How to hire a quality specialist

How to hire a quality specialist, step by step

Here's a step-by-step quality specialist 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 specialist job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new quality specialist
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a quality specialist do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   First, determine the employments status of the quality specialist you need to hire. Certain quality specialist 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?

   Yes

   No

   Hiring the perfect quality specialist also involves considering the ideal background you'd like them to have. Depending on what industry or field they have experience in, they'll bring different skills to the job. It's also important to consider what levels of seniority and education the job requires and what kind of salary such a candidate would likely demand.

   This list shows salaries for various types of quality specialists.

   Type of Quality Specialist	Description	Hourly rate
   Quality Specialist		$20-47
   Auditor/Quality	A quality auditor is responsible for inspecting the company's services and products, ensuring its adherence to business requirements and internal regulations. Quality auditors analyze the efficiency of operational functions and production processes to maintain high-quality deliverables with the utmost consideration for the safety and security of the production staff... Show more	$11-24
   Quality Assurance Auditor	Quality assurance (QA) analysts are responsible for testing company products and processes. Through testing, QA analysts ensure that the product or process is ready for production... Show more	$23-58

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Customer Service
   • Data Analysis
   • Continuous Improvement
   • Process Improvement
   • Management System
   • FDA
   • Quality Issues
   • Corrective Action
   • Center Management
   • OSHA
   • Internal Audit
   • Patients
   • Dexterity
   • External Audits

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Manage CMOs that provide Endo with API, bulk, packaging services, and/or finish goods, including clinical material.
   • Manage PPAP sample dimensional verification activities.
   • Recommend changes to organizational committee structure to achieve higher level of accountability and oversight.
   • Manage document control including initiating and revising procedures, QA approval and implementation of documents.
   • Manage performance improvement and quality improvement projects design to assess and improve health outcomes for Medicaid members.
   • Manage hospital core measures abstraction, registry abstractions and review services to assist healthcare organizations in improving performance.

   More quality specialist duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your quality specialist job description is a great way to entice the best and brightest candidates. A quality specialist salary can vary based on several factors:

   • Location. For example, quality specialists' average salary in wyoming is 37% less than in california.
   • Seniority. Entry-level quality specialists earn 56% less than senior-level quality specialists.
   • Certifications. A quality specialist with a few certifications under their belt will likely demand a higher salary.
   • Company. Working for a prestigious company or an exciting start-up can make a huge difference in a quality specialist's salary.

   Average quality specialist salary

   $65,230yearly

   $31.36 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level quality specialist salary

   $43,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 14, 2025

   Average quality specialist salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$89,270	$43
   2	Virginia	$80,330	$39
   3	Maryland	$79,301	$38
   4	Massachusetts	$76,049	$37
   5	Minnesota	$75,105	$36
   6	Pennsylvania	$73,170	$35
   7	Texas	$73,132	$35
   8	Washington	$70,708	$34
   9	North Carolina	$69,571	$33
   10	Michigan	$67,944	$33
   11	New York	$67,533	$32
   12	Wisconsin	$67,155	$32
   13	Illinois	$65,637	$32
   14	Ohio	$65,385	$31
   15	Oregon	$64,635	$31
   16	Florida	$64,315	$31
   17	District of Columbia	$63,338	$30
   18	Maine	$62,324	$30
   19	Oklahoma	$58,910	$28
   20	Arizona	$58,136	$28

   Average quality specialist salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Meta	$127,007	$61.06	107
   2	Citi	$117,736	$56.60	3
   3	Biogen	$116,302	$55.91	7
   4	BNY Mellon	$112,947	$54.30	11
   5	Koch Industries	$112,282	$53.98	6
   6	ICU Medical	$111,064	$53.40	5
   7	Infineon Technologies	$108,184	$52.01	5
   8	SAP	$107,445	$51.66	59
   9	Juniper Networks	$106,969	$51.43
   10	Boehringer Ingelheim	$106,524	$51.21	30
   11	TechnipFMC	$105,448	$50.70	1
   12	Stryker	$105,392	$50.67	36
   13	Abbott	$104,635	$50.31	112
   14	JPMorgan Chase & Co.	$104,497	$50.24	55
   15	Mayo Clinic	$103,365	$49.69	6
   16	Wabtec Corporation	$102,933	$49.49	2
   17	Amgen	$102,811	$49.43	13
   18	Bayer	$102,736	$49.39	12
   19	Philips	$102,629	$49.34	9
   20	Adobe	$102,511	$49.28	1

