Merck KGaA Posted October 23, 2026

Director of Quality

Jaffrey, New Hampshire, United States Full time
Quality Director
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Merck KGaA is the source of truth for this posting and owns the application process. We surface normalized context and market comparison you won't find on the original listing.

About this opportunity

Work Your Magic with us!  Start your next chapter and join MilliporeSigma.

Ready to explore, break barriers, and discover more? We know you’ve got big plans – so do we! Our colleagues across the globe love innovating with science and technology to enrich people’s lives with our solutions in Healthcare, Life Science, and Electronics. Together, we dream big and are passionate about caring for our rich mix of people, customers, patients, and planet. That's why we are always looking for curious minds that see themselves imagining the unimaginable with us.

This role does not offer sponsorship for work authorization. External applicants must be eligible to work in the US.

Your Role

Quality is not a checkpoint, it is the foundation on which scientific progress is built. As Head of Site Quality, you will own and lead an approximately 200-person, multi-function Quality organization for a high-complexity Life Science manufacturing site. This is a senior site leadership role: you will sit on the site leadership team, set the quality vision, and drive both strategic direction and day-to-day execution across Quality Assurance, Quality Control laboratories, Quality Systems, Compliance, Supplier Quality, Audits, CAPA, product release and disposition, customer complaint resolution, and data integrity.

You will lead through a team of managers, holding full accountability for talent development, organizational design, and succession planning across the Quality function. You will own the quality budget, make business and resourcing trade-offs, and govern site-level quality KPIs that are visible to site and regional leadership. You will be expected to make sound, risk-based decisions under pressure, including during regulatory inspections, remediation programs, and complex deviation or CAPA investigations, and to demonstrate a track record of driving measurable Quality and organizational transformation.

You will champion digital quality initiatives that strengthen data integrity and operational efficiency, and partner closely with production, technical services, and commercial functions to ensure quality is integrated at every stage of operations, from supplier qualification and environmental monitoring through to product release and customer complaint resolution. Your leadership will directly shape audit readiness, inspection outcomes, and the continuous improvement agenda, making a measurable and lasting impact on compliance performance and customer satisfaction.

Who You Are

Minimum Qualifications:

Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Applied Engineering, Sciences, or a related field

10 or more years of progressive experience in quality management within a regulated manufacturing environment

Demonstrated leadership of a multi-function Quality organization at meaningful scale, leading through managers rather than solely as an individual technical contributor

Proven experience leading regulatory inspections (such as FDA or EMA), including leading remediation efforts and making difficult, risk-based decisions under pressure

Preferred Qualifications:

Advanced degree in a relevant scientific or engineering discipline

Experience owning full Quality scope, including Quality Assurance, Quality Control, Quality Systems, Compliance, Supplier Quality, Audits, CAPA, product release and disposition, and data integrity

Experience managing a quality budget and governing site-level quality performance metrics

Demonstrated leadership of measurable Quality or organizational transformation, with evidence of sustained improvement in compliance outcomes

Professional certifications in quality or regulatory frameworks such as Six Sigma Black Belt, ASQ, GMP, GLP, or GxP

Experience with quality management systems including ISO 9001, ICH Q9, and GMP in a Life Science manufacturing environment

Expertise in risk management, deviation handling, CAPA processes, and continuous improvement methodologies

Experience with digital quality platforms, electronic quality management systems, ERP platforms, and audit management tools

Familiarity with material analysis tools such as FTIR, DSC, microscopy, particle counters, and integrity testing

Understanding of validation and qualification processes, FMEA, SPC, sampling plans, and change control in regulated environments

Base Pay Range for this position – $154,700 – $290,300

The offer range represents the anticipated low and high end of the base pay compensation for this position. The actual compensation offered will be determined by factors such as location, level of experience, education, skills, and other job-related factors. Position may be eligible for sales or performance-based bonuses. Benefits offered by the Company include health insurance, paid time off (PTO), retirement contributions, and other perquisites. For more information click here .

What we offer: We are curious minds that come from a broad range of backgrounds, perspectives, and life experiences. We believe that this variety drives excellence and innovation, strengthening our ability to lead in science and technology. We are committed to creating access and opportunities for all to develop and grow at your own pace. Join us in building a culture of inclusion and belonging that impacts millions and empowers everyone to work their magic and champion human progress!

Apply now and become a part of a team that is dedicated to Sparking Discovery and Elevating Humanity!

Job details

Seniority
Director
Function
Quality
Therapeutic area
Not listed
Location
Jaffrey, New Hampshire, United States
Employment type
Full time

How this role compares

Computed from every other active Quality role in our database, not just this employer's listings.

We currently track 101 comparable Director Quality roles across 34 biopharma companies.

101Comparable roles tracked
98Currently active
34Companies hiring similar roles
18Countries represented

Salary context

44 of 101 peers report a salary range (USD, annualized)

Peers share this role's job function and a matching or adjacent seniority level -- not necessarily the same therapeutic area or country.

This roleSubject $154,700/yr – $290,300/yr
Peer group range $117,325 – $285,000 (median $206,588)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 101 comparable roles

United States61
Switzerland7
Belgium5
Ireland3
China3
Japan3

+ 12 more countries

Seniority mix

101 of 101 peers have a known seniority level

Principal38
Director34
Senior Director29

Therapeutic area mix

0 of 101 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

No peers with a known therapeutic area yet.

Similar opportunities

The closest matches from our peer group, ranked by how similar they are, not how well you'd qualify for them -- treat this as market context, not a guaranteed shortlist; a weak match is labeled as one below.

60%similar
AbbVie North Chicago, IL Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Gilead Sciences, Inc. Foster City, United States Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Gilead Sciences, Inc. Foster City, United States Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc (USA) Warren, United States Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Celgene - Summit (Corp) Summit West, United States Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc. Bedford, United States Director
Same function Same seniority Same country

Notify me about similar jobs

Get an email when we spot other openings like this one – same job function, comparable seniority, roles you'd actually want to see.

Or follow a whole field: get every new Quality job in the United States, and choose locations and companies.

How we calculate "similar"

No black box, no LLM guesswork: a deterministic score built from four normalized attributes. Here's this role's own peer group at different match levels, so you can see the mechanism, not just the result.

Every comparison starts from the same 100-point budget: 25 for working in the same function, 40 for the same therapeutic area, 20 for the same or adjacent seniority, 15 for the same country. A dimension we can't confirm on both sides contributes nothing, never a guess, never a free pass.

60%
Director, Clinical Quality Assurance
AbbVie · North Chicago, IL · Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Director, Global Patient Safety-Quality & Compliance
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc (USA) · Warren, United States · Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Director, Facilities & Equipment Quality Strategy, and Technical Oversight Support
Kite Pharma, Inc. · Santa Monica, United States · Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Director Quality Function
Teva Pharmaceuticals · Davie, Florida, United States · Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
Unmatched or unknown dimensions score exactly the same: 0 points, never a partial guess. A role we know almost nothing about beyond its function bottoms out at 25%; it never inflates to 100% just because there's little to compare against. Seniority uses a defined ladder (Associate → Manager → Associate Director → Senior → Principal → Director → Senior Director → Executive/VP) so "Director" and "Senior Director" count as adjacent, but "Director" and "Executive/VP" do not.