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Role hub · Validation Engineers

Validation Engineer: what the job is, what it pays, and how to get hired.

The work, the skills that matter, the tools in demand and the pay range, from U.S. government data, plus every TryHired page for the role.

BLS does not publish pay for validation engineers separately. Every pay figure on this page is for the BLS occupation “Industrial Engineers” (SOC 17-2112), which includes validation engineers and other jobs; it is not a figure for validation engineers alone.

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Updated Nov 2, 2026 · Data: BLS OEWS May 2025 · O*NET 31.0
Pay ladder · select a percentile
Median percentile pay

Half of workers in the BLS occupation “Industrial Engineers” earn more than this and half earn less.

Annual
$102,440
Hourly
$49.25
Source
BLS May 2025
Quick answer

Validation Engineers design or plan protocols for equipment or processes to produce products meeting internal and external purity, safety, and quality requirements. The median pay is $102,440 a year ($49.25 an hour) (BLS, May 2025). The most commonly reported education requirement is a bachelor's degree (90% of workers surveyed by O*NET).

Median pay
$102,440
BLS May 2025
Employed in the U.S.
365,740
BLS May 2025
Preparation
Job Zone 4 of 5
considerable preparation
Most common education
Bachelor's Degree
90% of workers
Key facts

Validation Engineers at a glance

  • Workers in the BLS occupation “Industrial Engineers” (which includes validation engineers) in the United States earned a median annual wage of $102,440 in May 2025, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

    Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025

  • In its 2025–35 employment projections, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics lists a bachelor's degree as the typical entry-level education for validation engineers in the United States.

    Source: BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35

  • BLS projects employment of validation engineers in the United States to grow 12.4% from 2025 to 2035, with about 23,100 openings a year on average, including replacement openings.

    Source: BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35

  • BLS estimates that 6.6% of industrial engineers in the United States had the ability to telework in 2025, a preliminary estimate of whether the job allows it, not a count of remote jobs.

    Source: BLS Occupational Requirements Survey, 2025 preliminary

Explore the role

Every page for Validation Engineers

SalaryIndustrial Engineers salary

BLS pay data for this occupation, by state and percentile.

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The work

What validation engineers do day to day

Data Core tasks rated most important by workers in the role (O*NET).

  1. Study product characteristics or customer requirements to determine validation objectives and standards.
  2. Analyze validation test data to determine whether systems or processes have met validation criteria or to identify root causes of production problems.
  3. Develop validation master plans, process flow diagrams, test cases, or standard operating procedures.
  4. Prepare detailed reports or design statements, based on results of validation and qualification tests or reviews of procedures and protocols.
  5. Maintain validation test equipment.
  6. Conduct validation or qualification tests of new or existing processes, equipment, or software in accordance with internal protocols or external standards.
  7. Communicate with regulatory agencies regarding compliance documentation or validation results.
  8. Prepare, maintain, or review validation and compliance documentation, such as engineering change notices, schematics, or protocols.
Job requirements

What the job requires

Data BLS figures for industrial engineers (SOC 17-2112), 2025 preliminary BLS Occupational Requirements Survey. This TryHired page covers a specialty within that occupation; the figures describe the whole occupation.

Telework available
6.6%
of workers had the ability to telework
Workday sitting
65.7%
mean share of the day required to sit
Most common strength level
Light
49.1% of workers
Can pause work
more than 99.5%
of workers could take short, unscheduled breaks
Self-paced workload
91.9%
of workers set their own workload
Employer-changed schedules
9.2%
of workers had schedules changed by the employer week to week

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Requirements Survey. Estimates are preliminary; ranges are shown as published.

Where this career works

Industries that employ it

Data Share of all validation engineer jobs in each industry, 2025 (BLS Employment Matrix). Figures cover all industrial engineers (SOC 17-2112), the broader occupation.

  1. Transportation equipment manufacturing15.2% of all jobs in this occupation · +11.3% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $108,170
  2. Professional, scientific, and technical services14.3% of all jobs in this occupation · +13.5% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $118,810
  3. Computer and electronic product manufacturing11.3% of all jobs in this occupation · +15.3% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $116,680
  4. Machinery manufacturing7.7% of all jobs in this occupation · +8.6% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $103,110
  5. Chemical manufacturing6.5% of all jobs in this occupation · +14.3% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $113,570
  6. Fabricated metal product manufacturing6.2% of all jobs in this occupation · +7.2% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $94,080

Sources: BLS 2025–35 National Employment Matrix (share of the occupation's jobs, projected change) and BLS OEWS May 2025 industry estimates (mean wage). Different industry estimates are not a pay forecast for any person.

Skills that matter

Ranked by importance to the job

Data O*NET importance ratings. The first three are core.

Reading ComprehensioncoreWritingcoreSpeakingcoreCritical ThinkingActive ListeningMonitoringComplex Problem SolvingScienceActive Learning

Knowledge areas: Engineering and Technology, Production and Processing, English Language, Customer and Personal Service, Mathematics, Design.

Tools and technology

Software validation engineers use

Data Examples reported for the role; employer demand flags from O*NET.

  • DockerApplication server softwareIn demand
  • IBM TerraformConfiguration management softwareIn demand
  • KubernetesApplication server softwareIn demand
  • Microsoft Power Platform softwareEnterprise application integration softwareIn demand
  • Amazon DynamoDBData base management system softwareHot technology
  • Amazon Web Services AWS CloudFormationCloud-based management softwareHot technology
  • Ansible softwareExpert system softwareHot technology
  • Apache CassandraData base management system softwareHot technology
  • Apache Subversion SVNFile versioning softwareHot technology
  • Atlassian JIRAContent workflow softwareHot technology
  • ChefConfiguration management softwareHot technology
  • Dassault Systemes SolidWorksComputer aided design CAD softwareHot technology

Also called: Corporate Quality Engineer, Product Quality Engineer, Quality Assurance Engineer, Quality Engineer, Quality Management Systems Engineer, Reliability Engineer.

Method

How this page is built

Tasks, skills, tools, education and related roles come from O*NET 31.0. Pay and employment come from the BLS OEWS May 2025 national estimates. The skill-match score is our calculation: Skill match is the cosine similarity of the two occupations' skill profiles: for each of 35 O*NET skills (10 essential, 25 transferable) we multiply importance by level and subtract the average across all occupations, then compare the direction of the two profiles. 100 means identical shape; 0 means unrelated or opposite (negative values are shown as 0). Only occupations that O*NET itself lists as related are compared.

What this page can't tell you
  • How a specific employer defines the job.
  • Pay for self-employed workers (OEWS covers employees).
  • Your own chances: data describes the occupation, not you.
Sources
  1. O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. TryHired selected, ranked and combined the data; O*NET is not responsible for these pages.
  2. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 estimates (public domain).

How TryHired builds this data: sources, methods and downloads. Spotted an error? Report a correction.