Director of Quality & Compliance

We are a hardgoods CPG company based in New Jersey seeking our next Quality and Compliance leader. Our ideal candidate must have hardgoods experience (a combination of industry and testing experience is a plus) and must be available to come to our office up to 2-3x/week as needed.Responsibilities:QualityLeads global Quality Assurance and Control with direct reports in the US and China.Develops new product processes and quality systems in partnership with cross-functional teams.Owns the relationships for Third Party Services for quality inspections and testing functions.Acts as a liaison to Quality leadership counterparts at all customers/partners. This includes retail customers, licensing organizations, and direct/online customers such as Amazon.Directs new product and structural packaging projects including intellectual property assessment, conceptual development, interface with multiple internal groups including marketing, operations, and industrial design and external groups including China-based team, suppliers, etc.Directs the generation of product specifications for a wide range of product types including electronics, art materials, published media, home decor, children’s toys and related.Advise and assist consumer affairs, sourcing, manufacturing, marketing, sales personnel, and customers regarding technical information related to capabilities of our product.Leads the investigation, analysis and determination of solutions, designs, and implementation for new product designs and/or technical changes to existing products in order to improve design, performance, cost, or manufacturing methods.Provides leadership for continuous improvement effort with strategic suppliers.ComplianceDirects all Regulatory and Social Compliance activities on a global basis with direct reports in the US and China.Owns the relationships for Third Party Services for Regulatory Testing and Social Compliance audits.Acts as a liaison to Responsible Sourcing/Social Compliance/Regulatory leadership counterparts at all customers/partners. This includes retail customers, licensing organizations, government organizations and direct/online customers such as Amazon.Executes all regulatory changes in a timely manner.Develops detailed plans to conform to all social compliance requirements.Requirements10-15 years’ experience in hardgoods quality assurance/compliance roles with 5+ years in a leadership capacity required (experience leading a global team is highly preferred).Experience with major global retailers is required.Ability to commute to our NJ office several times per week is required.Working knowledge of Sustainability and Social Compliance.Strong working knowledge of quality and product safety standards and protocols including ISO9000, cGMP, F963 and EN71 Toy Safety Standards.Ability to lead root cause analyses of issues and generate a corrective action plan.Ability to lead multiple projects of varying priorities under tight deadlines.Ability to travel both domestically and internationally (25-35%) is required.Excellent verbal and written communication skills.Experience in leading the technical assessment of factories and commercialization of new products and packages internationally.