BLS OEWS, May 2025

QA engineer salary in San Francisco, CA

What QA engineers are paid in San Francisco, CA, 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

$134,630

Middle half earn

$97,320 to $168,050

People in this job here

5,880

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Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers, San Francisco, CA, annual pay, May 2025

10th percentile
$75,100
25th percentile
$97,320
Median
$134,630
75th percentile
$168,050
90th percentile
$205,990

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

At a glance

How San Francisco, CA compares

  • The median here is 29% above the national median of $104,300.
  • San Francisco, CA ranks 2nd for median pay among the 49 largest US metros with published figures for this occupation.
  • About 5,880 people work in this occupation here, roughly 1 in every 404 jobs in the metro.
  • Pay varies widely within the job: the 90th percentile earns 2.7 times the 10th.

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

San Francisco, CA against the national figures
PercentileSan Francisco, CANational
10th percentile$75,100$61,440
25th percentile$97,320$80,310
Median$134,630$104,300
75th percentile$168,050$133,180
90th percentile$205,990$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 $97,320 puts you in the bottom quarter for QA engineers in San Francisco, CA. That is worth raising, with evidence of what you deliver.

The median, $134,630, 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 $168,050 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 San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA as BLS defines it.

Questions

Questions about QA engineer pay in San Francisco, CA

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