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QA Engineer Salary and Equity in Chicago 2026
How much does a QA Engineer expect to make at Chicago-based startups? The average expected salary for QA Engineers in Chicago-based startups is 96k per year, with a range from 39k to 125k. These amounts were gathered from Wellfound self-reported data and represent the median salary range. The salary range for QA Engineers in Chicago startups varies depending on factors such as industry, experience, skills, and startup stage.
96.0k
Average Salary
1 years
Average years of experience
Salary
The average salary for a QA Engineer in Chicago is $96,000, which is 15.0% lower than the average Chicago startup salary of$112,875. QA Engineer salaries in Chicago are based on exclusive Wellfound data. All data is updated on a weekly basis. Factors that may influence salary include: years of experience, title, size of company, skill-set, and industry.
Top of market
$116,667/yr
Range $100k - $125k
Average
$96,000/yr
Range $85k - $108k
Below Average
$74,833/yr
Range $39k - $106k
Industries
The highest average salary a QA Engineer in Chicago can get in Industrial, that is $168,000. This pay is 0.6% higher than the average QA Engineer salary in Chicago, which is $167,050. The highest-paying industries in 2023 are: Industrial (avg $168,000 per year), Venture Capital (avg $167,500 per year), Payments (avg $167,500 per year).
Tech Stack
The highest average salary a QA Engineer in Chicago can get with GCP, that is $170,000. This pay is 50.6% higher than the average salary in Chicago startups, which is $112,875. Salary range for specific skills will vary based on the supply and demand in the current market.
Top Tech Stacks
The top-paying QA Engineer skills in Chicago of 2026 are:
1. GCP
$170k
2. Azure
$155k
3. Go
$155k
4. C#
$148k
5. Ruby
$143.5k
6. AWS
$143.5k
7. C++
$139.5k
8. Splunk
$128.5k
9. Java
$128.5k
10. Python
$128.5k
Years of experience
Below Average
Average
Top of Market
The highest average salary a QA Engineer in Chicago can get with 10+ years of experience, that is $128,500. This pay is 13.8% higher than the average salary in Chicago startups, which is $112,875. The salary range varies with years of experience and depends on other factors such as skill set, size of company, and industry.
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