We anticipate the application window for this opening will close on - 15 Dec 2025

 

At Medtronic you can begin a life-long career of exploration and innovation, while helping champion healthcare access and equity for all. You’ll lead with purpose, breaking down barriers to innovation in a more connected, compassionate world.

A Day in the Life

Principal R&D Engineer - RPE

As part of the Surgical Released Product Engineering (RPE) Team, we drive best-in-class clinical outcomes, customer satisfaction, and business value for all commercialized Surgical products by ensuring consistent quality, supply continuity, and market competitiveness while elevating the technical careers of employees. The Principal R&D Engineer will support R&D RPE activities related to the further development and enhancement of the General Surgical Technologies product portfolio. They will serve as the design owner and technical expert, supporting released product engineering teams by planning, developing, and executing testing and analysis activities during product change implementation. This role focuses on driving improvements in product performance and manufacturability, reducing cost, improving quality, and ensuring supply continuity while maintaining design intent.

Responsibilities may include the following and other duties may be assigned. 

• Designs, develops, analyzes, troubleshoots, and provides technical support to improve product sustainability. 
• Designs studies to investigate root cause or identify process parameters. 
• Perform hands-on root cause analysis on the manufacturing floor, leveraging direct observation of physical processes and sample evaluations to identify and resolve technical issues related to design. 
• Leads activities to support product sustainability and improvements to existing products. 
• Serve as a technical expert, exercising considerable latitude in determining deliverables with limited oversight. 
• Defines and performs verification and validation activities ensuring products meet user needs and intended use. 
• Investigates and evaluates existing technologies. 
• Guides the conceptualization of new methodologies, materials, machines, or processes related to existing product manufacturing. 
• Coordinates activities with outside suppliers and consultants to ensure timely delivery. 
• Writes engineering reports and creates presentations as required to document and communicate results. 
• Collaborate with peers to lead and manage the development of appropriate testing to verify product meets internal and external customer requirements. 
• Mentors and guides junior level engineers, delegating and reviewing work. 
• Work will be performed in R&D laboratories and in manufacturing facilities.

Must Have: Minimum Requirements:    

Bachelor’s degree in engineering and minimum of 7 years of relevant experience OR Master's degree with a minimum of 5 years relevant experience OR PhD with 3 years relevant experience.

To be successful in this role:

• Requires a mastery of a specialty area and full knowledge of industry practices, typically obtained through advanced education combined with relevant experience. 
• Ability to work independently as a recognized expert, managing large projects or processes with limited oversight from manager. 
• Ability to set objectives for own job area to meet project goals and assignments including project milestones with some involvement in cross-functional assignments. 
• Leadership skills with the ability to communicate and influence internal teams and external contacts by sharing information, status, needs, and issues to inform, gain input, and support decision-making. 
• Proficiency in Minitab and Microsoft Office – Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and MS Teams. 
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced, cross-disciplinary environment. 
• Takes initiative in keeping current with technology developments in specialized area. 
• Comfortable mentoring and coaching less experienced engineers. 
• Working knowledge of applicable FDA and ISO standards. 
• Recognized expert in engineering practices, product safety, and root cause analysis. 
• General knowledge of structured product development including engineering verification, test development and execution, report writing, and development of presentations. 
• Demonstrated ability to manage and prioritize multiple tasks/projects with a strong problem-solving ability. 
• Must have a hands-on mentality.

Nice to Have: 

• Experience in the medical device industry with disposable surgical tools. 
• Recognized expert in Design for Reliability, Statistical Analysis methods, and