Senior Director of Quality

Daikin Applied Americas; Faribault (MN); Hybrid; USD 162,500 - 285,800; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

401(k) with company match

Life insurance and disability coverage

Paid time off and holidays

Parental leave and tuition assistance

Job summary

Daikin Applied Americas seeks a Senior Director of Quality to lead quality operations across the business unit, enhancing product and process quality and manufacturing readiness.

You will drive D/PFMEA, RCCA, QA trends, and support NPI while collaborating with Corporate Quality to maintain ISO and related certifications. This role is based in Minnesota (Faribault or Plymouth) with hybrid work arrangements.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent in Engineering, Business or related field
• 15+ years of experience, including 10+ years in people leadership
• Manufacturing & quality leadership with Six Sigma, TQM, APQP, Lean, ISO, or SPC
• Travel 15–20%

Responsibilities

• Serve as a key member of the BU leadership team and implement an aggressive growth strategy with change management.
• Establish functional excellence and create a quality-first culture within the BU.
• Collaborate with Supplier Quality through Quality Clinic on supplier quality activities.
• Build a robust QMS with internal audits, corrective actions, and poka-yoke improvements.
• Support and validate NPI using D/PFMEA to ensure sound quality plans.
• Collaborate with Central QMS on ISO and regulatory certification requirements.
• Mine fielded data to identify RCCA opportunities via Quality Clinic.
• Present Quality KPIs and continuous improvement results to leadership.
• Communicate with customers and support QA program launches.

Skills

People leadership

Quality leadership

Six Sigma

Lean Manufacturing

ISO

APQP

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Job description

Join the world's largest HVAC company, named by Forbes as one of America's Best-In-State Employers 2025! Daikin Applied Americas is seeking a Senior Director of Quality. This role is accountable for leading all quality-related operations within the applicable Daikin Applied business unit, including product quality, process quality, and overall business process robustness. This role provides operational leadership to transform and strengthen upstream quality systems that support new product introductions, with a strong focus on D/PFMEA development/execution, risk mitigation, and manufacturing readiness.

This role enhances inspection and testing programs to ensure delivered quality, drives the highest levels of poka-yoke implementation within manufacturing processes, and supports aftermarket quality management initiatives. It also leads the Quality Clinic process, overseeing the identification of field quality trends, root cause analysis, and implementation of effective corrective and preventive actions. Additionally, the Senior Director of Quality maintains all required certifications and leads a robust internal audit program to ensure ongoing compliance, product integrity, and process effectiveness.

Responsibilities include providing leadership and direction to all quality resources across the business unit, with direct responsibility for the quality organization. The candidate will sit on DAA Quality leadership team and collaborate with Corporate Quality functions responsible for NPI Quality Assurance, QA programs, Supplier Quality and QMS. The role reports directly to the General Manager of the Business Unit, with a dotted-line reporting relationship to the Corporate Vice President of Quality.

Location: Faribault or Plymouth, MN– Hybrid

What You Will Do

• Serve as a key member of the manufacturing BU leadership team and aid in execution of aggressive growth strategy which includes significant change management.
• Responsible for establishing functional excellence and creating quality 1st culture within the business unit.
• Collaborate with Supplier Quality through Quality Clinic on any activities related to supplier quality in support of BU product.
• Build a strong quality management system (QMS) focused on internal quality audit process, reviews and execution of corrective actions to findings and OFIs to continually improve (poka-yoke) manufacturing and business processes.
• Support and validate (NPI) New product introduction utilizing D/PFMEA to build sound quality control/test plan and monitor infant care program to conclusion.
• Collaborate with Central QMS on ISO and other regulatory agency certification requirements.
• Proactively mine fielded escape and internal turnback data to identify opportunities for Root Cause Corrective Action (RCCA) through Quality Clinic process.
• Present to leadership Quality KPIs and continuous improvement activities.
• Communicate with customers as needed and support QA program launch process.
• Ensure that corrective actions are read across the business unit and shared across DAA.
• Serve as a subject matter expert for current and future Quality Assurance trends.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree or equivalent experience in Engineering, Business or a related field.
• 15+ years of experience, including 10+ years of people leadership experience.
• Manufacturing & quality leadership experience, with experience in Six Sigma, Total Quality Management (TQM), APQP, Lean Manufacturing, ISO, or SPC techniques.
• Able to travel 15‑20%.

Preferred Qualifications

• Bi‑lingual in Spanish a plus.
• Experience working in a unionized organization.

Daikin Applied offers the following benefits for this position, subject to applicable eligibility requirements:

• Multiple medical insurance plan options plus dental and vision insurance.
• 401(k) retirement plan with employer contributions matching 100% of the first 3% of employee contributions and 50% on the next 2% of employee contributions.
• Company provided life insurance plus optional employee paid voluntary life insurance, dependent life coverage and voluntary accident coverage.
• Short‑term and long‑term disability.
• Three weeks of paid time off for new employees and 11 company paid holidays.
• Vacation accrues on a monthly basis, unless applicable federal, state and local law requires a faster accrual.
• Paid sick time in accordance with federal, state and local law.
• Paid parental leave and tuition reimbursement after six months of continuous service.

The typical annual base salary for this position ranges from $162,500 to $285,800 (+30% bonus) in Minnesota. The range displayed represents the pay range for all positions in the job grade which this position falls. Individual base pay will depend on a wide range of factors including your skills, qualifications, experience, and location.