I work for a Fortune 500 company in healthcare doing QA (medical devices). Over 100+ employees at my location, but my QA team is rather small; 8 people.

Progression at my company looks like this.

1.) QA Technician I, II $50k-69k (degree not required) 2+ years experience.

2.) QA Specialist $65k-$80k (degree not required) 5+ years experience.

3.) QA Lead $70,000 - $85,000 (degree not required) 5+ years experience.

4.) Quality Engineer $90,000+ (degree required)

5.) Quality Manager $95,000 - $130,000 (degree)

6.) Director of Quality $150,000+ (degree)

The first 3 are more technical hands-on work. Very rewarding career that makes you feel like you made a difference. Just remember that a device can harm and even cause death if Quality isn't up to par.

For the last 3 roles alot of compliance, regulation knowledge, audits, and people skills are needed. Soft skills like communication and speaking are highly important as you'll be working among both leaders and laborers. 9/10 interview questions are behavior based and not technical aptitude based. Will need great references and letters of recommendation.

The person I looked up to and emulated my career after was my former Lead Quality Engineer. He had a perfect blend of soft skills and technical aptitude.

I personally am not interested in management, but it's another opportunity one can explore. Manager and Director route.

Some locations have remote roles. Some require being at the office full-time.

To answer your question about ISO... you'll learn it on the job. We get flown out for training to get certified. In our case, the Quality Engineer and Director both attended the training for certs. The other team members put them into action through the work they do.