Software QA and test engineers design test plans and automation to verify software quality before release. Based on 6,653 certified H-1B and PERM filings from U.S. Department of Labor disclosure data, the median sponsored salary for a QA / Software Test Engineer is $118,450 per year.
| Percentile | Annual salary |
|---|---|
| 10th (entry) | $84,132 |
| 25th | $100,000 |
| 50th (median) | $118,450 |
| 75th | $140,005 |
| 90th (senior) | $163,918 |
Every other salary site shows the LCA-posted wage — the wage for the position. Using USCIS I-129 petition data, we can compare that against the actual pay the sponsored worker received, and the prevailing-wage floor, across 3,036 matched QA / Software Test Engineers petitions.
The median worker is paid 2.4% above the posted LCA wage, but the mean actual pay runs 12.1% above the mean posted wage — so the upside is concentrated in the top earners. 21.7% are paid above their posted wage, 77.2% at it, and 1.2% below.
Actual-pay data covers FY2021–FY2024 cap-subject H-1B lottery petitions matched to certified LCAs (aggregates only). Base wage excludes equity and bonuses, so it is not total compensation. Source: I-129 petition data sourced from USCIS, obtained by Bloomberg.
Of 6,653 filings, 215 are H-1B (temporary work visa) and 6,438 are PERM (green-card labor certification, 97% of the total).
| # | Employer | Filings | Avg. salary |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | APPLE INC. | 145 | $140,640 |
| 2 | TATA CONSLTANCY SERVICES LIMITED | 93 | $139,266 |
| 3 | Deloitte LLP | 83 | $103,942 |
| 4 | ServiceNow, Inc. | 80 | $153,768 |
| 5 | AMAZON.COM SERVICES LLC. | 59 | $146,075 |
| 6 | THE MATHWORKS, INC. | 55 | $122,147 |
| 7 | Cisco Systems Capital Corporation | 49 | $150,120 |
| 8 | CAPGEMINI AMERICA INC | 48 | $108,398 |
| 9 | Accenture LLP | 45 | $124,704 |
| 10 | WAL-MART ASSOCIATES, INC. | 42 | $136,402 |
| 11 | CGI Technologies and Solutions Inc. | 42 | $128,166 |
| 12 | INFINITE COMPUTER SOLUTIONS INC | 42 | $118,250 |
| 13 | FORTINET, INC. | 40 | $155,312 |
| 14 | CHARLES SCHWAB CO., INC. | 39 | $123,086 |
| 15 | Mphasis Corporation | 38 | $115,861 |
| 16 | NOKIA OF AMERICA CORPORATION | 36 | $143,913 |
| 17 | TESLA, INC. | 32 | $152,422 |
| 18 | LUCID USA, INC. | 32 | $154,375 |
| 19 | HEWLETT PACKARD ENTERPRISE COMPANY | 30 | $159,360 |
| 20 | FMR LLC | 30 | $113,821 |
| State | Filings | Avg. salary |
|---|---|---|
| California | 559 | $144,010 |
| Texas | 259 | $107,350 |
| New York | 135 | $132,885 |
| New Jersey | 117 | $118,731 |
| Massachusetts | 95 | $123,480 |
| Georgia | 79 | $105,596 |
| Virginia | 76 | $104,815 |
| Michigan | 61 | $101,209 |
| Illinois | 56 | $112,016 |
| North Carolina | 55 | $115,045 |
| Florida | 51 | $108,201 |
| Ohio | 46 | $102,426 |
Specific titles employers file under this occupation. Click through for a per-title salary profile.
Salaries are the certified offered annual wage on public U.S. Department of Labor H-1B (LCA) and PERM disclosure filings, not a guarantee of pay. Occupation is the DOL-assigned Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) code.