Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers

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Occupation snapshot

What does this snowflake show?
The Snowflake is a visual summary of the five badges: Automation Risk (calculated), Risk (polled), Growth, Wages and Volume. It gives you an instant snapshot of an occupations profile. The colour of the Snowflake relates to its size. The better the occupation scores in relation to others, the larger and greener the Snowflake becomes.
JOB SCORE
6.3/10
What's this?
Job Score (higher is better):

We rate jobs using four factors. These are:

- Chance of being automated
- Job growth
- Wages
- Volume of available positions

These are some key things to think about when job hunting.

Risk & user votes

Calculated automation risk

37% (Low Risk)

Low Risk (21-40%): This occupation has a lower risk of full replacement by AI, software, or robotic systems. Some tasks may be automated or assisted, but the role usually still relies on human judgement, communication, responsibility, physical adaptability, or practical decision-making.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

Human strengths important in this job

These are human abilities and work contexts that are important in this occupation. They may help explain why parts of the role are harder to replace end-to-end, but they are not the only inputs into the automation score.

Thinking creatively

Quite important
Why this matters
Coming up with original ideas and designs—creating new concepts, products, systems, or artistic work. This kind of open-ended invention and taste-based judgment is harder to automate end-to-end than routine, rule-based tasks.
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Critical thinking

Quite important
Why this matters
Weigh options using logic and evidence, spot weaknesses in arguments, and choose the best approach when there isn’t a single clear answer.
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Coordinating others’ work

Quite important
Why this matters
Bringing people together, assigning tasks, and keeping a group aligned so work gets done.
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Coaching and developing others

Quite important
Why this matters
Helps people learn and improve through coaching, mentoring, and feedback. This relies on trust, motivation, and adapting guidance to each person—work that’s hard to replace end-to-end with automation.
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Developing objectives and strategies

Quite important
Why this matters
Sets long-term goals and chooses strategies and actions to reach them, weighing tradeoffs and adapting plans as conditions change.
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Show 2 more strengths

Active learning

Quite important
Why this matters
Keeps learning from new information and applying it to make better decisions now and in the future, especially when situations change.
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Operations analysis

Quite important
Why this matters
Figure out what people need and what a product must do, then translate those requirements into a workable design.
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What users think

Based on 480 votes

54% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted they are unsure if this occupation will be automated. However, employees may be able to find reassurance in the automated risk level we have generated, which shows 37% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?

Sentiment

Based on user votes over time

View sentiment trend

How opinions have changed over time

Pay & outlook

Wages

Very high paid relative to other professions

In 2024, the median annual wage for Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers was $102,610 ($49 per hour).

The median annual wage for Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers was 107.3% higher than the national median annual wage, which stood at $49,500.

View wage trend

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Growth

Very fast growth relative to other professions

The number of 'Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers' job openings is expected to rise 10.0% by 2034

View employment trend

Total employment, and estimated job openings

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2023 and 2033
Updated projections are due 09-2025.

Volume

Greater range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2024 there were 199,800 people employed as 'Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers' within the United States.

This represents around 0.13% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 771 people are employed as 'Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers'.

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What people are saying (10)

Leave a comment
D (Low)
31 Jul 2025 02:27
Perhaps it depends on the "sub-industry," but QA can be a lot more involved and specialized than people realize. Prior to working in it, I would've said it absolutely can be replaced by AI, but I think it could be argued it's even less likely than actual dev work.
Hellscythee (Highly likely)
11 Mar 2025 10:08
Every job can be easier for people... not everyone is prepared...not every people are good
Tejaswini (Moderate)
29 Dec 2024 21:17
Organizations these days are removing QA teams and delegating testing tasks to the developers. There are high chances that they will incorporate AI to figure out testing scenarios as well as create automation scripts.
Cookiee2003 (Moderate)
20 Nov 2024 10:56
I think that automation is already a big part of software testing, so in the next 20 years automation will become an even greater resource. However, replacing a human quality engineer would be very difficult. There are so many additional tasks that a tester has to take on such as communicating with people in other teams about the software that is being developed and finding out the exact requirements of the client so that they are getting exactly what they want.
tomasz (Low)
11 Jul 2024 19:40
I voted low because imo working as a tester is based on adaptation to the new requirements every day. There is a part of testing called automated tests, which is well known for years and all the repetitive tasks are automated, so I am highly sceptical, that AI or 'robotics' will take over QA, especially manual testing.
Nishant (Low)
13 Sep 2023 01:09
Few mundane tasks definitely can be automated. I guess robots fail where human judgement is of highest quality
Ariel (Low)
23 Jun 2023 07:27
I worked in the videogame software functionality quality assurance since 2014 and we already started working along some automated parts a long time ago. Thing is you still need a human to be creative about how to break the game and how other humans will take advantage of the games mechanics to break it. Nvm all the random crap humans do in games that automation cant anticipate a human will do?

Yes many low level positions will go away but specialists at my level who already work with some automation assistance aren't going anywhere. At the end of the day, we're the safety net in the software tech industry. Specialized testers I mean
Master of the Lamp (Highly likely)
10 May 2023 15:56
ChatGPT is changing the world and can already do my job better than I do!
And we are at 2023 not 2030!
Bob (No chance)
08 May 2023 19:35
Automated testing is checking. Humans are better
--- (Highly likely)
08 May 2023 18:10
STOP MAJORING IN COMPUTER SCIENCE.
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Job description

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.

O*NET-SOC code: 15-1253.00