QA Manager - Laboratories

A Day in the Life

Help shape the standard of quality. As our on-site QA Manager (QAM) in Orange, CA, you'll be responsible for leading all quality operations for the Orange Laboratory, including oversight of service centers and laboratory quality systems. The QAM ensures regulatory compliance and serves as the primary quality and compliance advisor to internal teams and external clients. Working closely with the QA Director, you'll drive continuous improvement and help ensure every result reflects our commitment to excellence.

Pay and benefits

The compensation range for this role is $80K - $100K, commensurate with experience, skills, and geographic location.

Schedule: Onsite, Monday - Friday

To thrive in this role, you'll be comfortable taking ownership of the following responsibilities:

• Lead quality governance across the business unit, ensuring all staff understand and adhere to the company's quality policy and procedures.
• Maintain consistent on-site presence to support daily quality operations.
• Ensure that laboratory accreditations are maintained and expanded, as needed.
• Oversee the Proficiency Testing program, including ordering, evaluating, and reporting samples; oversee development of effective corrective actions for any failures.
• Ensure that SOPs are well written, organized, and compliant with method and accreditation standards.
• Implement and improve the QA Program and QA Manual
• Proactively ensure compliance to the Laboratory's Ethics and Data Integrity program
• Monitor and enforce quality system compliance by identifying, preventing, and correcting departures from established standards.
• Oversee the Corrective Action Process, ensuring corrective actions are appropriate, effective, and fully implemented.
• Coach and mentor quality team members to strengthen technical skills, regulatory understanding, and problem-solving capabilities.
• Encourage employee participation in continuous improvement initiatives and cross-functional collaboration.
• Manage and host agency audits, client audits, and site visits; respond to audit reports.
• Prepare formal client communications, including investigation summaries and compliance letters.
• Manage, perform, and document internal audits and data assessments.
• Stay current with evolving regulatory requirements; interpret changes and recommend updates to laboratory policies and procedures.
• Oversee the QA-related training program; develop and deliver departmental and corporate training to meet compliance expectations.
• Oversee the personnel training program; ensure that demonstrations of capability are documented and retained.
• Partner with the Continuous Improvement Manager, Technical Directors, Operations Managers, Lab Director and clients to resolve complex quality issues, diagnose systemic issues, negotiate compliance-appropriate solutions and provide regulatory interpretation.
• Partner with Technical Directors and Operations Managers.
• Conduct all work in a safe, efficient manner aligned with company safety standards; complying with the Laboratory's Health and Safety Plan.
• Travel to the service centers within California, as necessary.
• Perform additional duties as assigned by senior leadership.

Your Expertise and Skills

These requirements reflect the knowledge, skills and abilities that help you do your best work here.

• Bachelor's degree in a scientific discipline or related field.
• 5+ years of experience in quality assurance, regulatory compliance, or related operations
• Working knowledge of TNI and/or ISO 17025 standards, industry regulations, 40CFR, or other regulated environments
• Demonstrated leadership experience, including coaching and mentoring teams.
• Excellent communication, analytical, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and work effectively with cross-functional teams
• Meet the minimum requirements of the facility's accrediting bodies

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Onterris is a leading global environmental solutions company partnering with organizations to solve complex challenges where environmental pressures, regulatory expectations and operational risks intersect. Guided by our mission to advance the way of life without compromising the integrity of our environment, we believe environmental responsibility and human progress are fundamentally connected.

Our scientists, engineers, field teams and consultants apply systems thinking that unites science, data and practical expertise to deliver solutions that strengthen our clients' resilience, mitigate risk and protect the air, water and soil that sustain communities, while uncovering responsible paths forward for planet and progress.