Sr. Principal Ultrasound Engineer, Mounds View, MN

Medtronic•Mounds View, MN

1d•$176,800 - $265,200•Onsite

About The Position

Medtronic is seeking a Senior Principal Ultrasound Engineer to serve as a recognized technical leader in ultrasound and acoustic design. This individual will set architectural direction, drive innovation through model-based design, and collaborate with external experts to integrate ultrasound with the Affera platform. They will also be responsible for building internal ultrasound engineering talent while shaping next-generation diagnostic and therapeutic ultrasound platforms. This role is based onsite in Mounds View, MN and will require up to 25% travel time.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Physics, or a related discipline with 10+ years of relevant experience; or Master's degree with 8+ years; or PhD with 6+ years.
Excellent collaboration and communication skills with internal (cross-functional and leadership) and external partners.
Recognized internally (and ideally, externally) as a subject matter expert in ultrasound transducers and system architecture.
Operates with broad autonomy on the most complex, ambiguous, and high-impact technical challenges.
Influences technical strategy across multiple programs, business units, or operating units.
Mentors principal, senior, and staff engineers; develops the next generation of technical leaders.
Represents Medtronic in industry forums, standards bodies, academic collaborations, and key supplier engagements.

Nice To Haves

PhD in a relevant discipline with publications in ultrasound, acoustics, or medical imaging.
Expertise with piezoelectric arrays, CMUTs, and/or PMUTs, including FEA-driven co-design with electronics.
Demonstrated architectural ownership of ultrasound transducers and system interfaces across multiple product generations.
Deep, hands-on experience with ultrasound system and electronics simulation software, including several of the following: Field II and k-Wave for acoustic field, beam pattern, and pulse-echo simulation; FOCUS for transducer and acoustic propagation modeling; PZFlex / OnScale for piezoelectric transducer and coupled acoustic-structural FEA; COMSOL Multiphysics for multiphysics modeling of transducers and acoustic media; ANSYS (Mechanical, HFSS, SIwave, Icepak) for structural, electromagnetic, signal/power integrity, and thermal analysis.
Proven ability to lead technical teams, mentor senior engineers, and influence without direct authority.
Strong written and verbal communication skills, with experience presenting to executive leadership and external stakeholders.
Experience leading ASIC or custom silicon programs for ultrasound front-ends, knowledge in back-end digital design, including high-speed digital interfaces and digital beamforming.
Patents in ultrasound electronics, beamforming, or transducer integration.
Direct experience with advanced beamforming architectures (synthetic aperture, plane-wave, coherent compounding, adaptive beamforming, micro-beamforming).
Exposure to multiple ultrasound modalities such as cart-based diagnostic, point-of-care, intracardiac echo (ICE), intravascular ultrasound (IVUS), endoscopic, or therapeutic/HIFU systems.
Experience building and scaling technical organizations across geographies.

Responsibilities

Define and own transducer architecture, balancing acoustic performance, power, thermal, cost, form factor, and regulatory constraints.
Establish technical roadmaps that align with multi-year product and platform strategies.
Lead architectural trade-off studies and make build/buy/partner recommendations for critical subsystems.
Provide technical oversight of key suppliers and contract manufacturers.
Partner with senior leaders in firmware, software, algorithms, systems, regulatory, and clinical to align technical direction.
Lead design reviews, architectural reviews, and technical risk reviews across programs.
Mentor and coach engineers; actively develop technical career paths and build organizational depth.
Influence hiring, technical onboarding, and competency development for the broader engineering community.
Drive innovation pipelines, generate patentable IP, and grow Medtronic's ultrasound patent portfolio.
Contribute to publications in peer-reviewed venues (posters, abstracts, journal articles) represent Medtronic at industry conferences when appropriate.
Engage with academic partners, key suppliers, and standards bodies (IEC, AIUM, IEEE) to shape technology direction.
Serve as a technical authority during regulatory submissions and audits.