Tye Alli @tyealli / 5.00 PM EDT. November 25, 2021
The QA Engineer salary scale in Canada 2021 has increased gradually based on the number of years of experience, technical abilities, job location and opportunities in the job market.
You love your career as a Software Quality Assurance (QA) Engineer. However you’ve always wanted to earn more, like your colleagues who are 10 years ahead of you. You want to know if this trend of higher pay levels is limited only to the top tier Engineers or whether it extends down to newer Testers. In this article, I will discuss the pay scale and show you how to earn more.
Software Engineers have consistently been ranked in the top for being one of the highest paid professionals in Canada, and QA Engineers are no exception. In this article, we will compare salaries from various regions to see how various options stack up.
What does a QA Engineer do?
A Quality Assurance (QA) Engineer is a professional whose job is to improve the software development process by finding faults and preventing them from reoccurring.
The primary purpose of a quality assurance engineer is to eliminate defects by designing and executing smart quality control tests. The test findings are examined and flaws are recorded. The cycle is repeated until a good amount of flaws have been eliminated from a software product.
On the Job Responsibilities
QA professionals can perform a variety of responsibilities on the job. Test Designing, Execution, Analysis, and Management can be performed by a single Engineer or divided amongst various Engineers.
Test Design: This kicks off with a static testing of the product requirements to ensure that they are complete and consistent. The later stage involves building a collection of manual and automated test cases to verify the product under development.
Test Execution: It involves selecting the appropriate configurations for testing and using various software tools to run the designed tests.
Test Analysis: The flaws discovered during the execution will be studied and documented with instructions for reproducing (or resolving) them.
Test Management: The Strategy and Plan used to execute the test will be constantly updated throughout the product development. Test results will be documented, test scripts will be converted into regression automation suites, and deployed to be used for for a continuous integration lifecycle.
QA Engineer Salary Scale in Canada
The average salary for Quality Assurance (QA) Engineers in Canada is $80,000 per year. The cost of living in your city and province determines a lot about where you fall on the scale. Experienced QA engineers may see an increase in salary, while entry-level salaries are extremely competitive. Here is an average salary scale as tracked by busyqa.com and reported on Indeed and Pay Scale.
1 - 3 years of experience : $45,000 to $70,000
4 - 7 years of experience : $80,000 to $90,000
8+ years : $90,000+
Management/Executive : $120,000+
Consultant (per hour) : $20 - $120/hr
Ways to Remain Competitive in the Market
With large salaries going to candidates with a minimum of five years experience with a certificate, diploma or university degree, employers will still hire less experienced Engineers with in demand skills in Automation (Mobile + Web), Cloud, and DevOps. An Engineer with these unique combination of skill set is known as a QA Operation (QAOps) Engineer. This role will be more in demand in 2022 with an average salary of $92,000.
Expertise and Skills Required.
Here are the top skills employers are looking for in 2021:
- Web & Mobile Testing in an Agile lifecycle
- Testcase design, execution and management
- Defect Management
- RESTful API Testing
- Automation Framework Development
- Test Driven Development
- Automation Testing
- Mobile Automation Testing
- CI/CD Automation Pipeline
- Cloud
QA Engineer Career Prospects
When deciding on a job path, most people consider their long-term possibilities. In the field of quality assurance, there are three areas for professional development:
QA Freelancer/Consultant: In this role, you tend to be paid by the hour and chose to work on a contract basis. Perks are typically higher pay for the more experienced consultants. The risk tends to be contract extension and renewal anxiety.
QA Architect/QA Lead: In this role, you have chosen to stay technical and be up to date with all things latest in technology. You will design the Test strategy and lead the testing activities in a company or project. You will lead several QA Engineers but not necessarily manage their careers.
QA Manager/Executive: You have leadership qualities and will be in charge of setting the vision and goals for Product Quality. You will be in charge of the department budget, hiring, and managing the career development and progression of the QA Engineers reporting to you.
Several QA Engineers also transition to Project Management, Product Management, Developer, or CTO depending on your strengths and goals.
Employment Outlook for QA Engineers
The digital world has forever changed with the help of the Covid-19 pandemic. The need for quality assurance engineers in Canada is significant because it's crucial that digital products are free of bugs before they are launched and sold. The bright side is that there are plenty of jobs for QA engineers in Canada, with a predicted growth rate of 6% through 2022.
If you are interested in learning more about QA Engineering or upgrading your skills to allow you earn more, then reach out to us at BusyQA. We know one or two things (or maybe 3 lol) about QA Engineering. Our well known training comes with a Co-op opportunity and highly skilled trainers. Click here to see our schedule.