Test planning salary: $171K median
The median advertised Test planning salary is $171K a year, and the middle half of postings offer $140K to $203K: counted from 1,065 open roles that publish a yearly US-dollar range: about $82 an hour or $14,250 a month. A tenth of the postings offer $234K or more. Advertised ranges, not verified pay.
Check an offer against these figuresAll Test planning jobs
$171Kmedian advertised salary
$140K – $203Kmiddle half of roles
$175Kaverage advertised salary
1,065roles counted
Test planning salary by level
Lead roles advertise a median of $214K, 19% more than senior roles ($180K). The level comes from the job title; titles without a level word are counted separately.
| Level | Median salary | Middle half | Roles |
|---|---|---|---|
| Senior | $180K | $162K–$200K | 322 |
| Lead and above | $214K | $192K–$242K | 199 |
| No level in the title | $150K | $125K–$176K | 532 |
Test planning salary by location
| Name | Median salary | Roles counted |
|---|---|---|
| 🇺🇸San Francisco Bay Area | $202K | 237 |
| 🇺🇸Texas | $190K | 17 |
| 🇺🇸Seattle, WA | $182K | 53 |
| 🇺🇸Washington, DC | $182K | 20 |
| 🇺🇸California | $175K | 696 |
| 🇺🇸New York, NY | $175K | 41 |
| 🇺🇸United States | $172K | 1,035 |
| 🇺🇸Denver, CO | $160K | 39 |
| 🇺🇸Los Angeles, CA | $146K | 120 |
Skills that pay more for Test planning roles
| Skill | Median with it | Above the median | Postings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Firmware | $189K | +$18K | 162 |
| C++ | $186K | +$15K | 212 |
| CI/CD | $175K | +$4K | 129 |
| Python | $174K | +$3K | 527 |
| Hardware interfaces | $172K | +$2K | 131 |
Top-paying companies
| Name | Median salary | Roles counted |
|---|---|---|
| Anthropic | $362K | 5 |
| OpenAI | $284K | 11 |
| Scale AI | $262K | 5 |
| Apptronik | $246K | 6 |
| Pure Storage | $225K | 5 |
| Agility Robotics | $220K | 7 |
| Sunday | $220K | 4 |
| Waymo | $219K | 3 |
| Lightmatter | $217K | 10 |
| Shield AI | $216K | 20 |
| Reliable Robotics | $215K | 14 |
| 6sense | $214K | 3 |
| LangChain | $210K | 3 |
| Astera Labs | $208K | 19 |
| Fivetran | $204K | 13 |
| Zoox | $201K | 22 |
| Nuro | $200K | 7 |
| Skydio | $200K | 3 |
| Helion | $200K | 3 |
| CoreWeave | $198K | 3 |
| Heartflow | $198K | 3 |
| Muon Space | $196K | 20 |
| Figure | $195K | 7 |
| Oura | $192K | 7 |
| Chime | $191K | 4 |
Highest-paying open Test planning roles
All Test planning jobs- Threat Detection and Response Engineering ManagerOpenAI · 🇺🇸San Francisco$401K - $510KKubernetesOpenAI APIIncident response
- Staff+ Software Engineer, Safeguards EvalsAnthropic · 🇺🇸New York City, NY; San Francisco, CA; Seattle, WA$320K - $485KLead and aboveLLMAI agentsLLM evaluation
- Design Verification Engineer, HardwareRiver AI Inc. · 🇺🇸Palo Alto, CA; Austin, TX$200K - $420KPythonCI/CDBash
- Data Center OFE - Sourcing Lead, Data Center Power & CoolingAnthropic · 🇺🇸Remote-Friendly, United States$320K - $405KRemoteLead and aboveTest planningControl systemsFirmware
- Applied AI Software Engineer, GTM Growth EngineeringOpenAI · 🇺🇸San Francisco$266K - $405KPythonLLMAI
- Product Manager, Inference PlatformBaseten · 🇺🇸San Francisco$200K - $400KHybridMachine LearningLLMPyTorch
- Lead Reliability EngineerSabi · 🇺🇸San Francisco$300K - $400KHybridLead and aboveTest planningFirmwareFMEA
- Head of Aircraft Quality (R6146)Shield AI · 🇺🇸Seattle, WA, US$266K - $398KLead and aboveTest planningAuditSoldering
- Staff Machine Learning Engineer, Shopping AdsPinterest · 🇺🇸San Francisco, CA, US; Palo Alto, CA, US; Seattle, WA, US$223K - $390KLead and aboveGoMachine LearningLLM
- Staff Product Manager - AI EvalsTwenty · 🇺🇸Arlington, VA$161K - $389KLead and aboveAISecurity clearanceAI agents
