About the Opportunity

Quality is not something that can be inspected into a product at the end of production.

It has to be engineered into the materials, processes, equipment, documentation, supplier relationships, measurement systems, and decisions that create the product in the first place.

We are seeking an accomplished Quality Control Manager to lead a sophisticated quality-control organization supporting high-volume and/or high-precision manufacturing operations where product performance, regulatory compliance, customer expectations, and operational reliability are inseparable.

This leader will have responsibility for the systems and teams responsible for determining whether incoming materials, in-process production, and finished products consistently meet established specifications and quality standards.

The environment may include complex manufacturing processes, automated equipment, laboratory or metrology operations, regulated documentation, global suppliers, multiple product families, sophisticated measurement systems, and demanding customer requirements.

The Quality Control Manager will work at the intersection of Manufacturing, Engineering, Quality Assurance, Supply Chain, Procurement, R&D, Regulatory, Operations, and supplier organizations.

The mandate goes substantially beyond supervising inspectors.

You will develop inspection and testing strategies, improve measurement capability, analyze defect patterns, lead investigations, strengthen nonconformance controls, support CAPA, improve supplier quality, prepare for audits, develop quality talent, and provide leadership with an accurate view of product and process quality.

A critical part of this role is knowing when a quality event is isolated—and when it is evidence of a deeper process problem.

When a defect occurs, the objective is not simply to separate acceptable material from unacceptable material.

The organization must understand:

What happened? Why did it happen? Could it happen elsewhere? What risk does it create? And what must change to prevent recurrence?

The successful leader will combine technical quality expertise with strong operational judgment.

You should be comfortable walking a production floor, reviewing statistical trends, challenging an investigation, discussing tolerances with Engineering, addressing supplier performance, preparing for an audit, and explaining quality risk to senior operational leadership.

We are looking for a manager who can build a culture where quality is understood not as the responsibility of one department, but as a fundamental operating discipline across the organization.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

QUALITY SYSTEM I — Quality Control Operations

Lead day-to-day quality-control activities supporting manufacturing and production operations.
Establish clear inspection, testing, release, and disposition processes.
Ensure incoming materials, work-in-process, and finished products meet approved requirements.
Maintain appropriate staffing and coverage across quality-control operations.
Develop standardized QC procedures.
Ensure inspection activities are completed accurately and on schedule.
Maintain appropriate traceability of quality records.
Continuously improve QC operating effectiveness.

QUALITY SYSTEM II — Inspection & Testing Strategy

Develop risk-based inspection and testing plans.
Define appropriate sampling methodologies.
Partner with Engineering on specifications and acceptance criteria.
Evaluate inspection frequency based on process capability and historical performance.
Ensure measurement methods are appropriate for the characteristics being evaluated.
Improve detection of critical quality conditions.
Reduce unnecessary inspection where stable process capability supports alternative controls.

QUALITY SYSTEM III — Nonconformance Management

Maintain disciplined control of nonconforming material and product.
Ensure appropriate identification, segregation, documentation, and disposition.
Lead or support material review activities.
Evaluate quality and operational risk.
Prevent unauthorized use or shipment of nonconforming product.
Analyze recurring nonconformance patterns.
Escalate systemic quality issues appropriately.
Ensure dispositions are technically justified and documented.

QUALITY SYSTEM IV — Root Cause & CAPA

Lead investigations into significant quality failures.
Apply structured root-cause methodologies.
Challenge superficial conclusions such as “operator error” when deeper process causes exist.
Develop corrective and preventive actions.
Establish measurable effectiveness criteria.
Monitor CAPA through closure.
Evaluate whether corrective actions should be extended across additional products, equipment, processes, or facilities.

Methods may include:

5 Whys
Fishbone analysis
Fault Tree Analysis
8D
DMAIC
FMEA
Statistical analysis

QUALITY SYSTEM V — Statistical Quality Control

Establish meaningful quality-performance indicators.
Apply statistical techniques to understand process variation.
Monitor defect and failure trends.
Support statistical process control where appropriate.
Evaluate process capability.
Partner with Manufacturing and Engineering on process improvements.
Use data to distinguish common-cause variation from special-cause events.
Develop quality dashboards for operational leadership.

