Side-by-side distribution
QA Engineer
$130,750
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 37.4%
- Live roles
- 5,094
Software Engineer
$171,850
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 33.7%
- Live roles
- 32,966
Highest-paying jobs
Senior QA Engineer
Test Engineer, System-Level Test (SLT)
ATE Test Development Engineer
Staff Software Development Engineer in Test (Connectors)
Staff Software Development Engineer in Test (Graph Database)
Staff Software Development Engineer in Test (Infrastructure)
Mechanical Engineer, PCBA Test Infrastructure, Robotics
Senior Principal, Solution Test & Automation Engineer
Principal Software Test Engineer - Solution Engineering – Customer Solution Validation
Senior/Staff Design for Test Engineer
Highest-paying jobs
Senior Software Engineer, Machine Learning (Audio)
Senior Software Engineer
Software Engineer - AI
Senior Software Engineer (Database Reliability)
Staff Software Engineer, Kubernetes Platform
Staff Software Engineer, Node Infra
Staff Software Engineer, Claude Code
Staff Software Engineer, Code RL
Staff+ Software Engineer, Developer Productivity
Software Engineer, Research Productivity
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Northrop Grumman
|
$123,000 | 158 |
Anduril Industries
|
$150,000 | 147 |
Leidos
|
$122,275 | 89 |
Blue Origin
|
$145,228 | 80 |
CACI
|
$116,650 | 43 |
Air Apps
|
$59,402 | 43 |
Relativity Space
|
$155,000 | 33 |
SpaceX
|
$117,500 | 33 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
|
Anduril Industries
|
$222,000 | 355 |
|
Northrop Grumman
|
$131,950 | 272 |
|
Leidos
|
$151,475 | 176 |
Booz Allen Hamilton
|
$142,400 | 168 |
|
SpaceX
|
$142,500 | 165 |
|
OpenAI
|
$355,500 | 151 |
Speechify
|
$170,000 | 144 |
|
Blue Origin
|
$197,582 | 140 |
QA Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles | $167,500 | 53 |
| San Francisco | $162,500 | 60 |
| Austin | $156,000 | 18 |
| Denver | $146,614 | 30 |
| Atlanta | $146,500 | 21 |
| Seattle | $145,228 | 87 |
| New York | $145,000 | 21 |
| Boston | $136,100 | 16 |
| Chicago | $129,000 | 17 |
| Toronto | $98,510 | 31 |
Software Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $226,000 | 1,565 |
| Sydney | $212,347 | 4 |
| New York | $212,000 | 1,398 |
| Seattle | $202,500 | 690 |
| Los Angeles | $194,350 | 241 |
| Austin | $186,650 | 200 |
| Boston | $186,050 | 285 |
| Denver | $180,316 | 216 |
| London | $177,094 | 130 |
| Atlanta | $167,250 | 120 |
QA Engineer vs Software Engineer: which pays more?
The median for QA Engineer is $130,750 per year (typically $105,225–$161,953), versus $171,850 for Software Engineer ($133,713–$215,000). That puts Software Engineer about 31% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so QA Engineer and Software Engineer are compared on equal terms regardless of the currency each role was originally posted in. Only roles that publish a salary range feed the medians; numbers refresh every few hours as new roles post and older ones close, so this comparison reflects the market right now rather than a fixed survey. Use it as a directional benchmark when weighing one path against the other.