Side by side

Embedded Engineer vs QA Engineer

Pay is effectively the same — the medians sit within 1.8% apart. There is 1.6× more demand for QA Engineer. Listings for QA Engineer move faster — median age 30 days against 79.

Comparison

Side by side

MeasureEmbedded EngineerQA EngineerGap
Open postings26,86142,516-15,655
Posted this week2,2873,216
Median salary$139,500$137,000+$2.5k
25th percentile$110k$108k
75th percentile$173k$170k
Salary disclosed6.6%7.2%
Remote share12.1%11.9%+0.2pp
Median age of posting79d30d
Open over 60 days36.3%48.1%
Visa sponsorship4.6%22.5%
Pay

Pay distribution

Embedded Engineer

$63k$241k

QA Engineer

$62k$237k
Freshness

How old the listings are

Embedded Engineer

just posted79d median90d+

QA Engineer

just posted30d median90d+
Demand

What each side asks for

Embedded Engineer — technologies

Go
72.0%
Tableau
65.8%
GCP
59.6%
PostgreSQL
53.4%
Spark
47.2%
Figma
41.0%
Swift
34.8%

QA Engineer — technologies

TypeScript
72.0%
Terraform
65.8%
Kubernetes
59.6%
Java
53.4%
SQL
47.2%
PostgreSQL
41.0%
dbt
34.8%

Embedded Engineer — employers

Beacon Robotics
9.4%
Umbra Security
8.7%
Northwind Systems
8.0%
Lakeshore Hospitality
7.2%
Halcyon Energy
6.5%
Fairmount Legal
5.8%
Pinewood Education
5.1%

QA Engineer — employers

Beacon Robotics
9.4%
Northwind Systems
8.7%
Rivergate Media
8.0%
Quarry Analytics
7.2%
Aperture Labs
6.5%
Pinewood Education
5.8%
Tidewater Insurance
5.1%

Track this slice

A weekly note when openings, pay or freshness move for Embedded Engineer vs QA Engineer.

More comparisons

Other Engineering comparisons

Both sides are counted the same way on the same day, so the gap is comparable even where the absolute numbers move. Salary figures use only postings that publish a range — the disclosure rate is in the table because a median over 20% of a cohort is a weaker number than one over 70%.