---
title: "QA Analyst"
description: "Develop and execute software tests to identify software problems and their causes. Test system modifications to prepare for implementation. Document…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/qa-analyst"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# QA Analyst

**Category:** Computer and Mathematical · **SOC code:** 15-1253 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 15-1253.00

Develop and execute software tests to identify software problems and their causes. Test system modifications to prepare for implementation. Document software and application defects using a bug tracking system and report defects to software or web developers. Create and maintain databases of known defects. May participate in software design reviews to provide input on functional requirements, operational characteristics, product designs, and schedules.

Also advertised as: Automation Tester; Information Technology Analyst (IT Analyst); Quality Assurance Analyst (QA Analyst); Quality Assurance Engineer (QA Engineer); Quality Engineer; Software Quality Assurance Analyst (SQA Analyst); Software Quality Assurance Engineer (SQA Engineer); Software Quality Engineer.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $104,300 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $50.14/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $61,440 to $167,010, with the middle half between $80,310 and $133,180
- **Total US employment:** 186,740
- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's
- **Preparation required:** Medium preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +10.0% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 14,000 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 9/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 186,740 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $61,440 |
| 25th | $80,310 |
| 50th (median) | $104,300 |
| 75th | $133,180 |
| 90th | $167,010 |
| Mean (average) | $111,490 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| CA | $128,740 | $116,275 | 27,710 |
| WA | $128,480 | $120,060 | 7,970 |
| CO | $123,690 | $120,027 | 5,110 |
| MA | $122,210 | $115,557 | 6,640 |
| VA | $121,590 | $120,262 | 10,160 |
| NY | $121,240 | $112,341 | 10,460 |
| NJ | $119,470 | $109,802 | 6,550 |
| NM | $116,580 | $126,426 | 450 |
| MD | $111,100 | $105,851 | 5,880 |
| OR | $108,440 | $104,914 | 1,840 |
| NH | $107,100 | $102,818 | 770 |
| DE | $106,060 | $106,264 | 520 |
| IL | $104,910 | $104,954 | 6,530 |
| MT | $103,930 | $109,810 | 150 |
| DC | $103,340 | $94,030 | 760 |

32 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 47 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/qa-analyst/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/qa-analyst.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 201,700 in the 2024–2034 base year to 221,900 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 20,200 jobs, or +10.0%. Much faster than average: 10.0% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 14,000 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2024–2034.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Medium preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| Bachelor's Degree | 50.0% |
| Associate's Degree (or other 2-year degree) | 26.5% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 8.8% |
| Some College Courses | 8.8% |
| High School Diploma | 2.9% |
| Master's Degree | 2.9% |

## What the work involves

- Identify, analyze, and document problems with program function, output, online screen, or content.
- Document software defects, using a bug tracking system, and report defects to software developers.
- Design test plans, scenarios, scripts, or procedures.
- Document test procedures to ensure replicability and compliance with standards.
- Install, maintain, or use software testing programs.
- Create or maintain databases of known test defects.
- Monitor bug resolution efforts and track successes.
- Plan test schedules or strategies in accordance with project scope or delivery dates.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Programming — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Quality Control Analysis — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Evaluation — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Analysis — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Analysis — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Computers and Electronics — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Engineering and Technology — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Design — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Inductive Reasoning — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Investigative (I), Conventional (C), Realistic (R).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| I — Investigative | 5.76 |
| C — Conventional | 5.67 |
| R — Realistic | 3.80 |
| A — Artistic | 1.69 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.57 |
| S — Social | 1.53 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ISTJ | 88.9 |
| INTJ | 82.3 |
| ISTP | 75.6 |
| ISFJ | 68.3 |
| ESTJ | 66.0 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ. The bank also flags this occupation as introvert-friendly, meaning O\*NET work-context ratings put it low on public contact and performing for the public.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Software Developer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/software-developer) — median $135,980
- [Validation Engineer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/validation-engineer) — median $102,440
- [Computer Systems Engineers/Architect](https://nuecareer.com/careers/computer-systems-engineers-architect) — median $116,580
- [Penetration Tester](https://nuecareer.com/careers/penetration-tester) — median $116,580
- [Computer Systems Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/computer-systems-analyst) — median $105,850
- [Database Architect](https://nuecareer.com/careers/database-architect) — median $139,500
- [Computer Programmer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/computer-programmer) — median $100,390
- [Computer Hardware Engineer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/computer-hardware-engineer) — median $161,740
- [Blockchain Engineer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/blockchain-engineer) — median $116,580
- [Information Security Engineer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/information-security-engineer) — median $116,580

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 30.3 Database, May 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2024–2034. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2024–2034 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/qa-analyst