SaaS Salary Benchmarks

Senior Quality Assurance Engineer Salary Benchmarks

Compensation data for the Senior Quality Assurance Engineer role at US SaaS companies, based on 45 verified salaries.

Quartile breakdownAll SaaS roles
Base salary · US SaaS45 salaries
$169,956
Median base salary
Bottom 25% avg$61,258Top 25% avg$220,924
Average base salary
$155,706
Typical range (P25–P75)
$133,740–$206,712
Salaries analyzed
45

Hiring for this role? At the median, one Senior Quality Assurance Engineer costs $169,956 a year in base salary.

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Overview
45 salaries

Senior Quality Assurance Engineer Salary Overview

Bottom 25% AverageAverage of the lowest-paid quarter · 10 salaries
$61,258
Middle 50% AverageAverage of the middle half · 23 salaries
$162,743
Top 25% AverageAverage of the highest-paid quarter · 12 salaries
$220,924

Median Senior Quality Assurance Engineer base pay by pay period

Per year
$169,956
Per month
$14,163
Every two weeks
$6,537
Per hour
$81.71
Base-pay equivalents before tax; hourly assumes 2,080 working hours a year.

Senior Quality Assurance Engineer salaries at SaaS companies average $155,706, with typical salaries ranging from $133,740 to $206,712. Based on 45 real salary data points from SaaS companies.

Quartile bands
Employees · annualized base

Detailed Senior Quality Assurance Engineer Compensation Breakdown

Senior Quality Assurance Engineer base salary by percentile band
Percentile BandSalary rangeAverage Base Salary# of salaries
Top 25%$206,712 and up$220,92412 salaries
Middle 50%$133,740–$206,712$162,74323 salaries
Bottom 25%Under $133,740$61,25810 salaries
By seniority
Employees · median base

Quality Assurance Engineer Salary by Seniority Level

Median base salary for each Quality Assurance Engineer level with its own benchmark, from Quality Assurance Engineer to Senior Quality Assurance Engineer. Step-up compares each median with the level below.

Quality Assurance Engineer base salary by seniority level
LevelMedian baseStep-up
Quality Assurance Engineer$81,344—
Senior Quality Assurance EngineerThis page$169,956*+109%
* Fewer than 50 salaries: a small sample, so expect this level's figures to move more between data refreshes.
Hiring budget
Base salary · fully loaded

What Does a Senior Quality Assurance Engineer Cost to Hire?

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

Pay level
Hires
1

One Senior Quality Assurance Engineer hire at the median: $169,956 a year in base salary, $212,445–$237,938 fully loaded.

Cost of one hire by pay level
Per hireP25MedianP75
Base salary / year$133,740$169,956$206,712
Base salary / month$11,145$14,163$17,226
Fully loaded / year1.25–1.4× base$167,175–$187,236$212,445–$237,938$258,390–$289,397
Fully loaded / month1.25–1.4× base$13,931–$15,603$17,704–$19,828$21,533–$24,116
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

Senior Quality Assurance Engineer Pay by the Numbers

  • The middle half of Senior Quality Assurance Engineer salaries spans $133,740–$206,712: a $72,972 spread, 43% of the $169,956 median.
  • A 75th-percentile Senior Quality Assurance Engineer earns 1.5× the 25th-percentile salary.
  • The Senior Quality Assurance Engineer median is 59% above the median Engineering & Product role ($107,100 across 63 roles).

What Drives Higher Senior Quality Assurance 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
Senior Quality Assurance Engineer salary

On a median base salary of $169,956, a Senior Quality Assurance Engineer at a US SaaS company makes about $14,163 a month, $6,537 every two weeks, or $81.71 an hour over 2,080 working hours a year. The middle half of salaries (25th–75th percentile) works out to $11,145–$17,226 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 45 verified SaaS Senior Quality Assurance Engineer salaries, the 25th percentile is $133,740 and the median is $169,956. A Senior Quality Assurance 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 $206,712 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 $169,956, the fully loaded cost of a US Senior Quality Assurance Engineer is roughly $212,445–$237,938 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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