Senior Director Quality Operations
Danaher · Chaska, MN
- Level
- Director+
- Team
- Quality
- Base pay
- $230k–$250k
- Travel
- 35%
- Degree
- Required
- Experience asked
- 90+ years
- Industry
- Pharma & life sciences
- Posted
- 30+ days ago
The role in 30 seconds
A director-level quality role at Danaher (pharma & life sciences) in Chaska, MN. Build, mentor, and develop strong, diverse teams and quality leaders, fostering engagement, accountability, and leadership behaviors that inspire followership and ownership at all levels of the organization.
- They ask for
- 90+ years · degree required
- Tools it names
- FDA / GMP, Validation (IQ/OQ/PQ)
- Base pay
- $230k–$250k
- Day to day
- about 35% travel
Read from the posting. The full description is below.
From the plant jobs report · week of October 19, 2026
Quality Engineer roles in Minnesota: typical posted base $83k–$141k. This one lists $230k–$250k.
Median of the low and high ends of 33 live postings that list pay, out of 54 quality engineer openings in Minnesota, read from manufacturers' own careers sites.
Minnesota plant jobs report →Pay by team and state →What moves pay →
How this role compares
Against 53 other live quality postings in Minnesota.
- Base pay
- About 121% above similar roles
- Experience asked
- More than usual (90+ vs 5+)
Typical $83k–$135k, from 31 postings that list pay.
Similar roles usually ask 5+ years.
Skills these teams ask for most
- Root cause 56%
- Six Sigma 43%
- ✓ Validation (IQ/OQ/PQ) 43%
- Lean 41%
- CAPA 37%
- Supplier quality 37%
✓ = this posting asks for it too. % = share of similar postings that mention it.
At a glance
Pulled from the posting text. If it's not listed here, the posting didn't say.
How to get in at this plant
Five moves over a week or two. The first one takes ten minutes.
- 1
Pick 2–3 people on the Quality team at Danaher
We found 1 person at this company and state: 1 in this kind of role. Engineers who joined in the last year or two reply the most. See them ↓
- 2
Send a short, curious note
One real question about their work. No favors yet. Each person gets a different note, written for this role.
Write to Jennifer → (free) - 3
Turn a reply into a short call
Questions worth asking about this team:
- What does a normal week look like on your team?
- Which standards drive the work here: ISO 13485, IATF 16949, AS9100?
- How much of the job is customer complaints versus prevention?
- The posting says about 35% travel. Between which sites?
- How did you land the job? What stood out in your interviews?
- 4
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If the call went well, ask whether they’d pass your résumé to the hiring manager. Send your résumé link, apply that day, and let them know.
- 5
Bring proof to the interview
One page of before-and-after numbers from projects you led: scrap, OEE, cycle time, cost. Plant managers hire on results.
This plant: Danaher in Chaska
5 other open roles at this site · 1 person we found in quality roles at Danaher.
- Senior Director, Reagent Operations · Production · Director+
- Advanced Automation Maintenance Technician - PLC exp · Controls · Technician
- Senior Supplier Quality Engineer · Quality · Senior
- Senior Quality Engineer · Quality · Senior
- Supplier Quality Manager · Quality · Manager
Full description from DanaherAs posted on their careers site.ShowHide
In this role, you will have the opportunity to
- ◆Provide strategic and operational quality leadership for the Chaska site and Carlsbad sites, driving a strong culture of quality across the CCIA organization and establishing followership through influence and matrixed collaboration with cross‑functional partners.
- ◆Lead and be accountable for a complex, multi‑disciplinary quality organization, including Quality Assurance, Quality Control, Process Validation, Design Quality, Incoming Inspection, and sustained deployment of the Danaher Business System (DBS) to drive standard work, problem solving, and continuous improvement.
- ◆Ensure sustained compliance with the Quality Management System (QMS) and applicable regulatory requirements, partnering with global and local stakeholders to standardize, simplify, and continuously improve quality processes.
- ◆Own site quality performance and key performance indicators, proactively identifying gaps and leading structured problem‑solving to resolution when performance is at risk.
