Quality Assurance Engineer Job Description, Salary, Skills Scope

Writing effective and high-quality code requires testing it regularly, but knowing how to test can be tricky. If you are unsure about what to test or how to test it, you might end up with poor-quality code. This is where a Quality Assurance Engineer’s role come into action. However, A Quality Assurance Engineer’s role can differ depending on the organization’s size, structure, and business needs. But most of the time their common responsibility includes testing and auditing software to ensure product quality.

QA Engineer involves checking other developers’ work, creating tests to catch bugs, and making sure the final product meets the expectations of users. In this article, we will explore what a QA engineer does, outline their duties, quality assurance engineer pay, and guide how you can pursue a career in this field.

Table of Contents

What Is A Quality Assurance Engineering?

Quality Assurance Engineering is a crucial process that ensures the delivery of high-quality products and services to clients. Its primary objective is to prevent mistakes and flaws in the manufacturing process, thereby avoiding potential problems.

It involves a range of administrative and procedural activities within a quality system to ensure that the objectives and goals of a product, service, or activity are met. QA engineering comprises primary (functional) and secondary (analytical) elements, particularly in system and system integration testing.

Understanding the role, responsibilities, and required skills associated with Quality Assurance engineering is essential when designing a product or providing customer service. Numerous factors come into play, focusing on keeping customers satisfied and ensuring continued product usage or generating revenue.

Two Important Factors to Consider For Quality Assurance Engineering

To define Quality Assurance Engineering, there are two critical criteria to consider:

Firstly, you need to establish the goal of your project. This goal outlines what you aim to achieve with your product or service.
Secondly, you must determine how to measure progress toward this goal. By setting clear objectives and tracking your progress, you can effectively implement QA engineering practices to improve the quality of your offerings.

What Does A Quality Assurance Engineer Do?

A Quality Assurance Engineer is primarily responsible for testing software and hardware to make sure they meet high-quality standards. They work for big companies, schools, and non-profit organizations to test their end product quality.

Quality Assurance engineer perform several tasks as the day-to-day part of their job. These tasks can include testing and debugging software for security issues, checking hardware for flaws, writing test cases for new apps or systems, and maintaining backup databases.

The demand for Quality Assurance Engineers is growing today in this modern world. As technology continues to change, businesses need software that works perfectly. Companies rely on QA Engineers to make sure their products meet customer needs and perform well. This role is more important than ever because companies want to stay competitive by creating top-quality products.

Job Description of a QA Engineer

A Quality Assurance Engineer (QA Engineer) is responsible for creating and implementing strategies to ensure quality and recommending solutions to address quality issues. Within specific projects, QA specialists perform various roles, including the following four main responsibilities:

Test Analyst: This role involves testing of static requirements to ensure that the products are comprehensive and accurate.
Test Designer: Test Designers are responsible for developing a set of test cases required for the project and organizing the appropriate testing settings.
Test Executor: Test Executors execute pre-planned test cases, document and describe any defects identified, and provide methods to reproduce or fix them.
Test Manager: The Test Manager supervises testing activities, ensuring deadlines are met, everyone is following schedule, controlling test requirements, assigning tasks to team members, and collaborating with stakeholders.

To meet quality requirements, a Quality Assurance Engineer should monitor all stages of software development to identify and resolve any system issues that may arise. The Quality Assurance Engineer actively monitors and addresses these issues and ensures the software meets the desired quality standards.

Recommended Course

Quality Assurance Engineer Pay

According to the recent reports from glassdoor, The Average Quality Assurance Engineer Pay in India is ₹7,58,530 annually. However, This salary range for this role can vary from a minimum of ₹2,38,000 per year to a maximum of ₹1 million per year. The following para provides a detailed breakdown of the Quality Assurance Engineer Pay based on experience.

For individuals with less than a year of experience, entry-level Quality Assurance Engineers can expect to earn an average total salary of Rs. 3,00,000-/ which does not include tips, bonuses, and overtime pay.
With 1-4 years of experience, early-career Quality Assurance Engineers earn an average total salary of Rs. 5,00,000.
Mid-career Quality Assurance Engineers with 5-9 years of experience typically earn a total income of Rs. 6,00,000.
Experienced QA Engineers with 10-19 years of experience earn an average total remuneration of Rs. 17,00,000-/
Those in the late stages of their careers (20 years and above) earn an average salary of Rs. 20,00,000 and above.

The Quality Assurance Engineer Pay also varies from company to company. Therefore aspiring QA engineers need to check out the salary of a Quality Assurance engineer in different companies.

