Side by side

QA Engineer vs Software Engineer

QA Engineer pays more: a median of $137,000 against $125,500. There is 2.2× more demand for Software Engineer. Listings for QA Engineer move faster — median age 30 days against 68.

Comparison

Side by side

MeasureQA EngineerSoftware EngineerGap
Open postings42,51692,298-49,782
Posted this week3,2163,101
Median salary$137,000$125,500+$11.5k
25th percentile$108k$99k
75th percentile$170k$156k
Salary disclosed7.2%6.2%
Remote share11.9%13.0%-1.1pp
Median age of posting30d68d
Open over 60 days48.1%43.1%
Visa sponsorship22.5%23.5%
Pay

Pay distribution

QA Engineer

$62k$237k

Software Engineer

$56k$217k
Freshness

How old the listings are

QA Engineer

just posted30d median90d+

Software Engineer

just posted68d median90d+
Demand

What each side asks for

QA Engineer — technologies

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

Software Engineer — technologies

HubSpot
72.0%
AWS
65.8%
Java
59.6%
Swift
53.4%
GCP
47.2%
JavaScript
41.0%
Azure
34.8%

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%

Software Engineer — employers

Kestrel Health
9.4%
Northwind Systems
8.7%
Fairmount Legal
8.0%
Cobalt Financial
7.2%
Meridian Software
6.5%
Umbra Security
5.8%
Tidewater Insurance
5.1%

Track this slice

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

More comparisons

Other Engineering comparisons

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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%.