Quality assurance director vs quality consultant

The differences between quality assurance directors and quality consultants can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a quality assurance director has an average salary of $140,937, which is higher than the $79,541 average annual salary of a quality consultant.

The top three skills for a quality assurance director include continuous improvement, quality standards and oversight. The most important skills for a quality consultant are healthcare, data collection, and project management.

Quality assurance director vs quality consultant overview

	Quality Assurance Director	Quality Consultant
Yearly salary	$140,937	$79,541
Hourly rate	$67.76	$38.24
Growth rate	3%	3%
Number of jobs	66,888	88,944
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 65%	Bachelor's Degree, 61%
Average age	48	44
Years of experience	6	-

What does a quality assurance director do?

The job of a quality assurance (QA) director is to oversee all QA functions across the company. Your duties typically include working closely with other department heads to deliver high-quality products on time, hiring managers and analysts, and establishing and maintaining a quality system to make sure that company guidelines and regulatory standards are met. Additionally, you will be responsible for ensuring quality by monitoring, appraising job results, and planning. You are also expected to maintain technical and professional knowledge by reviewing professional publications, participating in professional associations, and attending workshops.

What does a quality consultant do?

A quality consultant specializes in developing and recommending strategies to optimize a company's production and quality assurance operations. Their responsibilities typically revolve around understanding the company's project goals and requirements, performing extensive research and analysis, gathering and analyzing product data, identifying the strengths and weaknesses of current quality control procedures, and studying the clients' feedback. Through their research findings, a consultant draws and presents conclusions, along with recommendations and solutions against vulnerable areas. Moreover, a quality consultant may enhance policies and regulations, suggesting new ones when necessary.

Quality assurance director vs quality consultant salary

Quality assurance directors and quality consultants have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Quality Assurance Director	Quality Consultant
Average salary	$140,937	$79,541
Salary range	Between $97,000 And $203,000	Between $61,000 And $103,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	Alaska	California
Best paying company	Upstart Network	Aetna
Best paying industry	Professional	Technology

Differences between quality assurance director and quality consultant education

There are a few differences between a quality assurance director and a quality consultant in terms of educational background:

	Quality Assurance Director	Quality Consultant
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 65%	Bachelor's Degree, 61%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	University of Pennsylvania	Western Carolina University

Quality assurance director vs quality consultant demographics

Here are the differences between quality assurance directors' and quality consultants' demographics:

	Quality Assurance Director	Quality Consultant
Average age	48	44
Gender ratio	Male, 63.8% Female, 36.2%	Male, 57.8% Female, 42.2%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 3.8% Unknown, 3.9% Hispanic or Latino, 13.0% Asian, 9.1% White, 69.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5%	Black or African American, 6.4% Unknown, 4.6% Hispanic or Latino, 9.4% Asian, 8.8% White, 70.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4%
LGBT Percentage	8%	11%

Differences between quality assurance director and quality consultant duties and responsibilities

Quality assurance director example responsibilities.

Manage the USDA inspection process including coordinating daily production and communicating with federal personnel.
Manage initial USDA regulatory visits, working collaboratively with USDA inspectors leading audit preparation and follow-up activities and reports.
Direct and coordinate quality and regulatory affairs activities to support new product development, improving GMP compliance.
Provide GxP support and oversight for all Genocea development programs.
Set and execute vision for QRM consistent with corporate objectives and ICH Q9.
Develop and update metrics within the QMS to provide meaningful feedback to stakeholders.

Quality consultant example responsibilities.

Lead cross functional project team to build user-friendly windows base customer support applications which interface with the OmniPlan/OmniPlus mainframe application.
Assist in the review of members records and work on reconciliations to submit to CMS for HEDIS.
Provide independent verification for FDA remediation efforts and assure GRQP CAPA requirements are effectively deploy.
Evaluate the HEDIS and CAHPS data and present to appropriate committees for further analysis including root cause analysis.
Collect, analyze and report data to monitor outcomes and meet HEDIS, NCQA and regulatory reporting requirements.
Provide expertise in the interpretation and application of 21CFR 110 & 111, HACCP and ISO certification for corporate management.

Quality assurance director vs quality consultant skills

Common quality assurance director skills

Continuous Improvement, 8%
Quality Standards, 7%
Oversight, 5%
Test Automation, 5%
Scrum, 4%
FDA, 4%

Common quality consultant skills

Healthcare, 13%
Data Collection, 8%
Project Management, 7%
Patient Safety, 7%
Performance Improvement, 6%
Quality Improvement, 6%

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Quality Assurance Director
Quality Assurance Director vs Quality Consultant

Updated January 8, 2025

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