Job TitleValidation - Engineer III / Lead Engineer - Project Farma
Location(s)Customer Site - CA, Customer Site - CO, Customer Site - TX, Houston, TX, Los Angeles, CA, Pasadena, CA, Portland, OR, San Diego, CA, South San Francisco, CA
Job DescriptionThe successful candidate will reside in one of Project Farma's primary markets and be willing to travel domestically to meet client project requests. Project Farma's purpose is to improve patient lives by accelerating the delivery of life-changing therapies. We accomplish this through the successful execution of high-quality life sciences projects across the full project lifecycle. Project Farma (PF) team members collaborate with cross-functional teams to build trusted client relationships, deliver an exceptional customer experience, and contribute to business growth by identifying opportunities and applying data-driven insights to support project planning, cost, schedule, and performance management.
All team members are expected to embody Project Farma's values by being curious, personable, and unselfish, while maintaining a strong commitment to a Patient Focused and People First mindset.
The Validation Engineer III / Lead Engineer is an advanced individual contributor with demonstrated depth in their technical discipline and a growing record of leading complex workstreams. This role applies strong subject-matter expertise to solve high-impact technical and operational challenges, supports technical decision-making, and contributes to the evolution of standards, methods, or best practices within their area. The Validation Engineer III / Lead Engineer works with a high degree of independence, mentors junior and peer engineers, and partners closely with project and people leaders-while remaining focused on technical delivery rather than formal people management.
Key Responsibilities Technical Delivery - Execute specific technical tasks within a project, ensuring high-quality deliverables.
- Perform CQV tasks, such as protocol development or equipment testing, under the Site Lead's guidance.
- Report technical issues to the Site Lead and support resolution efforts.
- Ensure tasks meet client specifications, regulatory requirements (e.g., FDA, GMP), and industry standards.
- Author technical documents: SOPs, requirements specifications, testing protocols, summary reports, etc.
- Identify and close individual knowledge gaps with support from other team members or leads as needed.
- Execute system and process validation protocols by using GxP best practices.
- Support necessary billables as forecasted by site dashboards on billable targets per month.
- Communicate updates internally in a timely manner and relay in-field project decisions to highlight long-range, down-stream project and team impacts.
- Provide hands-on support and troubleshooting for clients navigating the engineering life cycle of cutting-edge equipment and manufacturing processes.
- Perform due diligence on system and subject domains to generate high-quality project deliverables.
- Proactively identify and escalate roadblocks and utilize critical thinking skills and knowledge of problem- solving skills to identify creative solutions to those problems and roadblocks.
- General understanding of Earned Value Analysis (EVA) and project management tools
- May be requested to assist with Project Controls and Scheduling to include; Budget estimates, detailed project schedules and milestones, feasibility estimates, risks, forecasts and scenario analysis and project cost reports and analysis.
- Create alignment with cross-functional client departments including but not limited to Validation, Manufacturing, Quality, Supply Chain, Engineering and Project Controls
- Maintain internal site tools such as site dashboards, deliverable trackers, etc.
- Continually develop technical aptitude of Project Farma's core services within the life science space including but not limited to: Capital Project Management, Tech Transfers, Validation Life Cycles including CQV and Computer system Validation, Quality, Regulatory and Compliance, GxP Automated Systems, and Quality Control including clinical and commercial.
- Analyze complex project data and then deliver clear, articulate and concise messages in a compelling manner to support decision making
Talent Development - Focus on professional development and support team collaboration under the Site Leads guidance.
- Share technical knowledge with peers to support project delivery. Mentor less experienced team members.
- Participate in Project Farma internal qualification training program.
- Site Strategy
- Support the execution of site strategy under the direction of the Site Lead, contributing to specific project tasks that align with Project Farma's services.
- Perform assigned tasks to meet strategic objectives, such as preparing and executing CQV Protocols
- Identify and reports client needs or project challenges to the Site Lead for further action.
- Maintain professional relationships with project team members and client POCs at the operational level (e.g., technicians, engineers) to facilitate task completion
Resource Management - Provide input on task-level resource needs to the Site Lead to support project delivery.
- Report workload or skill gaps within assigned tasks.
- Assist in maintaining project schedules by communicating resource constraints.
Business Growth & Development - Contribute to project-level success by delivering high-quality work that supports business growth opportunities.
- Build meaningful internal and external relationships.
- Present Project Farma as a service to clients as needed.
- Communicate with clients in a professional manner.
- Ensure any client feedback or opportunities identified are being escalated properly.
- Provides data or insights (e.g., project progress, risks) to the Site Lead for inclusion in dashboards or expansion discussions.
- Participate in project tasks that support extensions or proposals, such as preparing deliverables for clients.
- Identify opportunities for cross-selling and up-selling of additional Project Farma services outside of the Validation dicscipline.
Operational Performance & Billability - Maintain 100% individual billability by completing assigned project tasks.
- Escalate any roadblocks on achieving billable targets to the site lead.
Experience Required - Bachelor's Degree in Life Science, Engineering, or related discipline (OR a combination of equivalent work experience in capital project engineering, pharma cGMP facility start-up, CapEx/OpEx project management and/or comparable military experience.
- Years of Experience: 2-7 years in consulting and/or engineering services
- Willingness to travel as required for client project assignments.
Other Preferred - Full-time on-site client presence
- Willingness to travel up to 100% or as required.
The annual compensation range for this full-time position is $(71,000) to $(106,000). The final base pay offered to the successful candidate will be determined by factors including internal equity, work location, as well as individual qualifications, such as job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training.
