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1.5Diversity of Skills Within a QA Team
A high-performing QA team is not five people with identical skills. It is a group with complementary expertise that collectively covers the quality spectrum.
| Role | Focus | When to Hire |
|---|---|---|
| Manual / Exploratory Tester | Deep product knowledge, edge case discovery, usability | Always -- this is the foundation |
| Automation Engineer | Test framework design, CI/CD integration, maintenance | When manual testing cannot keep up with release velocity |
| Performance Specialist | Load testing, profiling, capacity planning | When performance is a competitive differentiator or SLA requirement |
| Security Tester | Vulnerability assessment, penetration testing, compliance | When handling sensitive data or facing regulatory requirements |
| SDET | Testability improvements, developer tooling, test infrastructure | When the team needs someone who bridges QA and development |
| QA Lead / Coach | Process design, mentoring, stakeholder communication | When the team reaches 3-4 QA engineers |