- ◆Build and sustain an effective quality organization by ensuring appropriate staffing levels, clear role design, capability depth, succession coverage, and overseeing budget allocations required to consistently meet site performance, compliance, and delivery commitments.
- ◆Build, mentor, and develop strong, diverse teams and quality leaders, fostering engagement, accountability, and leadership behaviors that inspire followership and ownership at all levels of the organization.
- ◆Collaborate across all organizational levels, functions, and management chains to align priorities, communicate risk, and drive timely decisions to solution that protect patient safety and ensure the delivery of safe, compliant, high‑quality diagnostic products.
The essential
requirements
and quality standards (e.g., FDA, ISO, global regulatory frameworks).
- ✓Proven ability to lead structured problem solving, apply data and risk‑based decision making, and drive sustainable corrective actions.
Travel, Motor Vehicle Record & Physical/Environment
Requirements
- ✓Ability to travel – up to 35% domestically and internationally per business needs.
It would be a plus if you also possess previous experience in
- ✓Leading regulatory inspections, audits, or remediation activities in a regulated diagnostics or medical device environment.
- ✓Applying DBS or similar continuous improvement systems to improve quality performance and simplify processes.
- ✓Supporting new product introductions or product transfers, partnering with R&D and Operations to ensure compliant commercialization.
Beckman Coulter Diagnostics, a Danaher operating company, offers a broad array of comprehensive, competitive benefit programs that add value to our lives. Whether it’s a health care program or paid time off, our programs contribute to life beyond the job. Check out our benefits at Danaher Benefits Info .
Show full description ↓Show less ↑
Bring more to life.
Are you ready to accelerate your potential and make a real difference within life sciences, diagnostics and biotechnology?
At Beckman Coulter Diagnostics, one of Danaher’s 15+ operating companies, our work saves lives—and we’re all united by a shared commitment to innovate for tangible impact.
You’ll thrive in a culture of belonging where you and your unique viewpoint matter. And by harnessing Danaher’s system of continuous improvement, you help turn ideas into impact – innovating at the speed of life.
As a global leader in clinical diagnostics, Beckman Coulter Diagnostics has challenged convention to elevate the diagnostic laboratory’s role in improving patient health for more than 90 years. Our diagnostic solutions are used in routine and complex clinical testing, and are used in hospitals, reference and research laboratories, and physician offices around the world. Every hour around the world, more than one million tests are run on Beckman Coulter Diagnostics systems, impacting 1.2 billion patients and more than three million clinicians per year. From uncovering the next clinical breakthrough, to rapid and reliable sample analysis, to more rigorous decision making—we are enabling clinicians to deliver the best possible care to their patients with improved efficiency, clinical confidence, adaptive collaboration, and accelerated intelligence.
Learn about the Danaher Business Syste m which makes everything possible.
The Senior Director, Quality Operations – Clinical Chemistry Immunoassay (CCIA) North America provides senior‑level operational quality leadership for the Chaska, Minnesota and San Diego, California manufacturing and development sites, with accountability for manufacturing quality and development quality. This role translates enterprise quality strategy into disciplined site execution, ensures regulatory compliance, and drives a strong culture of quality across CCIA through close partnership with Operations, R&D, Supply Chain, and Regulatory Affairs.
This position reports to the Vice President, US Quality Operations and is a key member of the North America Quality Operations leadership team and will be based out of Chaska, Minnesota.
of the job include
- •Bachelor’s degree in a scientific or engineering discipline with 20+ years of experience, or Master’s/Doctoral degree with 18+ years of experience, including 6+ years of people leadership experience.
- •Minimum of 10 years of quality leadership experience with in‑vitro diagnostics or medical device industry, with direct accountability for manufacturing and/or development quality.
- •Demonstrated experience leading quality organizations at multi‑site or complex manufacturing environments, including responsibility for compliance, inspections, and operational performance.
- •Deep working knowledge of quality assurance, quality control, process validation, design quality, and supplier/incoming quality within regulated industries.
- •Strong understanding of IVD regulatory