QUALITY SYSTEM VI — Supplier Quality

Partner with Procurement and Supply Chain on supplier-quality performance.
Establish incoming-quality expectations.
Monitor supplier defects and nonconformance.
Lead or support supplier corrective-action requests.
Participate in supplier audits and qualification activities.
Develop improvement plans for underperforming suppliers.
Evaluate quality risk associated with supplier changes.
Support development of a resilient and capable supply base.

QUALITY SYSTEM VII — Measurement Systems & Metrology

Ensure inspection and measurement equipment is appropriately controlled.
Maintain calibration requirements.
Support Gauge R&R and measurement-system analysis.
Evaluate measurement uncertainty where applicable.
Ensure inspection equipment is suitable for required tolerances.
Partner with Engineering on new measurement technologies.
Improve metrology capability for complex product characteristics.

QUALITY SYSTEM VIII — Audit & Regulatory Readiness

Maintain continuous readiness for internal, customer, certification, and regulatory audits.
Support audit preparation and execution.
Provide accurate quality documentation.
Respond to audit findings.
Develop corrective-action plans.
Ensure sustainable closure of observations.
Promote audit readiness as an everyday operating condition rather than a temporary activity.

QUALITY SYSTEM IX — Quality Management Systems

Support and strengthen quality systems aligned with applicable requirements, which may include:

ISO 9001
ISO 13485
AS9100
IATF 16949
FDA requirements
GMP / cGMP
Customer-specific quality requirements
Other industry-specific standards

Ensure processes remain aligned with the standards applicable to the organization’s products and markets.

QUALITY SYSTEM X — Manufacturing & Engineering Partnership

Work directly with Manufacturing Engineering and Operations on quality improvement.
Participate in process-change reviews.
Support new equipment introduction.
Participate in validation and qualification activities where applicable.
Review manufacturing process capability.
Identify opportunities for mistake-proofing and defect prevention.
Support development of robust process controls.
Provide quality input into manufacturing strategy.

QUALITY SYSTEM XI — New Product Introduction

Represent Quality Control during new-product introduction.
Review drawings, specifications, tolerances, and control requirements.
Develop inspection strategies for new products.
Support first-article inspection.
Participate in process qualification.
Identify potential quality risks before production scale-up.
Ensure inspection and testing capability is established before launch.

QUALITY SYSTEM XII — Customer Quality

Support investigation of customer quality concerns.
Provide technically accurate responses.
Coordinate containment activities where required.
Lead root-cause and corrective-action efforts.
Support customer quality reviews.
Monitor recurring customer-quality themes.
Help rebuild confidence following significant quality events.

QUALITY SYSTEM XIII — Digital Quality & Automation

Improve the use of digital tools across QC operations.
Support electronic quality-management systems.
Develop automated quality dashboards.
Evaluate opportunities for machine vision and automated inspection.
Improve electronic data capture.
Explore AI-assisted trend detection and quality analytics where appropriate.
Reduce manual administrative work without weakening quality controls.
Partner with Technology and Engineering on digital-quality initiatives.

QUALITY SYSTEM XIV — Team Leadership

Lead, coach, and develop Quality Engineers, QC Specialists, Inspectors, Technicians, Analysts, or Laboratory personnel as applicable.
Establish clear performance expectations.
Develop technical capabilities within the team.
Improve cross-training.
Establish succession plans for critical quality positions.
Create an environment where employees can raise quality concerns without hesitation.
Recognize strong quality leadership across the broader operation.

Job Qualifications and Requirements

8+ years of progressive quality experience within manufacturing, life sciences, medical devices, aerospace, automotive, electronics, industrial technology, or another high-precision production environment.
3+ years of quality leadership or people-management experience strongly preferred.
Strong understanding of Quality Control and Quality Management Systems.
Demonstrated experience with nonconformance and CAPA.
Strong root-cause-analysis capabilities.
Experience applying statistical quality methods.
Understanding of process capability and control.
Experience working with manufacturing and engineering teams.
Knowledge of supplier-quality processes.
Experience preparing for internal, customer, or regulatory audits.
Strong understanding of inspection and measurement practices.
Experience interpreting engineering drawings and specifications where applicable.
Strong written documentation skills.
Demonstrated ability to communicate quality risk to senior leadership.
Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Quality, Manufacturing, Life Sciences, Chemistry, Operations, or another relevant technical discipline preferred.

