Director of Quality

Coherent • Newark, NJ

3d • Hybrid

About The Position

The Director of Quality will lead the design, deployment, governance, and continuous improvement of production processes, business systems, and quality management systems. This role serves as the ISO 9001 Management Representative and provides leadership for various audits. The position drives enterprise-wide quality transformation initiatives focused on cost of quality reduction, waste elimination, throughput, and yield improvement. It also leads customer-facing quality activities and drives supplier quality performance. The Director will lead, develop, and mentor the Quality organization, fostering a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and engagement, ensuring quality objectives align with corporate and business unit strategic plans.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering or a technical discipline required.
• Minimum of 12 years of progressive experience in quality leadership within a regulated manufacturing environment, including quality systems, auditing, and continuous improvement.
• Strong leadership, statistical analysis, quality systems expertise, problem-solving capability, communication skills, and ability to operate in regulated manufacturing environments.
• Must meet ITAR eligibility requirements.
• All employees are required to follow the site EHS procedures and Coherent Corp. Corporate EHS standards.

Nice To Haves

• Master’s degree preferred.
• Experience with ceramics, materials, machining, and/or semiconductor industry strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design, deployment, governance, and continuous improvement of production processes, business systems, and quality management systems.
• Serve as ISO 9001 Management Representative and provide leadership for internal, external, customer, and certification audits.
• Ensure compliance with all applicable quality standards, customer requirements, and regulatory obligations.
• Drive enterprise-wide quality transformation initiatives focused on cost of quality reduction, waste elimination, throughput, and yield improvement.
• Establish, monitor, and achieve key quality and operational performance metrics, including but not limited to PPM, cost of quality, nonconformities, and warranty performance in accordance with Coherent and Business Unit standards and requirements.
• Deploy and standardize advanced quality and continuous improvement tools (SPC, FMEA, MSA, DOE, value stream analysis, Lean, Six Sigma, 6s) across the organization.
• Lead customer-facing quality activities including complaint resolution, audits, corrective actions, and warranty management.
• Build and maintain strong customer relationships through timely, effective, and world-class quality responses.
• Drive supplier quality performance and partner with suppliers to resolve complex quality issues and improve capability.
• Lead, develop, and mentor the Quality organization, fostering a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and engagement.
• Ensure quality objectives are aligned with corporate and business unit strategic plans and integrated across Operations, Engineering, Supply Chain, and Commercial teams.
• Execute and maintain the ISO 9000, 9001, 14001 and/or other applicable standards that may apply to the relevant roles and responsibilities within the Quality Management System and Environmental Management System.
• Ensure adherence to company’s values (ICARE) in all aspects of your position at Coherent Corp.

Benefits

• Coherent Corp. is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director