R&D Engineer II

Abbott is a global healthcare leader that helps people live more fully at all stages of life. Our portfolio of life-changing technologies spans the spectrum of healthcare, with leading businesses and products in diagnostics, medical devices, nutritionals and branded generic medicines. Our 114,000 colleagues serve people in more than 160 countries.

     

JOB DESCRIPTION:

We are recruiting for an Engineer II- Ventures Trans-Catheter Mitral Valve to join our team in Santa Clara, CA.  This is a unique opportunity to join an early-stage development team that provides solutions to patients suffering from mitral valve disease. The position is on a fast-paced, early product development team within Abbott’s Ventures Organization. The individual who fills this role will play a pivotal part in the design, development and testing of this novel trans-septal prosthetic tissue mitral valve delivery system from early clinical feasibility through commercialization.  Candidate will be responsible for providing engineering expertise in the creation and the development of the Catheter Delivery System for this class 3 medical device product in the fast-growing market of mitral valve replacement.

Decision Making/Impact:  Exercise’s judgment in selecting innovative, practical methods to achieve problem resolution. Failure to obtain results or erroneous decisions or recommendations would typically result in serious program delays and considerable expenditure of resources

Technical/Business Knowledge:  Wide application of technical principles, practices, and procedures. Strong understanding of business unit function and cross group dependencies/relationships. Will perform this job in a quality system environment. Failure to adequately perform tasks can result in noncompliance with governmental regulations.

Cognitive Skills:  Works on problems of diverse scope where analysis of data requires evaluation of identifiable factors. Exercises judgment within generally defined practices and policies in selecting methods and techniques for obtaining solutions. Has a sound knowledge of various technical alternatives and their impact.

Our business purpose is to restore health and improve quality of life through the design and provision of device and management solutions for the treatment of STRUCTURAL HEART disease.  We aim to lead the markets we serve by requiring the solutions we offer customers provide an improved benefit/risk profile as compared to existing standards of care; a performance threshold that, guides and ensures the productive output of our engineering, business development, and clinical research efforts result in outcomes that advance the standard of care.

What You’ll Work On

• Researches, develops, designs, and evaluates mechanical, components, assemblies, processes and/or equipment to advance development of this catheter-based delivery system for trans-septal percutaneous mitral valve replacement
• Supports and conducts design studies to verify capability and functionality
• Develops and iterates on new catheter deliver system concepts from initial design to market release.
• Write and submit intellectual property (patents)
• Maintains detailed documentation throughout all phases of research and development
• Investigates and evaluates existing technologies
• Reviews or coordinates vendor activities to support development
• Establishes and cultivates a network of support to facilitate completion of assignments
• Interact with vendors to leverage outside Abbott expertise
• Plans and organizes non-routine tasks w/ minimal supervision to deliver appreciated results based on informed expertise
• Initiates or maintains work schedule and establishes priorities of work assignments

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical or Bio-Medical Engineering
• 2-5 years of related work experience with a good understanding of specified functional area, or an equivalent combination of education and work experience
• Demonstrated ability to apply technical knowledge and judgment to complex technical problems and technical proficiency specific to mechanical problem solving in medical device design
• Effective communication, listening, and diagnostic skills, verbal and written, are necessary. The demonstration of effective collaboration and influencing skills will be key so that the candidate can achieve results within the cross functional team and with stakeholders around the company
• Clearly articulates issues, risks and mitigations of a project element. Resolves issues before a timely escalation
• Clearly explains options and project element solutions. Help team members ac