Senior Director, Quality & Validation

Job Description

Job Description

Description:

Who We Are

John Paul Mitchell Systems (“JPMS”) is recognized worldwide for developing and marketing innovative hair and skin care products since 1980. We’ve been serving the professional beauty industry with salon-quality hair care products, styling tools and professional hair color through our family of brands including Paul Mitchell, MITCH, Awapuhi Wild Ginger, Tea Tree, Paul Mitchell Tools, Neuro, The Demi, Paul Mitchell the Color, Blonde, and Color XG.

We were the first professional hair care company to take a stand against animal testing and continue our strong commitment to giving back, supporting a wide range of philanthropic causes both domestically and internationally. Sustainability has always been a priority, and we are committed to making our company operations climate neutral to preserve the beauty of the world around us.

Who You Are:

You are a skilled and enthusiastic, high-performing professional who is passionate about hair care and wants to positively contribute to the growth of our iconic brand as well as to our people first culture.

About the Role

Reporting to the EVP, Legal & Business Affairs, the Senior Director, Quality & Validation owns quality control, consumer-perceived product quality, and performance validation across the product lifecycle. This role confirms that products meet defined consumer-performance standards before launch or reformulation and manages the launch and reformulation quality-approval process. It directs all consumer-performance and validation testing — including operation of the in-house test salon and the Product Innovation Center and commissions supporting consumer, clinical, and performance studies from R&D and external laboratories under defined service levels. This role leads the Quality and Validation function, uniting manufacturing quality control with consumer-performance validation under a single quality leader. The role partners closely with, the Regulatory Director, as well as R&D, Operations, Marketing, and Legal, translating validation findings into standards that inform product design and release.

This role is Hybrid and works 3 day a week from our Santa Clarita Office and there will be up to 20% travel.

What You will Do :

• Oversee all quality control, assurance, and validation across all products
• Work with R&D on the product quality-approval process: partner on internal testing to define acceptance criteria and manage external testing for new products and reformulations prior to commercialization
• Direct external product testing and validation activity including consumer-performance, sensory and in-use evaluations
• Serve as the quality-by-design owner, embedding consumer-quality and performance requirements into product development before manufacturing begins
• Establish and maintain validation protocols, standards, and driver-aware acceptance criteria, including determining when regional testing is sufficient versus when global validation is required
• Commission and manage consumer, clinical, and performance studies from external laboratories under defined service-level agreements, ensuring scientific rigor and timeliness
• Oversee the Quality Control / Quality Assurance function, integrating manufacturing quality with consumer-performance validation and informing release decisions
• Partner with Regulatory on the boundary between product-performance validation and claims substantiation, routing marketing-claim testing appropriately
• Build, monitor, and report consumer-quality and validation KPIs (e.g., validation cycle time, first-time-right at launch, consumer-complaint trends) and lead related root-cause investigations and corrective actions
• Ensure testing and validation operations comply with applicable quality and laboratory standards and good practices (e.g., GLP, ISO 22716 where applicable)
• Lead, coach, and develop the Quality & Validation organization, including the Quality Control / QA team

Required Qualifications:

Skills:

• Proven ability to lead a consumer-performance validation function, including setting acceptance criteria and managing the product quality-approval process
• Strong knowledge of consumer-performance, sensory, and claims-support testing methods for personal care or hair care products (e.g., half-head studies, home-use tests, trained panels)
• Working knowledge of cosmetic quality and laboratory standards (e.g., GLP, ISO 22716) and the U.S. and international context for product-performance and claims testing
• Experience commissioning studies from external CROs under service-level agreements
• Strong data-analysis, statistics, and root-cause problem-solving skills (e.g., CAPA, FMEA)
• Demonstrated people-leadership and cross-functional influence with Quality Control, R&D, Regulatory, Operations, Marketing, and Legal
• Excellent communication skills (verbal and written) and the ability to operate in a fast-paced environment
• Experience overseeing a Quality Control / QA function — batch release and GMP / ISO 22716 quality systems — in addition to consumer-performance validation

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree in Cosmetic Science, Chemistry, Biology, or a related scientific discipline required

Experience:

• 8+ years in quality, product testing/validation, or R&D within cosmetics, personal care, or a comparable consumer-products industry, including people-leadership experience
• 5+ years people leadership/managing a team
• Demonstrated experience designing and interpreting consumer-performance, sensory, and/or claims-substantiation studies
• Track record building or leading quality/validation systems and managing cross-functional stakeholders

Preferred Qualifications:

Skills:

• Familiarity with sensory-claim standards (e.g., ASTM sensory claim substantiation) and consumer-perception study design

Education:

• Advanced degree (M.S. or Ph.D.) in a relevant scientific field preferred

Experience:

• Experience in professional/salon hair care or prestige beauty product testing
• Previous experience using Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems (Optiva/Infor)

We are eager to meet people who believe in our mission and can contribute to our team in a variety of ways - not just candidates who check all the boxes. If you think you would be a good fit for the position and our company, we invite you to apply.

Working Conditions

• Office, warehouse and manufacturing environments

Competitive Compensation:

• The expected base salary range for this position is $190,000 to $200,000. The exact base salary is determined by various factors including geographic location, experience, skills, and education.
• Discretionary Bonus Plan: This position is also eligible for participation in the company discretionary bonus plan, based on personal performance and company results.
• Comprehensive Benefits Package: In addition to base salary, JPMS offers a competitive benefits package to eligible employees, including medical, dental, vision, life, accident, critical illness, and disability insurance, retirement savings plans and company match, paid family leave, education-related programs, paid holidays, discretionary vacation time, and more.

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and take pride in a diverse environment.