 |
Quality Assurance Director is one of the key roles in an organization. Their main task is to define and promote a quality mindset across the entire team. The main objective of the QA Director is primarily focused on implementing and maintaining high-quality standards and policies, compliance, and regulatory procedures to ensure that customers’ expectations are met when it comes to deliverables. They also hold the key responsibility in overseeing, managing, and monitoring all quality assurance staff and functions as per the organization’s internal guidelines and standards and industry best practices. They have an important role to play in hiring Quality Analysts and Managers to lead incident investigations to manage and mitigate quality risks. This role brings together the technology, people, and processes necessary to support the delivery of streamlined, technology-enabled business services.
Various Designations of QA Directors
Now that we are familiar with the importance of Quality Assurance and have an idea of the importance of “Director of QA” in the process. Let’s familiarize ourselves with the different designations that a QA Director can hold. They can also be called Quality Head, Head of QA, Senior Manager QA, Director QA, Lead/Manager- Quality Assurance, Director of QA Practices, Head of TCOE, and Head of Testing. Though the names are different, the roles and responsibilities, skills, and qualifications are all the same and needed to make the role a success. In the following sections, we shall learn more about the same.
Common Traits of QA Director Jobs:
- Proven and extensive experience in the IT industry in adopting and implementing best QA practices.
- Solid technical and domain-related knowledge.
- Good communication, management, and leadership skills.
- Paying attention to details.
- Good analytical, problem-solving, project planning, and writing skills.
- Can negotiate and influence people.
- Good coaching and mentorship skills.
- Collaborative and confident.
- Product Management skills.
- Knowledge of industry-based regulatory and compliance policies and standards.
- Ability to work with cross-functional teams
- Can communicate with a wide spectrum of stakeholders.
- Ability to multitask and work within timelines.
- Professional in handling any situation within the organization, official or interpersonal.
- Should have an agile mindset.
- Critical skills for analyzing data with a keen eye for monitoring granular level details.
- Able to detect anomalies and guide the team on how to resolve them, along with formulating a resolution strategy.
Roles and Responsibilities
- Define, adopt and implement best QA practices for the development of quality products and software.
- Promote a quality mindset throughout the organization and cross-functional teams.
- Establishes reliability standards by studying product and consumer requirements thoroughly with other members of management and stakeholders.
- Devising best testing procedures and strategies.
- Creation of product or software quality documentation by writing and updating quality assurance procedures.
- Responsible for enforcing regulatory and compliance policies and procedures.
- Compiles product and process quality reports by gathering, analyzing, and summarizing data and trends.
- Fulfills quality assurance operational needs by scheduling and assigning personnel and monitoring the outcome of their work.
- Builds a quality assurance staff by recruiting, selecting, orienting, and training employees.
- Manages and monitors quality assurance staff job results by coaching, counseling.
- Ensures quality standards are met by planning, monitoring, and identifying gaps and giving solutions.
- Attends industry workshops/seminars and stays up-to-date with professional publications.
- Reaches financial goals by creating the quality assurance budget, identifying discrepancies, and implementing corrective actions.
- Contributes to team effort by motivating and mentoring them as and when required.
- Develops, reviews, and publishes standards, policies, and procedures for all functions involved with or related to quality and testing.
- Ensures all QA tools are fully utilized by all the members of the team and knowledge is properly transferred.
- Creates and maintains reports on Quality metrics.
- Executes project plans and revises them as appropriate to meet changing requirements.
- Interacts with all involved stakeholders to coordinate release plans.
- Identifies the training requirements to meet the quality standards.
- Plans and monitors the tests, and inspects the products to ensure their quality.
- Makes documentation of internal audits and quality assurance activities.
- Reviews and approve risk management documentation.
- Responsible for communicating project progress to Project Managers and CTO.
- Provides support for all quality-related aspects of the design process, including quality planning, verification and validation planning and execution, risk management, and regulatory and compliance support.
- Planning and execution of a timely release of material.
- Compiling of daily & monthly QC report.
- Review of stability testing results trend.
- Ensuring products meet customer expectations and promised specifications without variation.
- Understanding the work, challenges, and needs of partners in management, production teams, and engineers.
Moving Up the Ranks in Quality Assurance
As seen from the sections above, with higher roles come greater responsibilities. The designation of Director of QA combines multiple skills, such as technical, domain-specific, and soft skills. The role demands good leadership, management, and communication skills, which help drive the entire team towards a common goal of attaining the highest quality.
To pursue a career as Director of QA, one needs to gain expertise in the field of Quality Assurance and Testing. The entry point required could be by earning a bachelor’s or master’s degree in computer science followed by practical experience in the IT industry. To go up the ladder, one can also get relevant training and certifications. Refer here.
The training will help in developing skills that can be used to demonstrate the knowledge gained in the relevant field. Attending webinars, seminars, online courses and workshops, and professional organizations that offer such opportunities to learn and grow can be other means to gain knowledge.
List of Jobs
You can search for the most recent QA director jobs here.
