Every H-1B job starts with a public filing. Before an employer can sponsor someone, it files a Labor Condition Application (LCA) with the US Department of Labor. The application names the job title, where the job is, and the wage it will pay. DOL publishes those filings every quarter, so we went through them for testing roles: SDETs, QA engineers, test engineers, QA leads and managers.
This article covers fiscal year 2025 (October 2024 to September 2025) and fiscal year 2026 so far (October 2025 to June 2026). Here's what they show about who sponsors testers, where the jobs are, and what they pay.
The big picture
| FY2025 (12 months) | FY2026 (Oct 2025–Jun 2026, 9 months) | |
|---|---|---|
| Certified full-time testing filings | 12,851 | 8,559 |
| Filings per quarter | 3,213 | 2,853 (−11%) |
| Employers filing | 3,852 | 3,019 |
| Median offered base salary | $105,000 | $108,700 (+3.5%) |
| Middle half (25th–75th percentile) | $87,700 – $128,500 | $91,400 – $130,000 |
| Top 10% earn at least | $154,000 | $156,500 |
The two headlines:
- Volume is down and pay is up. FY2026 is running about 11% fewer testing filings per quarter than FY2025, while the median offered salary rose about 3.5%.
- Fewer, better-paid roles. Fewer jobs are being filed, and the ones that are filed pay a little more. The rest of the data helps explain why.
Pay by role
| Role | FY2025 filings | FY2025 median | FY2026 filings | FY2026 median |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| QA Engineer | 4,903 | $102,700 | 3,317 | $104,700 |
| Test Engineer | 3,016 | $102,000 | 1,911 | $102,500 |
| QA Lead | 1,340 | $109,100 | 850 | $119,900 |
| SDET | 1,185 | $116,000 | 833 | $115,200 |
| QA Automation Engineer | 1,038 | $101,000 | 786 | $100,000 |
| QA Manager | 912 | $132,900 | 542 | $138,200 |
| Test Architect | 252 | $125,100 | 169 | $129,000 |
| Performance Test Engineer | 152 | $103,700 | 114 | $110,200 |
| Security Tester | 44 | $136,600 | 33 | $142,000 |
What stands out:
- SDETs out-earn QA automation engineers by about $15,000 at the median, even though both titles describe automation work. Employers that file the job as "SDET" tend to be product companies that pay engineering rates.
- Leadership pays, and its premium is growing. QA Lead medians rose almost 10% year over year, and QA Managers almost 4%.
- Specialists earn more. Security and performance testers are few, but they sit at the top of the ranges.
Pay by level
DOL sets a "wage level" (I to IV) for each job, based on the experience and responsibility the job requires. It describes the job, not the person, but it's a reasonable stand-in for seniority.
| Level | FY2025 median | FY2026 median |
|---|---|---|
| Junior (Level I) | $80,000 | $83,700 |
| Mid (Level II) | $95,000 | $94,700 |
| Senior (Level III) | $118,300 | $115,000 |
| Lead / Staff (Level IV) | $125,000 | $129,000 |
| Manager / Head | $132,900 | $138,200 |
Most filings, about 43%, are at Level II. Entry-level testing roles are a small share: fewer than one filing in ten in both years.
Who sponsors testers
FY2025: top 10 employers
| # | Employer | Filings | Median |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cognizant | 668 | $102,600 |
| 2 | Capgemini | 342 | $120,000 |
| 3 | Amazon | 285 | $153,900 |
| 4 | Accenture | 216 | $116,300 |
| 5 | Tata Consultancy Services | 203 | $87,500 |
| 6 | LTIMindtree | 182 | $101,800 |
| 7 | HCLTech | 182 | $102,600 |
| 8 | Compunnel Software Group | 149 | $103,500 |
| 9 | Mphasis | 147 | $101,600 |
| 10 | IBM | 117 | $102,800 |
FY2026 so far: top 10 employers
| # | Employer | Filings | Median |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cognizant | 293 | $104,500 |
| 2 | Amazon | 238 | $147,200 |
| 3 | Capgemini | 231 | $120,000 |
| 4 | Compunnel Software Group | 145 | $103,000 |
| 5 | Accenture | 112 | $128,500 |
| 6 | Tata Consultancy Services | 86 | $91,600 |
| 7 | Wipro | 75 | $94,600 |
| 8 | Mphasis | 70 | $105,000 |
| 9 | HCLTech | 68 | $114,100 |
| 10 | Apple | 68 | $147,400 |
The IT services firms are pulling back. In FY2025, the large consulting and outsourcing firms (Cognizant, TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCLTech, Capgemini, Accenture, LTIMindtree, Tech Mahindra, IBM, Mphasis and others) filed 21% of all testing applications. In FY2026 so far, that's down to 16%.
- Cognizant filed at less than half its FY2025 pace (668 filings in 12 months vs. 293 in 9).
- LTIMindtree and TCS fell even more sharply.
- The market is also less concentrated: the top 10 employers filed 19% of all applications in FY2025 and 16% in FY2026.
