Validation Engineer
What Does a Professional in this Career Do?
A Validation Engineer evaluates and maintains machinery and equipment used in manufacturing, and supervises workers that use and repair the machines.
Job Outlook
There were 418 Validation Engineer job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 9893 in the United States.
In combination with other careers in the Validation Engineer industry, which includes the Validation Engineer career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2015:
Salary
Many new Validation Engineer jobs have salaries estimated to be in the following ranges, based on the requirements and responsibilities listed in job postings from the past year.
National
The average estimated salary in the United States for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $103,480.
State
The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $87,792.
Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Validation Engineer postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $86,986.
Education and Experience
Posted Validation Engineer jobs typically require the following level of education. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list education requirements.
| Education Level | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Associate's Degree | 4.11% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 67.2% |
| Master's Degree | 22.57% |
| Doctoral Degree | 5.08% |
| Other | 3.49% |
Posted Validation Engineer jobs typically require the following number of years of experience. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.
| Years of Experience | Percentage |
|---|---|
| 0 to 2 years | 21.37% |
| 3 to 5 years | 48.66% |
| 6 to 8 years | 17.13% |
| 9+ years | 12.83% |
Skills
Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Validation Engineer positions expect applicants to have as well as the most common skills that distinguish individuals from their peers. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is also listed.
Baseline Skills
A skill that is required across a broad range of occupations, including this one.
- Communication (32.48%)
- Management (20.16%)
- Problem Solving (19.04%)
- Operations (18.31%)
- Troubleshooting (Problem Solving) (17.2%)
- Leadership (14.05%)
- Planning (13.54%)
- Writing (11.41%)
- Detail Oriented (10.91%)
- Coordinating (10.22%)
Defining Skills
A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.
- Qualification Protocols (IQ/OQ/PQ) (15.69%)
- Validation Protocols (11.24%)
Necessary Skills
A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.
- Data Analysis (8.19%)
- PCI Express (3.97%)
- Title 21 Of The Code Of Federal Regulations (8.55%)
- Project Engineering (1.49%)
- Debugging (16.93%)
- Verification And Validation (13.17%)
- Corrective And Preventive Action (CAPA) (8.89%)
- Auditing (12.85%)
- Construction (4.35%)
- Computer Engineering (10.4%)
- Scripting (10.03%)
- Test Automation (8.5%)
- Biotechnology (7.85%)
- Mechanical Engineering (10.86%)
- Linux (4.55%)
- C (Programming Language) (8.05%)
- Oscilloscope (6.48%)
- Commissioning (13.73%)
- Project Management (18.05%)
- C++ (Programming Language) (8.49%)
- Computer Science (13.71%)
- Building Automation (4.32%)
- Medical Devices (10.11%)
- Laboratory Equipment (6.58%)
- Root Cause Analysis (8.32%)
- Good Manufacturing Practices (23.32%)
- Functional Testing (4.36%)
- Manufacturing Processes (7.91%)
- Change Control (13.16%)
- Python (Programming Language) (17.33%)
- Test Equipment (7.79%)
- Control Systems (7.39%)
- Risk Analysis (12.11%)
- Electrical Engineering (19.99%)
- Process Validation (12.19%)
- Test Planning (17.46%)
- New Product Development (10.48%)
- Automation (20.65%)
- Pharmaceuticals (20.52%)
Distinguishing Skills
A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.
- Computer System Validation (7.3%)
- Cleaning Validation (6.63%)
- Engineering Validation Tests (6.52%)
- Software Validation (5.77%)
- Commissioning Qualification Validation (CQV) (6.52%)
Salary Boosting Skills
A professional who wishes to excel in this career path may consider developing the following highly valued skills. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is listed.
- Cleaning Validation (53.62%)
- Commissioning Qualification Validation (CQV) (52.69%)
Alternative Job Titles
Sometimes employers post jobs with Validation Engineer skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:
- Commissioning Engineer
- Verification and Validation Engineer
- Process Validation Engineer
- Pre-Silicon Validation Engineer
- Commissioning, Qualification, and Validation Engineer
- Software Validation Engineer
- Quality Validation Engineer
- Validation Test Engineer
- Silicon Validation Engineer
Similar Occupations
If you are interested in exploring occupations with similar skills, you may want to research the following job titles. Note that we only list occupations that have at least one corresponding NC State Online and Distance Education program.
- Validation Specialist
- Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Process Engineer
- Research & Development Engineer
- Industrial Engineer (General)
- Hardware Test Engineer
- Mechanical Testing Engineer
- Automation Engineer
Common Employers
Here are the employers that have posted the most Validation Engineer jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.
United States
- Intel (429)
- Actalent (329)
- Apple (205)
- AMD (94)
- Amazon (91)
- Caterpillar (87)
- Katalyst Healthcares & Life Sciences (80)
- Hitachi (70)
- Jacobs Engineering Group (65)
- John Deere (64)
North Carolina
- Jacobs Engineering Group (26)
- Pfizer (25)
- Actalent (21)
- Thermo Fisher Scientific (14)
- Eli Lilly (11)
- On Assignment (8)
- Quality Chemical Laboratories (8)
- Baxter International (7)
- Hitachi (6)
- Catalent (6)
NC State Programs Relevant to this Career
If you are interested in preparing for a career in this field, the following NC State Online and Distance Education programs offer a great place to start!
All wages, job posting statistics, employment trend projections, and information about skill desirability on this page represents historical data and does not guarantee future conditions. Data is provided by and downloaded regularly from Lightcast. For more information about how Lightcast gathers data and what it represents, see Lightcast Data: Basic Overview on Lightcast's Knowledge Base website.