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Job Description - Principal Electrical Engineer

Released Product Engineering (RPE) - Surgical Hardware Medtronic | Lafayette, CO

A Day in the Life

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're working a minimum of 4 days a week onsite as part of our commitment to fostering a culture of professional growth and cross-functional collaboration as we work together to engineer the extraordinary.

As a Principal Electrical Engineer, you will serve as a recognized technical expert and engineering leader within the Released Product Engineering (RPE) organization supporting Medtronic's Surgical Hardware portfolio. This role is responsible for leading complex electrical engineering activities across sustaining engineering, product enhancements, quality investigations, regulatory compliance, cost optimization, supplier changes, and lifecycle management initiatives.

The successful candidate will possess deep expertise in mixed-signal electronics, system integration, and product development within regulated industries. In addition to electrical engineering leadership, this individual will collaborate closely with mechanical, firmware, software, systems, quality, regulatory, manufacturing, supplier quality, sourcing, and operations teams to ensure safe, reliable, and compliant products throughout their lifecycle.

This role requires a systems-thinking mindset, strong technical problem-solving skills, and the ability to influence cross-functional teams while mentoring engineers and driving engineering excellence across the organization.

Primary Responsibilities

Technical Leadership

• Serve as the electrical engineering subject matter expert for complex sustaining engineering, quality, compliance, and product enhancement initiatives.

• Lead the design, development, integration, verification, and validation of mixed-signal electrical systems and subsystems used in surgical medical devices.

• Define hardware architectures and technical solutions that balance product performance, reliability, manufacturability, compliance, and cost objectives.

• Review and approve electrical designs, schematics, test plans, engineering changes, and qualification strategies.

• Drive system-level troubleshooting and root cause investigations involving electrical, mechanical, software, and firmware interactions.

Product Lifecycle & Sustaining Engineering

• Lead electrical engineering activities supporting released products, including:

• Design changes and engineering change orders (ECOs)

• Obsolescence management

• Supplier-driven changes

• Lifecycle and End-of-Life (EOL) initiatives

• Cost reduction and VAVE projects

• Manufacturing and field quality improvements

• Assess product impacts associated with component, material, and supplier changes and determine requalification requirements.

• Support manufacturing and supplier quality teams in resolving production issues and field-related concerns.

Product Quality & Compliance

• Ensure designs comply with applicable standards and regulations, including:

• IEC 60601-1

• IEC 60601-1-2

• IEC 60601-2-2

• FDA Quality System Requirements

• ISO 13485

• Risk Management requirements

• Lead technical assessments and investigations related to customer complaints, CAPAs, nonconformances, audits, and field performance issues.

• Evaluate complaint trends and reliability data to determine if systemic quality issues exist and develop appropriate corrective actions.

• Support EMC, electrical safety, environmental, reliability, and performance testing activities.

Design & Development

• Perform and oversee:

• Circuit design

• Schematic capture

• PCB layout reviews

• Component selection

• Design analysis and simulation

• System integration

• Design verification testing

• Develop detailed technical specifications, requirements, test protocols, and engineering documentation.

• Ensure hardware designs meet performance, reliability, safety, and manufacturability requirements.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner with Systems Engineering, Software, Firmware, Mechanical, Quality, Regulatory Affairs, Operations, Supply Chain, and Manufacturing Engineering teams.

• Work with external test laboratories, suppliers, consultants, and contract manufacturers as required.

• Provide technical leadership during cross-functional design reviews, risk reviews, and business decision-making processes.

Innovation & Continuous Improvement

• Identify opportunities to improve product performance, reliability, compliance, manufacturability, and cost.

• Drive adoption of engineering best practices, tools, and methodologies.

• Support platform strategies, design standardization, and technology roadmaps across the Surgical Hardware portfolio.

• Contribute to the evaluation and implementation of emerging technologies.

Leadership & Talent Development

• Mentor and coach electrical engineers and cross-functional team members.

• Lead technical reviews and provide guidance on engineering approaches and problem-solving techniques.

• Influence technical direction across multiple projects and product platforms.

• Serve as a technical leader for major cross-functional initiatives and strategic engineering projects.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering or related engineering discipline with 7+ years of relevant experience

• OR Master's degree with 5+ years of relevant experience

• OR PhD with 3+ years of relevant experience

Required Technical Experience

• Experience with all phases of mixed-signal board design, including:

• Architecture development

• Circuit design

• Schematic capture

• Component selection

• PCB layout and reviews

• Design verification

• Strong fundamentals in:

• Analog and digital circuit design

• Signals and systems

• Frequency-domain analysis

• Power electronics

• System integration

• Experience with OrCAD schematic capture and PCB design tools.

• Hands-on experience using laboratory equipment including:

• Oscilloscopes

• Multimeters

• Logic analyzers

• Spectrum analyzers

• Network analyzers

• Experience designing, testing, and troubleshooting high-voltage systems (up to approximately 5 kV).

• Experience working within regulated industries, preferably medical devices.

• Knowledge of IEC 60601 family of standards and medical device development processes.

• Strong root-cause analysis and structured problem-solving skills.

• Excellent written, verbal, and presentation communication skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting released products within a medical device environment.

• Experience with EMC and electrical safety testing.

• Experience with supplier qualification, supplier-driven changes, and component obsolescence management.

• Experience leading VAVE and cost optimization initiatives.

• Exposure to systems engineering practices and requirements-driven development.

• Experience working in Agile product development environments.

• Familiarity with Surgical Hardware or electrosurgical products.

• Lean, Six Sigma, or A3 problem-solving experience.

• Demonstrated ability to influence technical decisions across organizations.

Differentiating Factors

Autonomy

• Recognized technical expert in electrical engineering with broad understanding of system-level interactions involving mechanical, software, and firmware subsystems.

• Exercises substantial independent judgment in defining technical approaches and project execution strategies.

• Determines deliverables with minimal supervision and serves as a trusted advisor to management.

Organizational Impact

• Influences technical direction and engineering strategy across multiple products and programs.

• Drives improvements to processes, standards, and operational plans that have significant business impact.

• Leads major cross-functional initiatives supporting quality, compliance, manufacturing, and business objectives.

Innovation & Complexity

• Solves highly complex and often ambiguous technical problems requiring extensive investigation and systems-level thinking.

• Develops innovative and practical solutions balancing technical, regulatory, quality, cost, and schedule considerations.

• Manages multiple high-priority initiatives simultaneously.

Communication & Influence

• Serves as a primary technical interface with internal stakeholders, leadership, suppliers, and external partners.

• Effectively communicates complex technical concepts to diverse audiences.

• Influences key technical and business decisions through data-driven recommendations.

Leadership & Talent Development

• Provides technical mentoring, coaching, and guidance to engineers across the organization.

• Leads technical project teams and oversees execution of major engineering initiatives.

• Promotes a culture of collaboration, accountability, innovation, and engineering excellence.

Physical Location: Lafayette, Colorado
Work Model: Minimum 4 days per week onsite
Travel: Up to 10-15% as required to support suppliers, manufacturing sites, testing laboratories, and business needs.