Validation Engineers
In the Validation Engineers occupation, workers design or plan protocols for equipment or processes to produce products meeting internal and external purity, safety, and quality requirements. One core duty is to study product characteristics or customer requirements to determine validation objectives and standards. Interest ratings put Investigative on top at 5.6 out of 7 and Conventional second, so the code is ICR and the day leans toward research, analysis and working through hard problems. Plan on a bachelor’s degree plus a period of work experience; O*NET labels this considerable preparation. Strength in reading comprehension, writing, and speaking helps most here. If you want research, analysis and working through hard problems, keep it on your list. If you need helping, teaching or caring for people, it may feel thin.
What they do
Design or plan protocols for equipment or processes to produce products meeting internal and external purity, safety, and quality requirements.
Main tasks
- Study product characteristics or customer requirements to determine validation objectives and standards.
- Analyze validation test data to determine whether systems or processes have met validation criteria or to identify root causes of production problems.
- Develop validation master plans, process flow diagrams, test cases, or standard operating procedures.
- Prepare detailed reports or design statements, based on results of validation and qualification tests or reviews of procedures and protocols.
- Maintain validation test equipment.
- Conduct validation or qualification tests of new or existing processes, equipment, or software in accordance with internal protocols or external standards.
Skills
- Reading Comprehension
- Writing
- Speaking
- Critical Thinking
- Monitoring
- Active Listening
Who this career fits
May suit you if
- You enjoy working out why something happens, not just what happened.
- You like clear rules and getting the details right.
- You are ready to spend around four years on a degree, then build experience.
- You are comfortable relying on reading comprehension and writing.
May not suit you if
- You lose interest when a job asks for long stretches of analysis.
- You want helping people to be at the center of your work. Social rates 1.4 out of 7 here.
- You want to avoid a four-year degree or its equivalent.
Interest profile
O*NET rates each occupation from 1 to 7 on six interest types. The code ICR takes the three highest, and Investigative comes first here.
Preparation
Considerable preparation. Most jobs here ask for a bachelor’s degree, and employers usually expect a few years of related experience as well.
Most-reported requirement in the O*NET survey: Bachelor's Degree. This reflects what workers reported most often and is not a legal minimum. Licensing rules can differ by state or industry, so confirm what applies where you plan to work.
Also called
- Corporate Quality Engineer
- Product Quality Engineer
- Quality Assurance Engineer
- Quality Engineer
- Quality Management Systems Engineer
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This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.