BLS OEWS, May 2025

QA engineer salary in Houston, TX

What QA engineers are paid in Houston, TX, from the 10th to the 90th percentile, with how your own pay compares. Figures from the BLS OEWS release dated May 2025.

Median annual pay

$98,690

Middle half earn

$70,890 to $126,360

People in this job here

2,420

Pay check

Am I underpaid?

$

Stays in your browser. No account needed.

Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers, Houston, TX, annual pay, May 2025

10th percentile
$51,800
25th percentile
$70,890
Median
$98,690
75th percentile
$126,360
90th percentile
$147,360

Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025, SOC 15-1253. Percentiles across everyone employed in the occupation, not experience levels.

At a glance

How Houston, TX compares

  • The median here is 5% below the national median of $104,300.
  • Houston, TX ranks 32nd for median pay among the 49 largest US metros with published figures for this occupation.
  • About 2,420 people work in this occupation here, roughly 1 in every 1,359 jobs in the metro.
  • Pay varies widely within the job: the 90th percentile earns 2.8 times the 10th.

Worked from BLS OEWS, May 2025. Not adjusted for the cost of living.

Houston, TX against the national figures
PercentileHouston, TXNational
10th percentile$51,800$61,440
25th percentile$70,890$80,310
Median$98,690$104,300
75th percentile$126,360$133,180
90th percentile$147,360$167,010

Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025, SOC 15-1253. National page for QA engineers

By metro

Other metros for QA engineers

Median annual pay in the largest US metros where BLS published figures for this occupation, highest first, May 2025.

Medians from BLS OEWS, May 2025.

Skills

What employers look for in a QA engineer

The skills our QA engineer resume example leads with, written for US employers.

  • Test automation
  • Playwright
  • Cypress
  • Selenium
  • API testing
  • Postman
  • Test strategy
  • Regression suites
  • CI integration
  • Performance testing

See the full QA engineer resume example, with bullets and keywords.

Negotiating

Using these numbers

Below $70,890 puts you in the bottom quarter for QA engineers in Houston, TX. That is worth raising, with evidence of what you deliver.

The median, $98,690, is the middle of the market, not a ceiling. An offer at or near it is a fair starting point to negotiate from.

Asking for $126,360 or more puts you in the top quarter, so it needs a reason an employer will accept: a wider scope, a competing offer, or a skill that is hard to hire for.

Percentiles are not experience levels. They describe everyone doing the job, so a senior hire can sit at the median of a market full of senior people.

About the numbers

What these figures are

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics surveys employers for its Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, and these figures are from the release dated May 2025. They cover wage and salary workers in Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers, a category that is often broader than a single job title. Self-employed people are not included.

They are base pay: bonuses, equity and overtime are not included, and they are not adjusted for the cost of living. The metro is Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX as BLS defines it.

Questions

Questions about QA engineer pay in Houston, TX

Know your number? Now get the offer.

Get a free resume score in seconds, read straight from your file.

Check my resume freeQA engineer resume example