Top paying · updated 2026-10-20
The highest-paying QA jobs and roles
The best posted pay ranges among 588 market listings with published pay, and the role and country pairs that pay most at senior level.
Live listings
Sort all jobs by pay Top 20 posted pay ranges right now
| # | Role | Where | Posted range | Up to, USD / year | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Research Engineer / Performance Engineer, RL Distributed Systems · AI company | San Francisco | $500k–850k / year | $850k | View |
| 2 | Performance Engineer, Inference Engine · AI company | San Francisco | $350k–850k / year | $850k | View |
| 3 | Software Quality Assurance - Junior (Philippines, Remote, Evenings) · AI company | Remote · Philippines | $540k–710k / year | $710k | View |
| 4 | Manual Tester/QA, Gaming company · Games studio | Kowloon | $360k–540k / year | $540k | View |
| 5 | QA/ UAT Tester (Major FSI) 40k · Software company | Kowloon | $320k–480k / year | $480k | View |
| 6 | Senior Director, Quality Engineering - Performance, Scalability & Reliability · Large cybersecurity company | San Francisco | $310k–430k / year | $430k | View |
| 7 | AI Evaluation Infrastructure Engineer · AI company | San Francisco | $260k–400k / year | $400k | View |
| 8 | Senior Software Engineer, Application Security · Cybersecurity company | San Francisco | $200k–400k / year | $400k | View |
| 9 | Senior Director, Software Development, Test Automation · AI company | San Francisco | $300k–390k / year | $390k | View |
| 10 | Principal Software Engineer - Performance Engineering (Cloud Infrastructure) · Large AI company | Menlo Park | $260k–380k / year | $380k | View |
| 11 | Senior Engineering Manager, Test Systems & Tooling · Healthtech company | Remote · United States | $220k–360k / year | $360k | View |
| 12 | Manager - Model Evaluation · AI company | Foster City | $240k–340k / year | $340k | View |
| 13 | ML Compute Efficiency Automation Engineer, Infrastructure & Planning · AI company | Cupertino | $180k–320k / year | $320k | View |
| 14 | AIML - Senior Applied ML Research Scientist, Accessibility · AI company | Cupertino | $180k–320k / year | $320k | View |
| 15 | Red Team - Cyber · Large cybersecurity company | Remote · United States | $200k–320k / year | $320k | View |
| 16 | Research Scientist, AI Evaluation Science · Games studio | Seattle | $210k–310k / year | $310k | View |
| 17 | Circuit Design Automation Engineer · AI company | Austin | $180k–310k / year | $310k | View |
| 18 | Product Designer, Accessibility · Large AI company | Remote · United States | $240k–310k / year | $310k | View |
| 19 | Staff Software Engineer, Collision Avoidance Testing · Automotive technology company | San Jose | $250k–310k / year | $310k | View |
| 20 | Senior Application Security Engineer · Cybersecurity company | San Francisco | $210k–300k / year | $300k | View |
By role
Which QA roles pay the most
Senior-level US median per role, and the best live posted range we hold for it.
Security / Penetration Tester
$230kUS median · senior
Performance Test Engineer
$190kUS median · senior
Release / DevOps Engineer
$180kUS median · senior
SDET
$170kUS median · senior
QA Automation Engineer
$150kUS median · senior
AI / LLM Evaluation QA
$150kUS median · senior
QA Lead / Manager
$140kUS median · senior
Mobile QA Engineer
$140kUS median · senior
Data / ETL QA Engineer
$130kUS median · senior
Accessibility Tester
$120kUS median · senior
Technical Writer (QA / Docs)
$120kUS median · senior
Business / Test Analyst
$110kUS median · senior
Manual QA Tester
$100kUS median · senior
Game QA Tester
$86kUS median · senior
Localization QA Tester
$62kUS median · senior
Role and country
Best-paid role and country pairs, senior level
| # | Role | Country | Median, USD | Median, local | Open roles |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Security / Penetration Tester | United States | $230k | $230k | 30 |
| 2 | Security / Penetration Tester | Switzerland | $220k | CHF 190k | 3 |
| 3 | Performance Test Engineer | United States | $190k | $190k | 19 |
| 4 | Performance Test Engineer | Switzerland | $180k | CHF 160k | 0 |
| 5 | Release / DevOps Engineer | United States | $180k | $180k | 10 |
| 6 | SDET | United States | $170k | $170k | 148 |
| 7 | Release / DevOps Engineer | Switzerland | $170k | CHF 150k | 0 |
| 8 | SDET | Switzerland | $160k | CHF 140k | 3 |
| 9 | QA Automation Engineer | United States | $150k | $150k | 255 |
| 10 | AI / LLM Evaluation QA | United States | $150k | $150k | 32 |
| 11 | QA Automation Engineer | Switzerland | $140k | CHF 120k | 4 |
| 12 | QA Lead / Manager | United States | $140k | $140k | 121 |
| 13 | Mobile QA Engineer | United States | $140k | $140k | 10 |
| 14 | AI / LLM Evaluation QA | Switzerland | $140k | CHF 120k | 0 |
| 15 | QA Lead / Manager | Switzerland | $130k | CHF 110k | 2 |
| 16 | Mobile QA Engineer | Switzerland | $130k | CHF 110k | 0 |
Model medians from posted pay ranges, gross annual base. Rank all countries or compare two.
FAQ
Questions about top QA pay
Which QA job pays the most?
By senior-level median pay, Security / Penetration Tester leads at $230k a year in the US, followed by Performance Test Engineer ($190k) and Release / DevOps Engineer ($180k).
What does 'posted pay' mean?
It is the range an employer published in the job ad. We list the highest posted ranges among market listings, converted to USD per year. Estimated ranges are excluded here.
Are these salaries realistic for me?
They are the top of the market, mostly at large technology employers in the US. Use the salary finder for the median in your own country and level.