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How to hire a quality assurance lead manager

Quality assurance lead manager hiring summary. Here are some key points about hiring quality assurance lead managers in the United States:

  • The median cost to hire a quality assurance lead manager is $1,633.
  • It takes between 36 and 42 days to fill the average role in the US.
  • HR departments typically allocate 15% of their budget towards recruitment efforts.
  • Small businesses spend $1,105 per quality assurance lead manager on training each year, while large companies spend $658.
  • It takes approximately 12 weeks for a new employee to reach full productivity levels.
  • There are a total of 140,242 quality assurance lead managers in the US, and there are currently 66,665 job openings in this field.
  • San Francisco, CA, has the highest demand for quality assurance lead managers, with 5 job openings.

How to hire a quality assurance lead manager, step by step

To hire a quality assurance lead manager, consider the skills and experience you are looking for in a candidate, allocate a budget for the position, and post and promote the job opening to reach potential candidates. Follow these steps to hire a quality assurance lead manager:

Here's a step-by-step quality assurance lead manager hiring guide:

  • Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
  • Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
  • Step 3: Make a budget
  • Step 4: Write a quality assurance lead manager job description
  • Step 5: Post your job
  • Step 6: Interview candidates
  • Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new quality assurance lead manager
  • Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist
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  1. Identify your hiring needs

    First, determine the employments status of the quality assurance lead manager you need to hire. Certain quality assurance lead manager roles might require a full-time employee, whereas others can be done by part-time workers or contractors.

    Determine employee vs contractor status
    Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

    You should also consider the ideal background you'd like them a quality assurance lead manager to have before you start to hire. For example, what industry or field would you like them to have experience in, what level of seniority or education does the job require, and how much it'll cost to hire a quality assurance lead manager that fits the bill.

    Here's a comparison of quality assurance lead manager salaries for various roles:

    Type of Quality Assurance Lead ManagerDescriptionHourly rate
    Quality Assurance Lead Manager$38-66
    Lead Test TechnicianLead test technicians are professionals who are responsible for leading a group of test professionals to test products and report their findings to engineers or product developers. These technicians are required to design and develop test plans and procedures so that they can validate the requirements of products... Show more$31-48
    Test ManagerA test manager is responsible for supervising the content of test activities and ensuring that the scope meets the test requirements. Test managers monitor the test process and determine the accurate strategies to establish efficient methods for the success of test deliveries... Show more$34-57
  2. Create an ideal candidate profile

    Common skills:
    • QA
    • Regression
    • Selenium
    • Web Services
    • Manual Test Cases
    • Test Strategy
    • Scrum
    • Product Quality
    • Java
    • Jira
    • UAT
    • DEV
    • Test Scripts
    • ISO
    Check all skills
    Responsibilities:
    • Replace a paper/pencil driven reporting process with a SQL database to automate data collection and reporting for entire customer facing organization.
    • Perform API testing using in-house automation tools.
    • Interact with developers on code review in Java J2EE.
    • Release of raw materials, intermediates, and API.
    • Coordinate efforts between scrum teams, product owners, and architects.
    • Point of contact for all scrum teams across enterprise implementing functional automation.
    More quality assurance lead manager duties
  3. Make a budget

    Including a salary range in the quality assurance lead manager job description is a good way to get more applicants. A quality assurance lead manager salary can be affected by several factors, such as the location of the job, the level of experience, education, certifications, and the employer's prestige.

    For example, the average salary for a quality assurance lead manager in Tennessee may be lower than in California, and an entry-level engineer typically earns less than a senior-level quality assurance lead manager. Additionally, a quality assurance lead manager with lots of experience in the field may command a higher salary as a result.

    Average quality assurance lead manager salary

    $106,066yearly

    $50.99 hourly rate

    Entry-level quality assurance lead manager salary
    $81,000 yearly salary
    Updated December 5, 2025

    Average quality assurance lead manager salary by state

    RankStateAvg. salaryHourly rate
    1California$149,595$72
    2New York$123,030$59
    3New Jersey$122,989$59
    4Texas$117,135$56
    5Delaware$116,802$56
    6Nevada$114,124$55
    7North Carolina$113,424$55
    8New Hampshire$113,139$54
    9Maryland$112,557$54
    10Massachusetts$112,151$54
    11Kentucky$109,099$52
    12Hawaii$108,092$52
    13Georgia$106,659$51
    14Alaska$106,231$51
    15Pennsylvania$104,393$50
    16Ohio$102,689$49
    17Montana$101,367$49
    18Wyoming$99,812$48
    19Alabama$98,842$48
    20Illinois$98,641$47

