QA Seniority Levels
A technology company relies on the quality of its products to stand out in the market, and QAs play a critical role in delivering reliable software, ensuring innovation, productivity, and impact.
Here are the expected seniority levels for QAs, focusing on core skills, behaviors, and responsibilities.
QA Trainee
- You are new to the field of software quality (prior experience is a plus).
- You are in the organization to learn the fundamentals of testing and how it connects to the software development lifecycle.
- You have curiosity and a thirst for knowledge, proactively exploring tools and concepts.
- You are willing to work with different types of testing (manual and automated) to understand the complete process.
- You accept feedback as a growth opportunity and are always open to learning from more experienced colleagues.
QA Junior
- Technical Skills:
- Handles tasks related to manual testing and basic automation:
- Write test cases based on requirements.
- Perform exploratory testing.
- Create and execute simple automation scripts.
- Solves problems within their scope and collaborates to identify bugs.
- Understands agile methodologies such as Scrum or Kanban.
- Handles tasks related to manual testing and basic automation:
- Behavior:
- Begins to specialize in a specific area (e.g., automation, performance, or integration).
- Contributes to the quality of small projects or modules, seeking guidance for more complex situations.
- Expected Experience: Between 1 and 3 years. It is expected that you advance to the next level within 3 years.
QA Mid-Level
- Technical Skills:
- Works consistently and autonomously on tasks such as:
- Designing and executing test strategies for entire projects.
- Creating and maintaining test automation frameworks.
- Identifying critical system points and suggesting quality improvements.
- Understands the basics of CI/CD and automated testing pipelines.
- Maps quality risks and prioritizes tests based on business goals.
- Works consistently and autonomously on tasks such as:
- Behavior:
- Clearly presents the results of analyses and tests.
- Collaborates to disseminate best quality practices within the team.
- Expected Experience: Between 3 and 5 years. Should demonstrate autonomy and strong technical skills to progress to the next level.
QA Senior
- Technical Skills:
- Possesses deep theoretical and practical knowledge in testing and quality engineering:
- Advanced test design.
- Performance, security, and integration testing.
- Robust automation tools and frameworks.
- Solves complex quality problems and designs strategic solutions for the entire system.
- Influences the team's technical decisions, aligning quality with business goals.
- Possesses deep theoretical and practical knowledge in testing and quality engineering:
- Behavior:
- Acts as a mentor and technical guide, helping the team evolve.
- Understands when incurring "quality debt" is necessary and plans how to mitigate it.
- Expected Experience: At least 5 years in the field.
QA Lead
- Technical Skills:
- Responsible for all quality-related deliverables of a team:
- Defining test strategies and acceptance criteria.
- Monitoring project quality metrics.
- Leads through influence, engaging and motivating team members to achieve high standards.
- Clearly communicates to the client how quality decisions impact business outcomes.
- Visualizes the "big picture" and how different aspects of quality connect (automation, performance, coverage, etc.).
- Responsible for all quality-related deliverables of a team:
- Behavior:
- Easily navigates between technical topics, from test architecture to implementation details.
- Inspires and develops talent within the team.
- Expected Experience: Minimum of 5 years, with at least 2 years as a senior.
These levels serve as a reference to guide career development and align expectations. While each person’s growth is unique and exceptions may exist, this guide provides a foundation to support the evolution of QA within DB1.