- Manager, Software Engineering - Design Systems AdherenceFigma · 🇺🇸New York, NY; San Francisco, CA • New York, NY • United S…$258K - $376KLLMAI agentsData quality
- Manager II, Engineering, Serving InfrastructurePinterest · 🇺🇸Palo Alto, CA, US; San Francisco, CA, US$208K - $365KGoPythonJava
- Member of Technical Staff, AI Developer ExperienceCrosby · 🇺🇸New York City$200K - $360KPythonLLMAI
- Principal Propulsion EngineerRocket Lab · 🇺🇸Long Beach, CA$162K - $351KLead and aboveTest planningHydraulics
- Tech Lead Manager, AI EvaluationsGlean · 🇺🇸Mountain View, CA; San Francisco, CA$250K - $350KLead and abovePythonLLMCI/CD
- Staff Machine Learning Engineer, Public SectorScale AI · 🇺🇸Denver, CO; Washington, DC$274K - $343KLead and abovePythonMachine LearningLLM
- Senior Sensor Integration Engineer (R5128)Shield AI · 🇺🇸Seattle, WA, US$154K - $342KSeniorPythonMATLABSecurity clearance
- Software Engineer, AI Product SecurityNotion · 🇺🇸San Francisco, California$270K - $340KHybridAIApplication securityThreat modeling
- Director, Data Center Equipment QualityLambda · 🇺🇸San Francisco Office (Fremont St)$227K - $336KHybridLead and aboveMachine LearningSix Sigma certificationTest planning
- Lead Scientist, Strategic DefenseAnduril Industries · 🇺🇸Washington, District of Columbia, United States$253K - $336KLead and abovePythonC++MATLAB
Questions about Test planning pay
- What is the average Test planning salary?
- $175K a year on average and $171K at the median, across 1,065 open Test planning postings at companies that state pay (November 2026). The median is the better guide: a few very high offers pull the average up.
- What is the typical range?
- The middle half of the postings offer $140K to $203K a year. A quarter offer less and a quarter offer more.
- Which companies advertise the highest Test planning pay?
- Anthropic ($362K), OpenAI ($284K), Scale AI ($262K), by the median of their open postings that state pay (three postings or more).
- Is a test planning a high-paying job?
- The median Test planning posting advertises $171K a year, less than the median of all 55,899 job postings with pay on Jobs Every Hour ($174K). That is 2% below the middle of the market.
- How much can you earn as a test planning?
- A tenth of the postings offer $234K a year or more; the highest open Test planning role advertises up to $510K. Pay rises with level: see the table by level.
- What is the Test planning salary per hour and per month?
- The median of $171K a year is about $82 an hour (2,080 working hours) and $14,250 a month before tax. The middle half of postings: $67 to $98 an hour.
- Which skills pay more for Test planning roles?
- Postings that ask for Firmware (+$18K, 162 postings), C++ (+$15K, 212 postings), CI/CD (+$4K, 129 postings) advertise more than the $171K median of all Test planning postings with pay.
- What does an entry-level test planning make?
- 12 junior and intern Test planning postings state pay, with a median of $102K a year ($49 an hour).
- Where do these figures come from?
- From the pay ranges employers print in their own job postings, read from their careers pages every hour. The midpoint of each range is counted. These are advertised ranges for open roles, mostly in the United States and in US dollars, not what people are actually paid.
Writing about this? A sentence you can quote
The median advertised salary for Test planning roles at companies is $171K a year, and the middle half of postings offer $140K to $203K. Counted from 1,065 open job postings that state pay, November 2026. Source: Jobs Every Hour, https://jobseveryhour.com/salaries/test-planning/
Free to use with the link.