Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers

Moderate Risk
56%

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Vote Comments (10)
AUTOMATION RISK
CALCULATED
58%
(Moderate Risk)
POLLING
54%
(Moderate Risk, Based on 462 votes)
Average: 56%
LABOR DEMAND
GROWTH
11.8%
by year 2033
WAGES
$101,800
or $48.94 per hour
Volume
203,040
as of 2023
SUMMARY
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.

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Calculated automation risk

58% (Moderate Risk)

Moderate Risk (41-60%): Occupations with a moderate risk of automation usually involve routine tasks but still require some human judgment and interaction.

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

Some quite important qualities of the job are difficult to automate:

  • Originality

User poll

54% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted they are unsure if this occupation will be automated. This assessment is further supported by the calculated automation risk level, which estimates 58% 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

The following graph is shown where there are enough votes to produce meaningful data. It displays user poll results over time, providing a clear indication of sentiment trends.

Sentiment over time (yearly)

Growth

Very fast growth relative to other professions

The number of 'Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers' job openings is expected to rise 11.8% by 2033

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.

Wages

Very high paid relative to other professions

In 2023, the median annual wage for 'Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers' was 101.800 $, or 49 $ per hour

'Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers' were paid 111.8% higher than the national median wage, which stood at 48.060 $

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Volume

Greater range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2023 there were 203,040 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 747 people are employed as 'Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers'.

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.

SOC Code: 15-1253.00

Comments (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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