Employers	Avg Salary per year
HCL Technologies Ltd.	₹2,53,000
Flextronics International	₹2,55,500
Synerzip	₹3,50,000
Tata Consultancy Services Ltd	₹4,64,516
Dassault Systems Inc.l	₹5,71,402
Fidelity Investments	₹6,82,609
Oracle Corp.	₹7,74,194
Amazon.com Inc.	₹8,24,000
Oracle	₹9,27,119

Skills Required to Become a Quality Assurance Engineer

Being a quality assurance engineer requires diverse skills and knowledge in technology, engineering, mathematics, science, communication, problem-solving, and practical abilities like excellent documentation and project management skills.

Some of the must-have skills that you should possess to start your career as a quality assurance engineer to get hired include:

Education: A bachelor’s or master’s degree in a related field is required.
Knowledge of QA Approaches: Familiarity with Data quality assurance approaches, tools, and processes.
SQL and Scripting Skills: Proficiency in SQL and scripting languages.
Work Experience: However, freshers are also welcomed by many companies. Prior experience in application development and quality assurance can help you to get high salary and be standout in the job market.
Familiarity with QA Tools: Understanding of various quality assurance tools.
Testing Tool Proficiency: Practical knowledge of software testing tools such as UFT/QTP, Katalon, Microsoft Coded UI, Ruby, Cucumber, Watir, Selenium, and others.
Technical Expertise: A solid understanding of software technologies and the ability to work with different software programs, including web apps, Windows-based applications, mobile apps, etc.
Familiarity with QA/Testing Tools and Technologies: Proficiency in working with QA/Testing tools and technologies such as Azure DevOps or TFS, SOAP UI, HP ALM, JIRA, and others.
Test Planning: Ability to create test plans.
SQL Scripting: Mastery of SQL scripts and working with various databases.
Setting Standards and Procedures: Establishing standards and procedures for assessing product quality and readiness for release.
Bug Identification: Skill in identifying software bugs.
Innovation and Streamlining: Ability to boost innovation while streamlining the testing process.
Agile Development Experience: Familiarity with Agile development methodologies.
Web-Based Testing Knowledge: Working knowledge of web-based testing applications.
Flaw Analysis and Reporting: Analyzing, classifying, and reporting flaws throughout testing.
Problem Recognition: Ability to recognize potential issues.
Manual and Automated Testing: Proficiency in both automated and manual testing.
Interface Design Evaluation: Examining interface design for reliability and usability.
QA Module Knowledge: Detailed understanding of QA modules.
Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC): Comprehensive software development life cycle knowledge.

However, technical skills alone are not sufficient. Soft skills are equally important for a successful career as a QA Engineer. These project management soft skills that you should must have, include:

Analytical Skills: Ability to analyze and think critically.
Problem-Solving: Aptitude for problem-solving.
Adaptability: Flexibility and adaptability to new technologies.
Communication Skills: Excellent verbal and written communication skills using technical and non-technical language.
Documentation: Proficiency in documenting test cases and conducting risk assessments.
Test Progress Tracking: Keeping track of test progress and outcomes.
Time Management: Ability to work under strict deadlines and possess good time management skills.
Teamwork: Working well as a team and collaborating closely with product managers, developers, and department heads.
Initiative and Proactiveness: Taking initiative and being proactive in addressing challenges.
Persistence: Demonstrating persistence in problem-solving.

Developing and mastering these skills will help in excelling as a QA Engineer and effectively communicate with team members and stakeholders, ensuring efficient testing processes and contributing to the success of software projects.

Who Hires Quality Assurance Engineer?

Quality Assurance is now one of the most important and essential parts of the IT industry. This is because clients everywhere want software or applications that are fully tested and error-free. Before delivering a product, industry leaders expect it to be well-tested and working perfectly.

For developers, this means they must focus on completing all QA tasks, such as running tests, ensuring quality, and fixing any bugs or errors in the code before submitting the final product. Like other careers, Quality Assurance offers great growth potential, with many job opportunities and high demand in the industry. Some of the top companies hiring Quality Assurance engineers include:

Quality Assurance Engineer FAQs

What skills should a Quality Assurance Engineer include on their resume?

The most common skills found on top resumes include Quality Assurance, Manual Testing, Regression Testing, Test Planning, Test Automation, Software Quality Assurance, and Jira.

What are the skills required to become a Quality assurance engineer?

Quality assurance skills are a combination of hard and soft skills used to meet quality standards in various professions, including test engineering, QA management, and QA testing.