Product Owner Embedded Software

Change people’s lives and love what you do! Cochlear develops world-leading medical devices that help people hear. As a top 100 medical device company and market-leader in implantable hearing devices, more people choose a Cochlear-branded cochlear implant system than any other. Our employees tell us that the number one reason they enjoy working for Cochlear is the opportunity to make a difference to people’s lives.

The Opportunity
As the Product Owner Embedded Software, you will own the firmware roadmap and drive delivery of cutting-edge software that powers life-changing hearing solutions. You’ll partner closely with R&D engineers, Systems and Electrical teams, I&V testers, and Global Strategic Marketing to translate customer needs into high-quality embedded-software functionality. This role offers the chance to shape product vision in a regulated, mission-driven environment and see your work directly impact real users in the field.

Responsibilities include:

Team Leadership & Continuous Improvement
Drive a culture of technical excellence by reducing technical debt, maintaining long-lived design documentation, and implementing in-field telemetry/diagnostic hooks
Mentor other Associate Product Owners on Agile practices and best-in-class embedded-software processes

Product Vision & Backlog Ownership
Write clear, technically detailed user stories and software specifications (e.g., performance budgets, memory constraints)
Prioritise the embedded-software backlog—balancing new features, technical debt, and regulatory deliverables—to align with release milestones

Cross-Functional Collaboration
Liaise with Marketing, Systems, Electrical, Clinical, Regulatory, and Quality teams to define requirements, manage dependencies, and drive alignment
Represent embedded-software functionality in Clinical Trials and Customer Service interactions, ensuring all stakeholder considerations are captured

Integration & Verification (I&V) Coordination
Partner with the I&V Manager to define test strategies (hardware-in-the-loop, automated regression) and plan verification milestones

Manage the European I&V team, giving guidance and developing the team to enable them to implement best practices in testing and ensure quality in the embedded software outputs• Act as the I&V escalation point—tracking progress, identifying risks, and reporting status to R&D leadership

Release & Quality Accountability
Collaborate with Release Management to plan firmware builds, branching strategies, and regression cycles
Review completed work for “fit & finish,” ensuring compliance with ISO 13485/FDA traceability and that all acceptance criteria are met

About You
As Cochlear continues to grow, we’re looking for people who share our passion for delivering quality hearing solutions. To excel in this role, you will demonstrate:

Technical Leadership
Significant experience in embedded-software development environments, with proficiency in C/C++, RTOS concepts, MCUs, communication buses, and peripheral drivers
Hands-on expertise with build systems (Make/CMake), Git branching/merge strategies, CI pipelines, and debugging tools (JTAG/SWD, logic analyzers)

Experience in embedded software testing strategy development and execution

People Leadership
Proven ability to build and refine the Product Owner and I&V functions—mentoring Associate Product Owners, running Product Chapters, and driving Agile and embedded software testing best practices—while partnering with senior R&D leadership

Regulated-Device & I&V Knowledge
Familiarity with ISO 13485/FDA software requirements (SRS, HARA, traceability) and integration-level test planning
Proven track record of defining and executing software-level and system-level verification tests in hardware-in-the-loop or bench-test setups

Product Ownership & Agile Delivery
Demonstrated experience as a Product Owner in a Scrum/Agile context—writing technically detailed user stories, prioritising backlogs, and driving sprint/release cadence
Strong understanding of user-centred design principles at the firmware level, translating field data (error rates, battery telemetry) into actionable improvements

Stakeholder Management & Decision Quality
Proven ability to influence cross-functional leaders (Marketing, Systems, Clinical) and negotiate scope-versus-timeline trade-offs under ambiguity
Experience making data-driven decisions—using in-field telemetry and analytics to inform backlog priorities and future sprints

What makes this opportunity unique?
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