What does a Quality Assurance Director do?

A quality assurance director (QA Dir) is responsible for ensuring that the overall standards of the company are met or exceeded within every area of the workplace. Often, a set of guidelines will be drafted by the quality assurance director to enforce the company’s values. The position is also often responsible for hiring skilled laborers, managing various developmental teams within the organization, and meeting with clients to design and modify products to fit their overall business needs. Another large aspect of this position is evaluating the performance histories of both employees and machinery to discover more efficient methods of operation.

The main responsibility of a quality assurance manager is the ability to lead, because in large, complex businesses, it is almost impossible for one person to directly oversee every aspect of this position. Training department managers to locate and correct potential problems before they occur is a huge aspect of quality assurance, not only from a profit standpoint, but also from a safety standpoint. In some industries, quality assurance directors also work alongside the staff to create new products or improve existing ones, meaning that they have to be extremely organized and very flexible within their daily operations.

In essence, all businesses ranging from a small mom-and-pop restaurant to a massive Fortune 500 company have a quality assurance director, even if that precise title is not given. Within smaller storefronts, these responsibilities may fall on the owner or the store manager, while in mid-sized companies, it may be the human relation’s director that handles these types of quality-control tasks. Large corporations normally have a full staff of employees that work directly under the quality assurance director to ensure that compliance is met within every facet of the business. Regardless of the actual title, none of those companies would remain in business long without this performance-driver leadership role.

Candidates applying to become a quality assurance director normally have at least a bachelor’s degree within the particular field of interest and managerial experience from previous employment. Besides the physical aspects of the job, this position is often responsible for the overall morale within the working environment, so strong leadership and communication skills are also mandatory. A thorough knowledge of the various pieces of machinery within that type of industry is also a key component to receiving a formal interview for the position.