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For validation engineers
You write the evidence an inspector will actually read.
Computer system validation and commissioning and qualification roles, contract and permanent, with clients who understand that validation is not paperwork added at the end.
Why people in your role call us
Validation is our highest-volume discipline and the one recruiters understand least.
Most recruiters treat CSV as an IT role and CQV as an engineering role, and screen accordingly. So you get asked which tools you have used, when the actual question is whether you can trace a requirement through a risk assessment to a piece of test evidence and defend it.
That mismatch costs you. Strong validation engineers get filtered out by keyword screens, while people who once ran a script get put forward as specialists, and the client concludes the market is thin when it is only badly searched.
We screen on traceability, on data integrity thinking, and on what you did when a test failed. That is what the client actually needs to know.
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What we place you into
The engagements we typically place validation engineers into.
Computer system validation
LIMS, eQMS, ERP, MES and bespoke GxP applications.
Commissioning and qualification
IQ, OQ and PQ for facility and equipment projects.
Capital projects
Facility expansions and new lines, where CQV is on the critical path.
Periodic review
Keeping validated systems in a validated state rather than revalidating later.
Data integrity remediation
Audit trail, access control and record retention findings.
Validation lead
Owning a validation programme rather than executing protocols.
What we ask you
The screen is technical, not a keyword match.
The screen is technical because the work is.
- How you build traceability from user requirement through to test evidence
- What you do when a test fails during OQ and the schedule is fixed
- How you decide the depth of testing on a risk basis rather than testing everything
- Your practical view on data integrity: audit trails, shared accounts, record retention
- Whether you have handed a validated system over to a client team and what you documented
If you can answer those properly you will be represented accurately, which is most of what goes wrong elsewhere.
Rates and timelines
What you can expect.
Validation rates vary by whether the role is CSV or CQV, by industry, by how much of the work is authoring versus execution, and by site location. Capital project work behaves differently from steady-state.
We do not publish rate figures. What we do is tell you the client band before you interview, so you are not guessing what you are worth or discovering it at offer stage.
Typical time to first submission: Often within 48 hours. This is the discipline where we most frequently have someone available immediately.
Questions
What validation engineers ask us.
Do you place CSV and CQV interchangeably?
No, and we will not put you forward for the wrong one. They overlap in documentation discipline and diverge sharply in everything else.
Is this work onsite?
CQV usually is, because the equipment is. CSV is often hybrid and sometimes fully remote. We state which at the outset.
I have validation experience outside life sciences. Does it transfer?
Partly. The discipline transfers; the regulatory expectations often do not. We will be honest about whether a client will accept it rather than submitting you and hoping.
How much of this is authoring versus execution?
Varies, and it is one of the first things we establish, because engineers usually have a strong preference and clients rarely volunteer it.
Do you place validation leads and managers?
Yes. Those roles are scarcer, move more slowly, and are almost always filled from someone the recruiter already knew.
Related
Where to go next.
Send us your resume.
One conversation and you will know whether we can help.