A QA is not the same as a tester but this argument has been going on for 20+ years and will never go away. I'm a tester and I fit into a QA process (which I may or may not have been involved in)
Tester if that is what they are doing, if they are setting up the QA process then they are QA. My title is Exploratory Tester as that's what I've been doing for the last 8 years where I am, working on multiple projects at a time finding the (few) bugs the devs missed with their automated and manual testing
If you were to search job boards for a new position, is that what you'd type in? (I'm contemplating how testers see themselves.)
I'm fond of V&V (verification and validation) but I have to thank my first boss for insisting on us using that term. Our job was to develop the tests based on specs and requirements, and sometimes run them. The machines were the testers unless we didn't have it automated yet. We also supplied input in requirements and design discussions because of what we knew of the system, even if we weren't technically the ones writing the software (or even, strictly, designing it).