Key findings
- 7% of postings (272 of 3,863) are junior. Mid-level is 57%, senior 21%, lead 15%.
- Manual QA Tester has the most junior postings (130), followed by QA Automation Engineer (83).
- 266 titles contain entry-level words (junior, associate, intern, graduate, trainee); 83 are internships, graduate or trainee programmes.
- 27% of junior postings are remote, against 22% of all postings.
02Which roles hire juniors
Roles with at least 25 postings, with the number of junior ads in each:
| Role | Junior | All postings | Junior share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Data / ETL QA Engineer | 9 | 37 | 24% |
| Release / DevOps Engineer | 5 | 37 | 14% |
| Manual QA Tester | 130 | 1379 | 9% |
| Business / Test Analyst | 23 | 264 | 9% |
| QA Automation Engineer | 83 | 1023 | 8% |
| AI / LLM Evaluation QA | 7 | 96 | 7% |
| Technical Writer (QA / Docs) | 2 | 37 | 5% |
| Performance Test Engineer | 2 | 55 | 4% |
| Mobile QA Engineer | 1 | 30 | 3% |
| SDET | 9 | 358 | 3% |
| Game QA Tester | 1 | 102 | 1% |
| QA Lead / Manager | 0 | 371 | 0% |
| Security / Penetration Tester | 0 | 56 | 0% |
Data / ETL QA Engineer has the highest junior share. QA Lead / Manager and Security / Penetration Tester have no junior postings in this sample. Counts are small, so read the order, not the exact percentages.
03Where juniors are hired
Countries with at least 25 postings:
| Country | Junior | All postings | Junior share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ukraine | 10 | 36 | 28% |
| Indonesia | 20 | 109 | 18% |
| Egypt | 5 | 30 | 17% |
| Greece | 9 | 57 | 16% |
| Israel | 4 | 27 | 15% |
| Vietnam | 4 | 33 | 12% |
| Malaysia | 6 | 57 | 11% |
| Philippines | 9 | 121 | 7% |
| India | 40 | 540 | 7% |
| United States | 83 | 1127 | 7% |
| Mexico | 6 | 84 | 7% |
| Germany | 5 | 70 | 7% |
| Argentina | 3 | 46 | 7% |
| Canada | 18 | 313 | 6% |
| Poland | 11 | 194 | 6% |
| Singapore | 4 | 89 | 4% |
| Thailand | 2 | 46 | 4% |
| United Kingdom | 7 | 172 | 4% |
| France | 1 | 27 | 4% |
| Netherlands | 3 | 91 | 3% |
| Portugal | 2 | 61 | 3% |
| Australia | 1 | 79 | 1% |
| Spain | 0 | 72 | 0% |
| Brazil | 0 | 52 | 0% |
| Colombia | 0 | 35 | 0% |
| South Africa | 0 | 32 | 0% |
Ukraine has the highest junior share among these countries (28%, n=36). A difference of a few points between countries is within the noise of these samples.
04Entry-level words and years asked
266 postings carry an entry-level word in the title, more than the 272 classed junior, because 'associate' and 'graduate' often sit on roles we class as mid. Of these, 83 are internships, graduate schemes or trainee programmes. Search for those words as well as 'junior'.
Experience asks are noisy. For the 2,213 postings that state a number of years (0 to 15), the median by level is:
| Level | Postings with a number | Median years |
|---|---|---|
| Junior | 82 | 2 years |
| Mid | 1186 | 3 years |
| Senior | 572 | 5 years |
| Lead | 373 | 6 years |
For junior postings that state a number (n=82), the median is 2 years. Treat the number as a preference, and apply if you have a real project to show.
05What to do with this
Tools named in junior postings: Jira (46%), Selenium (31%), Postman (29%), Playwright (27%), Python (22%). For mid-level postings: Jira (40%), Selenium (36%), Playwright (34%), Postman (29%), Cypress (21%). US annual ranges: junior median $75k (n=7), mid-level $114k (n=139). Junior postings ask for the same working tools as mid-level ones; they ask for fewer years.
- Show test artefacts. A repository with a small Playwright or Selenium suite, a bug report you wrote and a test plan beats a certificate.
- Apply across titles. Search for associate, graduate, trainee and intern as well as junior.
- Consider Flex. Flex task windows of 3-4 hours a day accept strong juniors for game playtests and AI evaluation. See how Flex works.
- Plan the next step. The career roadmap maps the move from junior to mid-level.
06Method and limits
Sample: 3,863 public postings harvested 20 Oct 2026 from employer career pages and public job feeds. Listings are postings, not people or confirmed openings: one role open in several cities counts several times (2,417 distinct titles across 3,863 postings). PassRidge talent-pipeline roles (149) are excluded from every statistic.
Level is assigned by our classifier. Internships and graduate programmes that are advertised only on campus portals do not appear here.
The method for roles, tools and pay is documented on our salary methodology page. Spot an error? Write to [email protected].
Go deeper
Sources
- PassRidge public listing snapshot, 20 Oct 2026