Highly Valued Experience

Experience with several of the following is particularly valuable:

ISO 9001
ISO 13485
AS9100
IATF 16949
FDA / cGMP environments
Lean Manufacturing
Six Sigma
SPC
FMEA
PPAP
APQP
MSA / Gauge R&R
8D
CAPA
Supplier Quality
First Article Inspection
Validation / Qualification
Automated inspection
Machine vision
eQMS platforms

Certifications such as ASQ Certified Quality Engineer (CQE), Certified Manager of Quality/Organizational Excellence (CMQ/OE), Six Sigma Green Belt, Six Sigma Black Belt, or comparable credentials are valued.

Personal Capabilities and Qualifications

Quality Judgment

You can distinguish a cosmetic deviation from an issue capable of affecting product performance, compliance, safety, or customer confidence.

Root-Cause Curiosity

You do not accept the first convenient explanation for a recurring problem.

Manufacturing Awareness

You understand that quality systems must protect product integrity while remaining practical within real production environments.

Data Orientation

You prefer evidence, trends, capability data, and validated measurements over assumptions.

Constructive Challenge

You can challenge Operations, Engineering, suppliers, and leadership professionally when quality requirements demand it.

Decision Discipline

You are comfortable making difficult product-disposition and quality-risk decisions.

Leadership Presence

You can establish high standards without creating a culture where employees hide problems.

Continuous Improvement

You look beyond containment and ask how the process can be redesigned so the defect becomes less likely to occur again.

Strategic Support

The Quality Control Manager may contribute to broader enterprise initiatives involving:

Manufacturing excellence
Quality transformation
New product introduction
Supplier development
Manufacturing automation
Digital quality
Cost of poor quality reduction
Operational excellence
Lean transformation
Capacity expansion
Facility startup
Regulatory readiness
Product lifecycle management
Customer-quality improvement
Process standardization
Quality analytics
AI-enabled inspection

The role will provide leadership with a critical perspective on how manufacturing decisions affect product quality, customer confidence, regulatory exposure, cost, and long-term operational performance.

Working Conditions

This position may require regular presence within manufacturing, laboratory, warehouse, cleanroom, or production environments depending on the operation.
Appropriate personal protective equipment may be required.
Periodic exposure to manufacturing equipment and controlled industrial environments should be expected.
Regular interaction with Manufacturing, Engineering, Supply Chain, Procurement, Operations, and Quality teams.
Occasional domestic travel may be required for suppliers, customers, audits, or other facilities.
International travel may occasionally be required depending on the supply chain.
Additional availability may occasionally be necessary during significant quality events, audits, production launches, or customer escalations.
The position requires appropriate handling of confidential product, supplier, regulatory, technical, and customer information.

Job Function

Primary Function: Quality Control & Manufacturing Quality Leadership

Operational Scope: Product + Process + Supplier Quality

Core Areas:

Compensation & Benefits

The anticipated compensation range for this position is:

$145,000 – $205,000 annually

Final compensation will consider quality leadership experience, manufacturing complexity, technical expertise, regulatory background, team scope, industry experience, geographic considerations, and overall qualifications.

The broader total rewards package may include:

Annual performance incentives
Equity or long-term incentives where applicable
Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage
Retirement savings with employer contributions
Generous paid time off and company holidays
Professional certification support
Technical and leadership development
Relocation assistance where applicable
Technology and professional resources
Wellness and family-support programs

Why Join Us

A mature quality organization does more than find defective products.

It learns why defects happen and systematically removes the conditions that created them.

That distinction matters.

In this position, you will have the authority to influence quality from supplier selection and incoming material through manufacturing, inspection, final release, and customer performance.

You will partner directly with engineers and operational leaders rather than operating as a quality function separated from the business.

You will have opportunities to modernize inspection, strengthen measurement systems, improve supplier performance, introduce better analytics, develop quality talent, and explore technologies such as machine vision, automation, and AI-assisted quality intelligence.

Most importantly, you will help shift the organization’s quality philosophy from:

Detect → Contain → Correct

toward:

Understand → Prevent → Control → Continuously Improve

For a quality leader who wants responsibility beyond inspection and compliance, this role provides the opportunity to build systems that make exceptional product quality increasingly predictable at scale.

Quality Control Manager