4. Writing a quality specialist job description

   A job description for a quality specialist role includes a summary of the job's main responsibilities, required skills, and preferred background experience. Including a salary range can also go a long way in attracting more candidates to apply, and showing the first name of the hiring manager can also make applicants more comfortable. As an example, here's a quality specialist job description:

   Quality specialist job description example

   Clinical Quality Specialist II-134230Description We invite you to join our team of talented Clinical Quality Specialists! In these key roles, you will use quality improvement (QI) methodology to improve outcomes, mentoring and coaching to build unit improvement capability, promoting evidence-based practice, preparing accurate and timely reports using basic statistical tools, and collaborating with area leaders to ensure alignment with strategic improvement priorities.
   
   Cincinnati Children's Hospital, a nonprofit academic medical center established in 1883, is one of the oldest and most distinguished pediatric hospitals in the United States. We offer comprehensive clinical services, from treatments for rare and complex conditions to well-child care. In the 2022-2023 U.S. News & World Report survey of best children's hospitals, Cincinnati Children's ranked No. 3 among all Honor Roll hospitals.
   
   The James M. Anderson Center for Health Systems Excellence was established in 2010 to promote improvement efforts aimed at providing the best outcomes and safest care for the children and families we serve. The Anderson Center guides health services research at Cincinnati Children's and works to spread its impact into clinical practice and policy. On a national scale, the Center helps build and support sustainable collaborative Learning Networks that measurably improve health by bringing patients, families, clinicians and scientists together, and that use data for clinical care, improvement and research to achieve population outcomes at scale.
   
   The James M. Anderson Center for Health Systems Excellence is currently seeking a Clinical Quality Specialist to provide leadership and support for a variety of quality improvement initiatives and collaborate with unit based teams to achieve transformational and sustainable change in outcomes.
   Qualifications EDUCATION/EXPERIENCE
   
   A Bachelors' degree in related health care field (Nursing, Respiratory Therapy, Social Work, Physical/Occupational Therapy, etc) plus a Master's degree required. 2-5 years progressive clinical leadership experience along with experience with Process Improvement, CQI, Six Sigma, Lean or TQM techniques required.
   Facilitation experience with clinical teams, including physician participants along with prior operational and supervisory experience within a complex medical center strongly preferred.
   
   Job Clinical/Non-NursingPrimary LocationUnited States-Ohio-Cincinnati-Burnet Building Location TSchedule Full-time Shift Day JobJob Type Standard Department Anderson CenterEmployee Status RegularFTE 1.0Weekly Hours 40Salary Range 36.45-55.91

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   To find quality specialists for your business, try out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important talent pools for any company is its current employees.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and your current work to ask if they know any quality specialists they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit entry-level quality specialists with the right educational background.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter have more than 3.5 billion users, and they're a great place for company branding and reaching potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your quality specialist job on Zippia to find and recruit quality specialist candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   During your first interview to recruit quality specialists, engage with candidates to learn about their interest in the role and experience in the field. During the following interview, you'll be able to go into more detail about the company, the position, and the responsibilities.

   You should also ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match the ideal candidate profile you developed earlier. Candidates good enough for the next step can complete the technical interview.

   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 specialist

   Once you've found the quality specialist 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.

   You should also follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that you've filled the position.

   To prepare for the new employee's start date, you can create an onboarding schedule and complete any necessary paperwork, such as employee action forms and onboarding documents like I-9 forms, benefits enrollment, and federal and state tax forms. Human Resources should also ensure that a new employee file is created.

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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