assurance is the most-demanded skill at 54%

Python demand rose +10.3pp — fastest-growing skill

Nvidia leads hiring with 179 open positions

Biggest salary jump: Staff → Director (+$42K, +30%)

Salary increase: +$42K · Sample: Staff → Director

AI automation risk: medium (score 55/100)

Score: 55/100 · AI/LLM demand: 57% of postings

Week-over-week changes reflect dataset expansion, not market surge

Recent growth in tracked postings is from adding new data sources, not a one-week hiring boom. Interpret trend data with this in mind.

Salary by Experience Level

LevelJobsP25MedianP90
Senior282$88K$119K$165K
Mid-Level169$80K$99K$150K
Junior124$62K$81K$122K
Staff52$114K$140K$203K
Lead32$80K$125K$187K
Director28$160K$182K$216K
Manager25$85K$119K$151K
Entry-Level15$65K$73K$106K

What jumps out

Staff → Director: +$42K (30%) — the biggest single-step increase. The salary curve is back-loaded: the largest raises come at transitions where scope changes from executing tasks to owning outcomes, or from owning outcomes to shaping architecture across teams.

Salary by Country

CountryJobsMedianCurrency
United States665$106KUSD
Remote49$95KUSD
Canada28$95KUSD
India12$10KUSD
United Kingdom4$48KGBP

Work Mode

ModeShare
On-Site4.6%
Remote7.8%
Hybrid1.7%

~80% of postings do not specify work mode. Figures show only positions where it is explicitly stated.

Top Skills in Demand

Quality Assurance
54%
Python
30%
AI/LLM
27%
CI/CD
13%
Data Analysis
10%
Linux
10%
R
10%
SQL
9%
Java
8%
Project Management
8%
FPGA
6%
SCRUM
6%

Skills on the Rise

Python ↑+10.3ppAI/LLM ↑+9.5ppProject Management ↑+7.6ppFPGA ↑+6.4ppSCRUM ↑+6.3pp

Declining in Demand

Journalism ↓-18.1ppAgile ↓-15.4ppAttention to Detail ↓-10.8ppElectrical ↓-10.1ppQuality Assurance ↓-8.1pp

Top Companies Hiring

CompanyOpeningsShare
Nvidia1792.6%
Renesaselectronics801.2%
Analogdevices721.1%
Intel681.0%
Micron661.0%
Jabil651.0%
Krgtechnology620.9%
Prosidianconsulting560.8%

Top Countries by Job Volume

CountryJobs
United States2,476
India516
Remote205
United Kingdom158
Malaysia110
Canada103
Mexico98
China87

Education Requirements

LevelSharePositions
Associate Degree44.5%2,227
Bachelor's Degree18.8%940
Master's Degree18.5%926
PhD / Doctorate2.1%105
MBA0.1%5
High School / GED0.1%4

Certifications

All certifications below 1% threshold. Certifications carry minimal weight in this profession's hiring decisions.

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