Quality Director

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Full Time Professional Newark, DE, US

5 days ago Requisition

The Quality Director reports to the Vice President of Operations & Quality and provides strategic direction and leadership for Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC) across LaMotte's Newark, Delaware and Chestertown, Maryland facilities. This role owns the Quality Management System (QMS), maintains ISO 9001 compliance, and ensures products meet customer expectations, applicable regulatory requirements, and company quality standards. The Director translates business priorities into quality objectives and resource plans, develops quality talent, and establishes consistent practices across both sites.

Working with Operations, Engineering, Supply Chain, R&D, and EHS, this leader drives effective problem solving, continuous improvement, and a culture of quality and customer satisfaction.

1. Strategic Direction

• Develop and maintain a three- to five-year quality strategy aligned with LaMotte's business objectives, manufacturing requirements, and customer expectations.
• Translate the strategy into annual quality objectives, resource plans, and improvement priorities; identify quality risks and recommend investments in people, processes, and testing capabilities.
• Advise executive leadership on quality performance, significant customer and supplier issues, and compliance risks; communicate progress and recommend changes.

2. Quality Leadership Across Both Facilities

• Direct QA and QC activities across Newark and Chestertown, balancing staffing, technical resources, and priorities with plant leadership while maintaining a regular presence at both sites.
• Lead, coach, and develop the QA/QC Compliance Manager, QC Managers, QC Supervisors, and QC Technicians; establish responsibilities, performance expectations, training, and succession plans.
• Standardize quality practices across both facilities and partner with Operations, Engineering, Supply Chain, R&D, and EHS to resolve significant product and process quality issues.

3. Ownership of the Quality Management System

• Own LaMotte's QMS across both facilities; maintain and continually improve ISO 9001 compliance through defined responsibilities, management reviews, and corrective actions.
• Oversee document control for procedures, work instructions, specifications, forms, and quality records; ensure current, approved documents are available where work is performed.
• Lead quality review and approval of engineering, manufacturing, and process changes through change management; ensure quality requirements are addressed before implementation.
• Direct internal, customer, and third-party audits; ensure readiness, timely closure of findings, and verification that corrective actions are effective.

4. Product Quality, Customer Satisfaction, and Supplier Quality

• Oversee QA and QC activities that verify manufactured products meet approved specifications; ensure consistent testing practices and effective, documented pass/fail decisions.
• Lead investigations of customer complaints, nonconformances, and quality escapes; coordinate containment and resolution, elevate significant concerns, and communicate findings and actions to customers and leadership as appropriate.
• Own the Corrective and Preventive Action (CAPA) process, including investigations, root cause analysis, action planning, implementation, and effectiveness verification.
• Oversee Supplier Corrective Action Requests (SCARs), monitor supplier quality performance, and partner with Supply Chain and Engineering to resolve recurring supplier issues.

5. Continuous Improvement and Quality Performance

• Lead the Quality Steering Committee, establish quality performance measures, and present trends in NCM, RMA, customer complaints, and corrective action effectiveness to leadership.
• Champion Lean Manufacturing, statistical process control (SPC), root cause analysis, and quality-focused improvement projects; attend Lean Gemba walks and verify sustained results.
• Partner with the Director of Engineering and value-stream leaders within LaMotte's Operational Excellence (OpEx) process to prioritize quality improvements, reduce scrap and rework, and strengthen employee problem‑solving capability.

• Bachelor's degree in engineering, chemistry, quality, manufacturing, industrial…