SaaS Salary Benchmarks

QA Automation Engineer Salary Benchmarks

Compensation data for the QA Automation Engineer role at US SaaS companies, based on 13 verified salaries.

Quartile breakdown All SaaS roles

Base salary · US SaaS13 salaries

$78,000

Median base salary

Bottom 25% avg$29,238Top 25% avg$94,379

Average base salary: $71,973
Typical range (P25–P75): $73,346–$93,349
Salaries analyzed: 13

Hiring for this role? At the median, one QA Automation Engineer costs $78,000 a year in base salary.

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Overview

13 salaries

QA Automation Engineer Salary Overview

Bottom 25% AverageAverage of the lowest-paid quarter · 3 salaries: $29,238
Middle 50% AverageAverage of the middle half · 5 salaries: $75,208
Top 25% AverageAverage of the highest-paid quarter · 5 salaries: $94,379

Median QA Automation Engineer base pay by pay period

Per year: $78,000
Per month: $6,500
Every two weeks: $3,000
Per hour: $37.50

Base-pay equivalents before tax; hourly assumes 2,080 working hours a year.

QA Automation Engineer salaries at SaaS companies average $71,973, with typical salaries ranging from $73,346 to $93,349. Based on 13 real salary data points from SaaS companies.

Quartile bands

Employees · annualized base

Detailed QA Automation Engineer Compensation Breakdown

QA Automation Engineer base salary by percentile band
Percentile Band	Salary range	Average Base Salary	# of salaries
Top 25%	$93,349 and up	$94,379	5 salaries
Middle 50%	$73,346–$93,349	$75,208	5 salaries
Bottom 25%	Under $73,346	$29,238	3 salaries

Hiring budget

Base salary · fully loaded

What Does a QA Automation Engineer Cost to Hire?

Budget for QA Automation Engineer hires at the 25th percentile, median and 75th percentile of this benchmark, as base salary and as fully loaded cost.

Pay level

Hires

One QA Automation Engineer hire at the median: $78,000 a year in base salary, $97,500–$109,200 fully loaded.

Cost of one hire by pay level
Per hire	P2525th percentile	MedianMedian	P7575th percentile
Base salary / year	$73,346	$78,000	$93,349
Base salary / month	$6,112	$6,500	$7,779
Fully loaded / year1.25–1.4× base	$91,683–$102,684	$97,500–$109,200	$116,686–$130,689
Fully loaded / month1.25–1.4× base	$7,640–$8,557	$8,125–$9,100	$9,724–$10,891

Fully loaded adds employer payroll taxes, health and retirement benefits, software seats, and equipment at 1.25–1.4× base salary. That multiplier is a planning rule of thumb applied to this benchmark, not a surveyed cost figure. Commission, bonus, equity, and recruiting fees are not included.

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Key insights

QA Automation Engineer Pay by the Numbers

The middle half of QA Automation Engineer salaries spans $73,346–$93,349: a $20,003 spread, 26% of the $78,000 median.
A 75th-percentile QA Automation Engineer earns 1.3× the 25th-percentile salary.
The QA Automation Engineer median is 27% below the median Engineering & Product role ($107,210 across 64 roles).

What Drives Higher QA Automation Engineer Pay?

Years of experience and proven track record
Company stage and funding (later stage typically pays more)
Technical expertise and specialization
Location and remote work policies

FAQ

QA Automation Engineer salary

On a median base salary of $78,000, a QA Automation Engineer at a US SaaS company makes about $6,500 a month, $3,000 every two weeks, or $37.50 an hour over 2,080 working hours a year. The middle half of salaries (25th–75th percentile) works out to $6,112–$7,779 a month. These are base-pay equivalents before tax, and they leave out bonus, commission, and equity.

Expect the lower half of this benchmark. Across 13 verified SaaS QA Automation Engineer salaries, the 25th percentile is $73,346 and the median is $78,000. A QA Automation Engineer at a seed or Series A startup, or at a bootstrapped company under roughly $10M ARR, will often land between those two figures. Base pay typically moves toward and past the $93,349 75th percentile as the company adds headcount and ARR. Those stage bands are a rule of thumb applied to this benchmark, not a breakdown by company size, which the dataset does not report.

Budget for more than base salary. On a median base of $78,000, the fully loaded cost of a US QA Automation Engineer is roughly $97,500–$109,200 per year once employer payroll taxes (~7.65% FICA plus federal and state unemployment), health and retirement benefits, software seats, and equipment are added. That 1.25–1.4x multiplier is a planning rule of thumb applied to the benchmark on this page, not a surveyed cost figure. Commission, bonuses, and equity sit on top where the role carries them. Also budget one-off hiring costs: agency recruiting fees commonly run 15–25% of first-year base, and a new hire takes weeks to months to reach full productivity.

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