    Average quality assurance lead manager salary by company

    RankCompanyAverage salaryHourly rateJob openings
    1BNY Mellon$127,006$61.0612
    2JPMorgan Chase & Co.$121,170$58.25102
    3Verizon Data Services Inc$116,899$56.20
    4Ernst & Young$116,691$56.10133
    5Randstad North America, Inc.$111,780$53.744
    6Net2Source$110,159$52.96
    7Frequence$107,160$51.52
    8Oakridge Infotech$107,160$51.52
    9Stonhard$106,871$51.38
    10CVS Health$104,795$50.38234
    11Dr. Reddy's Lab$104,496$50.24
    12Ernst Concrete$103,052$49.54
    13Pfizer$98,632$47.4213
    14Capgemini$96,156$46.2320
    15Pamten Inc$93,630$45.01
    16Salesforce$92,757$44.592
    17Feeding America$38,399$18.46
  4. Writing a quality assurance lead manager job description

    A quality assurance lead manager job description should include a summary of the role, required skills, and a list of responsibilities. It's also good to include a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager. Below, you can find an example of a quality assurance lead manager job description:

    Quality assurance lead manager job description example

    QA Lead, GCLP (Sr Manager Level)
    Contract (12 months + with possibility to convert to FTE)

    Location:
    hybrid, 3x per week in the office, ~8x per year traveling to do audits (domestic and international)

    Position Overview:
    The GCLP QA Lead is responsible for internal and external QA Activities to support GCLP program for Clinical Immunology and serological assessment of immunogenicity for compliance to SOPs and all relevant regulations, guidelines, and industrial best practices.

    Responsibilities include, but not limited to:
    • Application of RQA/WHO GCLP Quality Principles in a GCP driven environment in NVX Clinical Immunology (CI) and Serology Laboratories and differentiate and define GCLP regulatory and industry standards, as they relate to assay analysis in clinical research.
    • Perform routine QA duties to ensure GCLP compliance plus other regulatory requirements relating to oversight of CI laboratory activities for COVID19, Influenza, RSV and other immunological assays.
    • Develops, implements, and maintains policies, systems, procedures, and tools for CQA audit management of quality and sustained compliance with GCLP standards.
    • Develop, implement, and execute GCLP audit strategy and plan using risk-based approach and integrate that with the Global Audit Master Schedule for all audit types.
    • Manage new vendor qualifications and existing vendor re-qualification for the CI Lab with CQA-QMO group.
    • Support GCLP Regulatory health authority inspections
    • Lead, monitor and manage unplanned deviation investigations from audit findings/ Quality Events /Gap Analysis/Inspections by conducting root cause analysis, risk assessment, and CAPA with scientist, or SME within specified timeline and effectiveness checks.
    • Identify and follow-up on any unresolved audit findings identified in a CQA Audit.
    • Assist CI Lab Management on development of Quality Systems and SOPs for GCLP purposes and train laboratory staff on the same and new GCLP regulations and/or updates.
    • Participate in the selection of contract GCLP laboratories and associated vendors.
    • Participate in review and approval of bioanalytical methods transfer and internal method validation in Clinical Immunology.
    • Conduct contract laboratories monitoring; participate in out of trend and protocol deviations investigations.
    • Identify QA and compliance issues at external and internal testing laboratories; implement solutions to ensure timelines are maintained.
    • The candidate must be able to solve problems, communicate effectively, and trouble-shoot creatively within GCLP guidelines.
    • Preferred - WHO Good Clinical Laboratory Practice (GCLP) ISBN 978 92 4 159785 2 World Health Organization 2009
    • Proficiency of the GLPs US 21 CFR 58 regulation and International Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Principles of Good Laboratory Practice.
    • Expertise in Bioanalytical Laboratory Practice United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), FDA Guidance for Industry Bioanalytical Method Validation and European Medicines Agency (EMA) Draft Guideline on Validation of Bioanalytical Methods.
    • Experience in bioanalytical methods development, validation, and laboratory investigations.
    • Understanding laboratory techniques related to immunological assays such as IgG, ACE, ELISA, Serum Sample Incubation and Human Antibody detection are preferred.

