Principal R&D Engineer

About this role

We anticipate the application window for this opening will close on - 31 Aug 2026   Careers that change lives start here. Medtronic is a global leader in healthcare technology with a Mission to alleviate pain, restore health, and extend life. Our 95,000 employees work across more than 150 countries to put patients first — developing innovative medical technologies that improve the lives of 72+ million patients each year. Your unique talents will help shape the future of healthcare while building a career grounded in purpose, growth, and impact.

A Day in the Life The Principal R&D Engineer is a primary contributor within the Medtronic CardioVascular Surgery R&D organization to lead multi-disciplinary engineering teams, functioning as the technical lead or R&D Core Team Member reporting into and being accountable to the core team to execute programs achieving cost, time and technical goals. This role will contribute to a fast-paced R&D environment, working within a team to deliver advanced technical expertise and solutions to complex engineering problems.

The CardioVascular Surgery Operating Unit is a key growth driver within Medtronic’s Cardiovascular Portfolio, combining deep clinical expertise with cutting-edge innovation. Our portfolio spans cardiac surgery, aortic disease management, and mechanical circulatory support—positioning us at the forefront of surgical advancement and enabling scalable impact across global healthcare systems.

At Medtronic, we bring bold ideas forward with speed and decisiveness to put patients first in everything we do. In-person exchanges are invaluable to our work. We are working onsite a minimum of 4 days per week as part of our commitment to fostering a culture of professional growth and cross-functional collaboration as we work together to engineer the extraordinary. This role will require less than 10% of travel to enhance collaboration and ensure successful completion of projects.                    

Responsibilities may include the following and other duties may be assigned: • Drive new technology creation and aligned product requirements flow down from VOC • Lead R&D teams to meet goals and timelines, applying course corrections as needed to retire risk   • Drive complex system development to meet mechanical, electrical, software, and system-level requirements • Use Predictable Product Development/DRM tools to effectively reach objectives • Employ strong Risk Control Measures, work with other functions, manage constraints of resources, police Contract scope and display crisp decision-making • Lead or leverage cross functional teams to evaluate, develop and manage the technical aspects of projects for new product development and ongoing lifecycle management of products, processes and therapies • Oversee and manage the operational aspects of development engineering and serves as liaison between project management and planning, project team, and line management • Manage the development and implementation process of products and services involving departmental or cross-functional teams focused on the delivery of new or existing products and processes • Review status of projects and budgets; manage engineering team schedules and prepare status reports • Provide higher level R&D program support from initiation through launch • Assess engineering issues and develop resolutions to meet productivity, quality, and client-satisfaction goals and objectives • Develop mechanisms for monitoring engineering discipline, mechanical, electrical, software and systems progress and for intervention and problem solving with project managers, line managers, and clients • Gather requirements: work on requirements planning, elicitation and management to ensure they meet demands of project’s key stakeholders • Author and lead engineering solutions-based trade-off discussions rapidly achieving directional decisions • Communicate with stakeholders, obtain stakeholder engagement to ensure the end products or processes will solve the business problems

Nice to Haves • MS in Mechanical, Electrical, Systems or Biomedical Engineering or other related engineering discipline • Significant experience in the design and development of complex mechanical and electro-mechanical systems • A demonstrated capacity for developing and commercializing innovation • Experience with software development, including planning, scoping, and integration • Familiar with IEC 60601, IEC 62304, IEC 62366, UL, ANSI and ASTM standards • Familiar with product cyber security, EU MDR and RoHS • A track record of successful product launches in the medical device industry • A background in ablation technologies • An understanding of clinical/technical applications of ablation products and application related physiology • Good familiarity with the use of project management tools, ProChain, Stormboard, etc.

Requirements • Bachelors degree required • Minimum of 7 years of relevant experience, or advanced degree with a minimum of 5 years relevant experience • Demonstrated multi-disciplinary engineering team leadership of complex, software based electro-mechanical systems

For Baccalaureate degrees earned outside of the United States, a degree that satisfies the requirements of 8 C.F.R. § 214.2(h)(4)(iii)(A) is required.

Physical Job Requirements

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by employees assigned to this position, but they are not an exhaustive list of all the required responsibilities and skills of this position. 

The physical demands described within the Responsibilities section of this job description are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. For Office Roles: While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to be independen

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