What Is a Quality Manager? Job Description, Skills to Become One

Businesses across every industry are always striving to achieve their best. Their best products or their best services help build a loyal consumer base, paired with the best processes and procedures to do so effectively and efficiently. 

Quality management is a key tool for achieving your brand’s best before going to market. Through a continuous process of controlling, monitoring, and improving quality, businesses can ensure consistent excellence in their products and services.

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An Overview of the Quality Manager

When operating within a competitive global marketplace, it’s more important than ever for businesses to deliver high-quality products and services that continue to grow the customer base, which is why so many are investing in a quality management program for their organization. 

Leading the charge, a quality manager is essential in helping organizations achieve continued success in their respective industries. Always striving for continuous improvement and excellence, quality managers work diligently to improve internal and external processes, practices, and products to provide consumers with the best value possible. 

For a quality manager, their work is never complete. By implementing a variety of quality improvement methods, including Lean Six Sigma, ISO, the Toyota Production System, and many more, quality managers repeatedly work toward a primary goal of product and process improvement.

Quality Manager Qualifications and Skills

 The skills qualifications and skills required from a Quality Manager are:

• To convey their findings to the production managers and corporate leadership.
• Employees should receive quality assurance training for all aspects of the production process.
• To examine goods or services to make sure they adhere to quality standards.
• Organize meetings with production or service management to learn more about the policies and practices followed by the business.
• Should possess superior business management skills and manufacturing management experience.

Quality Managers should be diligent in their work, excellent in organizing and managing meetings, and have leadership qualities.

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Quality Manager Job Description

A Quality Manager is responsible for developing and implementing procedures for inspecting, testing, and evaluating the quality of products in accordance with the company’s standards. During the preparation of reports, they collect data regarding inspections or other aspects such as the cleanliness of the production line, which are then analyzed in great detail.

Quality Manager: Top Duties and Qualifications

An industry-specific standard should be used to gauge the quality of products or services by the Quality Manager. A Quality Manager should:

• Compile and analyze information regarding the company’s goods or services.
• Understand regional, provincial, and federal laws that apply to the sector.
• Be able to write clear, informative reports that highlight the main findings.
• Have the ability to discuss quality standards and how to accomplish them with other employees.

Quality Manager Job Summary

The Quality Manager, also known as the Quality Assurance Manager, examines the finished product to ensure that it was produced by legal requirements and checks if it fulfills consumer expectations. A superb Quality Manager is meticulous and attentive.

A QM must be well aware of the specifications for the goods or services being produced and must feel accountable to current and potential clients. 

Example 

For instance, the Quality Manager at Canbrands Speciality Foods Inc. oversees the function’s adherence to the Food Safety and Quality Management System. The QM maintains certifications for organic and gluten-free products and stays current on regulatory changes and training.

Quality Manager Responsibilities

The responsibilities in this role will vary based on the industry, size of business, and internal company requirements. Typical duties include:

• Reviewing customer feedback and understanding customer demands and expectations of products and services
• Managing waste in production and improving efficiency within production processes
• Creating production plans for new products with a focus on quality
• Assessing the quality of a product or services through a variety of stress tests
• Working with management teams to provide recommendations and solutions to quality issues
• Reporting on the quality of products and/or services throughout all phases of production
• Assessing and reviewing all materials provided by suppliers to ensure overall quality
• Investigating root causes of defects and recommending solutions for quality issues
• Onboarding and training new quality control team members
• Staying up to date with new quality control techniques and methods

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Quality Manager Salary

Quality managers play an important role in the overall success of their company and are compensated accordingly. The average quality manager salary in the United States is $83,255. Along with salary, quality managers are often additionally compensated through company profit sharing programs and benefits such as drug insurance, 401(k) matching, health insurance and disability insurance.

Quality Manager Jobs

Enticed by the lucrative quality manager salary? Applicants who are looking to start their career in quality management can find jobs on online job boards such as Indeed.com, Zip Recruiter, and Simply Hired, or use professional social networking sites such as LinkedIn to connect with hiring managers. 

To give you an idea of the breadth of quality manager jobs available at any given time, here are 10 new positions currently available across the United States:

1. Quality Assurance Manager – US Department of the Navy

Working within the Technical Support Division, Engineering and Planning Department, the U.S. Department of the Navy is hiring a quality assurance manager to monitor and control all products and services.

2. Quality Management Project Manager – CVS Health

CVS Health is hiring two quality management project managers for a work from home position with a background in quality or dental.

3. Quality Assurance Manager – Shenker, Inc.

Assist U.S. branches in achieving their GDP certification, maintaining their certification, and working towards continuous GDP process improvements across all U.S. branches. Click here to view the full job description.

4. Vaccine Quality Assurance Project Manager: COVID-19 Vaccine – AM LLC.

AM Trace is hiring a full-time quality assurance manager to assist their Orange County COVID-19 immunization programs.

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5. Quality Control Manager – Morris Inc.

Working with the FHWA construction project(s), Morris Inc. is looking for a quality control manager to ensure all phases of construction meet quality control objectives.

6. Quality Assurance Manager – Rubicon Gear

Rubicon Gear is hiring a quality assurance manager responsible for maintaining quality standards in all systems, processes, and procedures.

7. Senior Manager, Quality – West Pharmaceutical Services

West Pharmaceutical is hiring a senior quality manager to ensure all plant processes and products meet industry standards, to achieve high quality products.

8. Quality Manager – Liberty Personnel Services, Inc.

Liberty Personnel has an opening for a quality manager with several years of experience working in an FDA-regulated packaging environment.

9. Senior Quality Assurance Manager – Amazon

Amazon is hiring a quality assurance manager to create second-to-none automation for regression and feature testing, as well as develop and implement a high-level test strategy.

10. Senior quality manager – Apex Systems

Apex Systems is looking for a senior quality manager to develop and implement quality programs to improve their quality and customer processes.

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Top Industries With a Demand for Quality Managers

With a focus on maintaining a high level of excellence, it’s no surprise that organizations from a wide variety of industries depend on quality managers to develop top-notch products and services within their operations.

Some of the top industries that hire quality managers include:

• Manufacturing
• Healthcare and Pharmaceutical
• Food and Beverage
• Financial Institutions
• Government Departments 
• Legal Organizations

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FAQs

1. What does a Quality Manager do?

Quality managers develop processes for inspecting the quality of products. They ensure that the products match the company’s standards. 

2. What are the duties and responsibilities of a Quality Manager?

Quality managers understand the client requirements and scope of the project. They plan quality control processes, review tasks that involve stakeholders and maintain the set standards by the company. 

3. What makes a good Quality Manager?

Quality managers have excellent communication skills. They are good listeners and understand the depth of what others are saying. As they work in different projects, they are flexible and have a way with people. 

4. Who does a Quality Manager work with?

In today’s time,quality managers are found across industries. All B2C organizations have quality managers to examine the effectiveness of their products and customer satisfaction. 

5. Why is a Quality Manager good?

An excellent Quality Manager is detail-oriented and knowledgeable about the company’s products. They provide exemplary leadership that establishes the standard for how things should be done. They are always willing to help out when necessary and are meticulous in whatever they do.

6. What distinguishes a Quality Control Manager from a Quality Manager?

A Quality Control Manager can assert that the manager’s primary duty is to monitor the production process to guarantee product standards that differ from the Quality Manager.

7. A Quality Manager collaborates with whom?

A Quality Manager is someone who can manage both training lines and excel at building relationships with customers. They collaborate closely with a Quality Inspector to ensure that manufactured goods adhere to all specifications.