Technical Project Manager - College of Engineering - BioMedical Engineering

Carnegie Mellon University•Pittsburgh, PA

5d•Onsite

About The Position

Carnegie Mellon University's Biomedical Engineering (BME) Department is seeking a Technical Project Manager to provide scientific and technical leadership for a large-scale project focused on developing a wearable, multimodal maternal–fetal monitoring system to transform intrapartum care. This project spans the entire translational pipeline of perinatal device development, from multimodal sensing hardware through physiology-informed AI, human-factors design, and clinical validation at multiple hospital sites. This role is technical and science-facing, requiring close collaboration with the Principal Investigator (PI) and task leads to ensure scientific and engineering coherence across institutions. The Technical Project Manager will connect with clinicians to identify relevant translational questions, monitor the work of partner labs and companies, and provide high-level technical oversight of approaches, dependencies, and timelines. The position involves handling sensitive, pre-publication technical information and is ideal for a senior research scientist interested in a collaboration- and leadership-oriented role while remaining deeply engaged in science.

Requirements

PhD in biomedical engineering, electrical engineering, biophysics, neuroscience, applied physics, or a related field (or equivalent research experience).
Multiple years of post-PhD research experience in a relevant laboratory or research-and-development setting.
Significant prior research experience in biomedical engineering, biomedical optics, biomedical instrumentation, neuroengineering, or a closely related field — ideally several years of postdoctoral, staff scientist, or equivalent experience in an active research lab.
Technical depth in one or more sensing modalities relevant to the project (diffuse optics, EEG/EMG/ECG, ultrasound, photoacoustics, or related), and the breadth to engage credibly with adjacent modalities and AI/ML work.
A track record of substantive scientific output (peer-reviewed publications, conference presentations, and/or contributions to funded grants).
Demonstrated ability to coordinate and lead across multiple stakeholders — academic collaborators, clinicians, and/or industry partners — and to translate between their distinct cultures and constraints.
Excellent verbal and written communication skills; ability to engage clinicians on clinically meaningful questions and engineers on technical detail, and to summarize either for the other.
Sound technical judgment: the ability to evaluate whether a proposed approach is appropriate, whether a plan is realistic, and where the real risks live, without needing to design every method personally.
Strong interpersonal skills and a collaborative disposition; comfort operating across institutional and international boundaries.
A clear interest in growing as a scientific leader / coordinator who stays engaged with the science.
Successful Background Check

Nice To Haves

Demonstrated experience working in or coordinating multi-institutional and/or international research collaborations is strongly preferred.
Familiarity with clinical research, human-subjects studies, IRB processes, and/or regulated medical device development (IDE, De Novo, PMA, 510(k)) is preferred.
Prior experience interfacing with federal sponsors such as ARPA-H, DARPA, NIH, or DoD on milestone-driven programs is a plus.
A combination of education and relevant experience from which comparable knowledge is demonstrated may be considered.

Responsibilities

Build and maintain working relationships with clinical collaborators, including maternal-fetal medicine specialists, OB/GYN faculty, neonatologists, and pediatric anesthesiologists.
Engage with clinicians to understand current intrapartum monitoring practices, unmet needs, decision points, and the clinical context surrounding fetal hypoxia and labor management, surfacing insights to the PI and task leads.
Identify clinically meaningful opportunities and directions for the solution platform and translate these into experimental questions, study aims, and validation priorities.
Help shape protocol design, endpoints, and clinical data collection plans for studies to ensure rigor and clinical credibility, coordinating with clinical co-investigators on protocol refinement.
Represent the technical team in discussions with clinical partners, communicating technical capabilities and constraints in accessible language.
Serve as the substantive technical point of contact between CMU lead labs and external academic and industry partners.
Develop a working understanding of partner sensor designs, signal processing approaches, software stacks, hardware integration plans, and regulatory/manufacturing strategies.
Track partner progress against project deliverables, identify technical risks early, and flag potential dependency issues between partners.
Synthesize partner activities into clear technical updates for the PI, task leads, and funding agencies.
Provide high-level technical oversight across project tasks, assessing the coherence and progress of the overall technical strategy and individual partner work plans.
Identify technical risks, gaps, and over-investments early, recommending prioritization, scope adjustments, or additional collaborations to the PI.
Maintain an internal picture of the system architecture and ensure each partner's effort integrates cleanly.
Support technical content for reporting, milestone reviews, FDA Q-submissions, and regulatory planning, in collaboration with the Program Manager and task leads.
Remain hands-on with the science by participating in technical discussions, reviewing data, and contributing to publications and grant proposals.
Mentor graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and research staff on experimental design, data interpretation, and translational thinking.
Foster a collaborative and inclusive lab and consortium culture, particularly across the engineering, clinical, and industry boundaries.