Test Engineer Job Description, Duties, Salary and More

What is a Test Engineer?

The Test Engineer's job description centers around testing product offerings before releasing in order to ensure that they meet the intended specifications. They work with product engineering and other departments to understand the design objectives for the intended product, and then create tests that can be used to determine whether the product is meeting them. They may also test for other qualifications like the meeting of safety standards, durability, or ease of use. Using their findings, they help recommend solutions to any problems that may be discovered.

What are the usual duties and responsibilities of a Test Engineer?

• Study product specifications and company procedures
• Define measurable goals that can be used to evaluate the effectiveness
• Keep up with the latest test automation techniques and software
• Develop a testing framework than can be performed across departments to assess products
• Perform and/or monitor the testing process
• Document specific test cases
• Collect test results into reports
• Perform data analysis on the test results to understand the results and detect trends
• Make recommendations for product improvements
• Help other engineers demonstrate and implement possible improvements

What is the average Test Engineer's salary?

Indeed.com reports that the average salary annual for a Test Engineer in the United States is about $84,232.

Glassdoor.com reports the average annual base pay for Test Engineers at about $81,010 per year, a total estimated average total pay of $99,933. They report that salaries across the industry usually range between $73 and $156k. They estimate total compensation for new Test Engineers in their first year of experience to average around $91k.

These numbers will vary based on locale, experience, employer, and other factors.

Top Cities to work in as a Test Engineer

Test Engineers work in many places. To help give you a place to start in determining which areas might be a good fit for pursuing work as a Test Engineer, here's a list of cities with some of the highest salaries for the position as reported by Indeed.com. Also included is the cost of living index and city populations as reported by Numbeo and World Population Review. 

San Jose, CA

Average Test Engineer salary in San Jose, CA: $97,800 per year (based on 49 reported salaries).

Cost of living index: 80.40.

Population: 1,003,120

Fremont, CA

Average Test Engineer salary in Fremont, CA: $93,495 per year (based on 14 reported salaries).

Cost of living index: 73.30

Population: 251,007

Irvine, CA

Average Test Engineer salary in Irvine, CA: $91,722 per year (based on 25 reported salaries).

Cost of living index: 76.54

Population: 304,408

Chicago, IL

Average Test Engineer salary in Chicago, IL: $91,385 per year (based on 8 reported salaries).

Cost of living index: 77.21

Population: 2,671,640

San Diego, CA

Average Test Engineer salary in San Diego, CA: $90,070 per year (based on 30 reported salaries).

Cost of living index: 78.81

Population: 1,429,650

Houston, TX

Average Test Engineer salary in Houston, TX: $85,980 per year (based on 9 reported salaries).

Cost of living index: 67.16

Population: 2,325,350

Eglin AFB, FL

Average Test Engineer salary in Eglin AFB, FL: $85,651 per year (based on 9 reported salaries).

Cost of living index: Not Ranked

Population: 2,152

Huntsville, AL

Average Test Engineer salary Huntsville, AL: $81,783 per year (based on 27 reported salaries).

Cost of living index: Not Ranked

Population: 207,921

Troy, MI

Average Test Engineer salary in Troy, MI: $81,593 per year (based on 5 reported salaries).

Cost of living index: Not Ranked

Population: 84,035

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