That shift explains much of the higher median. A smaller share of filings comes from firms that pay near the prevailing-wage floor, so the overall median rises.
Big tech: fewer roles, higher pay
| Employer | FY2025 filings · median | FY2026 filings · median | Most filed as |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon | 285 · $153,900 | 238 · $147,200 | QA Engineer, SDET |
| Apple | 70 · $164,200 | 68 · $147,400 | SDET, QA Automation |
| 43 · $178,400 | 27 · $173,000 | Test Engineer | |
| Salesforce | 40 · $182,000 | 18 · $177,700 | Test Architect |
| Cisco | 36 · $132,200 | 25 · $137,000 | QA Engineer |
| Meta | 35 · $192,900 | 4 · $227,500 | QA Lead |
Amazon is the single largest sponsor of testers among product companies, and it is now #2 overall. These are base salaries only; big tech's bonus and stock come on top, which the filings don't show.
Where the jobs are
By state
| State | FY2025 share · median | FY2026 share · median |
|---|---|---|
| Texas | 19.0% · $100,000 | 18.0% · $106,700 |
| California | 15.1% · $135,000 | 15.6% · $138,000 |
| Georgia | 5.8% · $101,000 | 6.0% · $97,500 |
| New Jersey | 5.5% · $104,000 | 4.8% · $106,300 |
| North Carolina | 5.0% · $103,400 | 4.7% · $112,200 |
| Illinois | 4.4% · $99,200 | 4.7% · $104,700 |
| Washington | 3.6% · $125,000 | 4.2% · $131,800 |
Texas, not California, files the most testing jobs: almost one in five. California pays a third more at the median.
By metro area
| Metro area | Filings (both years) | FY2025 median | FY2026 median |
|---|---|---|---|
| SF Bay Area | 1,840 | $152,300 | $152,600 |
| Dallas–Fort Worth | 1,716 | $96,000 | $102,500 |
| Atlanta | 884 | $101,000 | $98,000 |
| New York | 623 | $125,000 | $125,500 |
| Seattle | 615 | $126,100 | $134,700 |
| Austin | 610 | $106,700 | $114,800 |
| Chicago | 492 | $100,000 | $104,700 |
| Raleigh–Durham | 401 | $107,500 | $112,200 |
| Charlotte | 362 | $106,400 | $111,500 |
| Washington DC | 321 | $106,500 | $110,000 |
Dallas–Fort Worth almost matches the Bay Area in volume, at about two-thirds of its pay. Austin, Seattle and Raleigh–Durham saw some of the biggest median increases.
SDET spotlight
Filings: 2,018 SDET filings across both years, with a median of $116,000 in FY2025 and $115,200 in FY2026.
Top sponsors:
- Amazon: 144 filings
- Apple: 69
- Akamai: 44
- Compunnel: 42
- Concentrix: 37
- the TikTok / ByteDance group: 73 across its US entities
- Sony Interactive Entertainment: 20
Where SDETs earn the most:
| Metro area | SDET filings | Median |
|---|---|---|
| SF Bay Area | 284 | $172,900 |
| Seattle | 125 | $155,400 |
| San Diego | 45 | $139,500 |
| Austin | 77 | $124,900 |
| Dallas–Fort Worth | 147 | $106,000 |
| Atlanta | 105 | $105,000 |
An SDET in the Bay Area is offered about 60% more than one in Dallas or Atlanta. That's a bigger regional gap than for testing roles overall.
What this means for you
- If you're job-hunting on an H-1B: product companies are a growing share of sponsors, and they pay noticeably more than services firms. Amazon, Apple, Google and Salesforce file testing roles every year.
- If you're choosing between titles: the same automation work filed as "SDET" pays more at the median than when it's filed as "QA Automation Engineer". Look at what the role actually involves, and at which title the employer files it under.
- If you're negotiating: these numbers are base salary floors that employers committed to in writing. Total compensation at larger companies is often much higher.
How we got these numbers
- Source: the US Department of Labor's public LCA disclosure files for FY2025 (all four quarters) and FY2026 (October 2025 to June 2026).
- Which filings: only applications DOL marked Certified, for full-time positions, in the software quality assurance occupation, or with a testing title in another software occupation. Withdrawn and denied applications are excluded, and so are repeat filings for the same position.
- Pay: the offered wage, converted to a yearly salary. It's base pay only; bonuses, stock and benefits aren't in the filings.
- Level: DOL's prevailing-wage level, which describes the job, not the person.
- Location: the first worksite on each filing. Where a city isn't one we track, the filing counts toward its state but not a metro area.
- What an LCA is not: an approved H-1B petition. It's the step before one, so a certified LCA doesn't mean the role was filled or the visa granted.
- Who's in it: H-1B roles only. US citizens and green-card holders aren't in this data.
Explore the numbers yourself
This article only scratches the surface. On /salaries you can look up pay for SDETs, QA engineers, test engineers and more:
- by level, company, state and metro area
- with the median and the full range
- updated as new filings and member submissions come in
Working in testing? Share your own salary anonymously at /salaries. Every submission makes the numbers better for the whole community.
