Principal Materials Engineer (Mounds View, Mn)

Careers That Change Lives

This position will work in a team environment providing technical leadership in the area of materials science and engineering, including materials selection, problem-solving, and biocompatibility and biostability. This position will support new product development and released product reliability teams in the identification and mitigation of product-related risks, resource gaps and the communication of such issues to project and functional leadership teams.

The individual will serve as a materials expert with an emphasis on catheter polymer materials by participating in technical activities for materials selection, processing, characterization, analysis, material stability, biocompatibility, biostability, as well as understanding of process-property-performance relationships for medical devices.

This position will also support scoping/planning of product strategy and identification of technologies and initiatives needed to develop innovative, reliable and cost-effective therapies. The candidate will develop and execute strategies to address those needs.

You can grow your career with us; we hope you’ll consider joining our team!

*This position may require travel, up to 10% for business needs.*

A Day in A Live

As a leader in your professional discipline, you will serve as a materials expert by leading and participating in technical activities supporting new product development. You’ll also engage in sustaining engineering efforts to support post-commercial/legacy products.

• Contributes to the design of new products or processes based on business strategy.
• C oordinates and conducts laboratory work and data analysis to drive data-driven technical decisions in your discipline.
• Addresses challenging and complex problems within a project spanning a wide range of difficulty and complexity.
• Maintains a focus on quality, possesses the necessary drive and determination to promote the highest level of customer satisfaction, quality, reliability, performance, cost, and development predictability.
• Develops strategies and prepare evaluation plans in consideration of gaps in materials, design and process to achieve optimal solutions that satisfy timeline, cost and technical requirements as they relate to patient safety and product reliability.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree
• 7 years of relevant experience, or advanced degree with 5 years of relevant experience

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working with multiple classes of engineering materials: metals, polycrystalline, and single crystal ceramics, glasses, and polymeric materials.
• Polymer Physics, Chemistry, Processing and Characterization
• Possesses proven expertise in the following business critical skill sets with focus on electrochemistry:
  • Polymer Physics, Chemistry, Processing and Characterization
  • Polymer degradation/ and stability
• Experience working in a regulated environment on medical devices including catheters and/or medical pacing leads
• Awareness of biocompatibility testing in accordance with ISO 10993.
• Knowledge of statistical methods and Design of Experiments (DoE).
• Experience performing failure analysis
• Demonstrated ability to deliver quality technical work within project schedules and timelines.
• Polymer degradation/ and stability
• Knowledge of external standards, e.g., ASTM and ISO and their use, limitations, and applications.
• Expertise in polymer bonding & adhesives
• Knowledge of Design, Reliability & Manufacturability (DRM), and Six Sigma improvement methodology.
• Knowledge of Microsoft applications (Excel, Word, Outlook).
• Expertise in materials with the ability to identify and develop testing methods, correlate material properties with product performance, and predict various failure modes.
• Demonstrated ability to apply skills and knowledge of technical/operational theories and principles to resolve real-world biomaterials challenges.

About Medtronic

Together, we can change healthcare worldwide. At Medtronic, we push the limits of what technology, therapies, and services can do to help alleviate pain, restore health, and extend life. We challenge ourselves and each other to make tomorrow better than yesterday. It is what makes this an exciting and rewarding place to be.

We want to accelerate and advance our ability to create meaningful innovations - but we will only succeed with the right people on our team. Let’s work together to address universal healthcare needs and improve patients’ lives. Help us shape the future.

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 Day in the Life 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.