    Minimum Requirements:
    • Bachelor's Degree in Biological sciences, Analytical Chemistry, or related fields or equivalent combination of education and experience
    • 7+ years of relevant pharmaceutical, auditing and QA experience in preferably in GCLP; but GLP experience in laboratory setting would be in consideration too.
    • Experience with Non/Clinical sample analysis under GLP/GCLP
    • SQA, CQA or other quality related certification.
    • Prior experience working at a CRO/third-party laboratory service provider.
    • Understanding of regulatory trends, regulations and guidelines such as CAP, CLIA, 21 CFR Part 58, ISO 9001: 2015, ICH E6 R2/3, 21 CFR Part 11, WHO GCLP required.
    • Ability to evaluate and apply compliance requirements/guidelines to applicable situations.
    • Experience leading teams and handling project management activities without supervision
    • Excellent time management skills.
    • Strong communication skills and technical writing ability
    • Knowledge of regulatory procedures in US, EU, and Asian markets.
    • Understanding of contract management/legal aspects for Quality agreements and CDAs.
    • Travel required - 30%
    • Local candidates only within commutable distance from the Gaithersburg office.
  5. Post your job

    There are various strategies that you can use to find the right quality assurance lead manager for your business:

    • Consider promoting from within or recruiting from your existing workforce.
    • Ask for referrals from friends, family members, and current employees.
    • Attend job fairs at local colleges to find candidates who meet your education requirements.
    • Use social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to reach potential job candidates.
    Post your job online:
    • Post your quality assurance lead manager job on Zippia to find and attract quality quality assurance lead manager candidates.
    • Use niche websites such as dice, engineering.com, stack overflow, it job pro.
    • Post a job on free websites.
  6. Interview candidates

    Recruiting quality assurance lead managers requires you to bring your A-game to the interview process. The first interview should introduce the company and the role to the candidate as much as they present their background experience and reasons for applying for the job. During later interviews, you can go into more detail about the technical details of the job and ask behavioral questions to gauge how they'd fit into your current company culture.

    Remember to include a few questions that allow candidates to expand on their strengths in their own words. Asking about their unique skills might reveal things you'd miss otherwise. At this point, good candidates can move on to the technical interview.

    While interviews are great, you will only sometimes learn enough from a conversation with a quality assurance lead manager applicant. In those cases, having candidates complete a test project can go a long way in figuring out who's the most likely to succeed in the role. If you aren't a technical person and don't know how to design an appropriate test, you can ask someone else on the team to create it or take a look at these websites to get a few ideas:

    • TestDome
    • CodeSignal
    • Testlify
    • BarRaiser
    • Coderbyte

    The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

  7. Send a job offer and onboard your new quality assurance lead manager

    Once you've found the quality assurance lead manager candidate you'd like to hire, it's time to write an offer letter. This should include an explicit job offer that includes the salary and the details of any other perks. Qualified candidates might be looking at multiple positions, so your offer must be competitive if you like the candidate. Also, be prepared for a negotiation stage, as candidates may way want to tweak the details of your initial offer. Once you've settled on these details, you can draft a contract to formalize your agreement.

    It's also important to follow up with applicants who do not get the job with an email letting them know that the position is filled.

    Once that's done, you can draft an onboarding schedule for the new quality assurance lead manager. Human Resources should complete Employee Action Forms and ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc. They should also ensure that new employee files are created for internal recordkeeping.

  8. Go through the hiring process checklist

    • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
    • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
    • Define job responsibilities and requirements
    • Establish budget and timeline
    • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
    • Write job description
    • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
    • Promote the job internally
    • Process applications through applicant tracking system
    • Review resumes and cover letters
    • Shortlist candidates for screening
    • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
    • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
    • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
    • Conduct background checks on top candidates
    • Check references of top candidates
    • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
    • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
    • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
    • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
    • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
    • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)
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How much does it cost to hire a quality assurance lead manager?

Recruiting quality assurance lead managers involves both the one-time costs of hiring and the ongoing costs of adding a new employee to your team. Your spending during the hiring process will mostly be on things like promoting the job on job boards, reviewing and interviewing candidates, and onboarding the new hire. Ongoing costs will obviously involve the employee's salary, but also may include things like benefits.

Quality assurance lead managers earn a median yearly salary is $106,066 a year in the US. However, if you're looking to find quality assurance lead managers for hire on a contract or per-project basis, hourly rates typically range between $38 and $66.

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