Sr. Principal Embedded Software Engineer
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 Neuromodulation Operating Unit develops implantable and external technologies that help manage chronic pain, movement disorders, epilepsy, and other neurological conditions. This role supports the embedded software function responsible for developing and sustaining software that enables reliable, secure, and effective interaction between patients and neuromodulation therapy systems.As a Senior Principal Embedded Software Engineer, you will provide technical leadership for the design, architecture, development, and lifecycle management of embedded software supporting patient-facing neuromodulation products. This role partners across engineering disciplines to deliver secure, reliable, and regulatory-compliant software solutions while guiding technical direction, mentoring engineering teams, and influencing future product architectures.
Primary Responsibilities
Lead embedded software architecture, design, and technical decision-making across the software development lifecycle.
Define and evaluate software, hardware, security, communication, and Real-Time Operating System (RTOS) design approaches to support product requirements.
Collaborate with systems, electrical, quality, security, human factors, and project leadership teams to analyze requirements and resolve complex technical challenges.
Provide technical leadership and design oversight to globally distributed software development teams and external partners.
Investigate, troubleshoot, and resolve complex product issues through root-cause analysis, embedded software debugging, and hardware/software integration activities.
Ensure compliance with applicable medical device software and product standards, including IEC 62304 and IEC 60601-1 requirements.
Advance Agile, DevOps, continuous integration, and automated testing practices to improve software quality and development efficiency.
Assess technical risks and evaluate emerging technologies, architectures, and development tools to support current and future product strategies.
Required Qualifications
Bachelor's degree with 10 years of relevant experience OR Master's degree with 8 years of relevant experience OR PhD with 6 years of relevant experience
- Extensive software and embedded software experience
- 3 years of experience leading technical architecture/design for complex embedded systems
Preferred Qualifications
- Real-Time Experience: Demonstrated expertise designing and implementing real-time (RTOS) embedded software, including:
- RTOS schedulability analysis (Azure RTOS/ThreadX-based real-time designs)
- USB CDC and HID Interface
- Security solutions (TLS 1.3, x509 certificates, encryption techniques, secure embedded software updates)
- Driver development & driver portability
- Embedded software development on an ARM v8m architecture including M33 specific features
- Bluetooth & RF telemetry communication solutions
- Hardware integration & Electrical skills: Extensive experience with electrical board bring-up and hardware/software integration, including oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, multimeters, JTAG, and UART to diagnose and resolve complex integration issues.
- Regulatory compliance: Experience developing embedded software throughout the entire Software Development Lifecycle in a highly regulated environment, including experience with IEC 62304 and IEC 60601-1.
- Systems thinking: Demonstrated ability to understand complex product and system architectures, analyze system requirements and dependencies, evaluate technical tradeoffs, and influence product design decisions across engineering disciplines.
- Technical Leadership: Demonstrated ability to lead complex technical initiatives, establish technical direction, drive architecture and design decisions, and influence engineering teams without direct authority. Leader with a growth mindset and experiencing mentoring engineers and developing technical capabilities within the team
- Agile & Devops: Experience planning and executing under Agile-Scrum development methodology as well as implementing and using Devops/continuous integration development environments.
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 independently mobile. The employee is also required to interact with a computer, and communicate with peers and co-workers. Contact your manager or local HR to understand the Work Conditions and Physical requirements that may be specific to each role.
U.S. Work Authorization & Sponsorship
At Medtronic, we are committed to fostering an environment where employees can thrive and make a meaningful impact. In alignment with our enterprise-wide workforce planning approach, U.S. work authorization sponsorship (H-1B, TN, J, etc.) is offered exclusively for Principal-level roles and above, where specialized expertise aligns with long-term business needs. Roles below the Principal level require candidates to possess unrestricted U.S. work authorization at the time of hire and for the duration of employment.
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Apply only through official Medtronic channels. All legitimate Medtronic recruiting communications come from approved Medtronic platforms and official @medtronic.com email addresses.
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Benefits & Compensation
Medtronic offers a competitive Salary and flexible Benefits Package
A commitment to our employees lives at the core of our values. We recognize their contributions. They share in the success they help to create.We offer a wide range of benefits, resources, and competitive compensation plans designed to support you at every career and life stage.
Salary ranges for U.S (excl. PR) locations (USD):$178,400.00 - $267,600.00This position is eligible for a short-term incentive called the Medtronic Incentive Plan (MIP).The base salary range is applicable across the United States, excluding Puerto Rico and specific locations in California. The offered rate complies with federal and local regulations and may vary based on factors such as experience, certification/education, market conditions, and location. Compensation and benefits information pertains solely to candidates hired within the United States (local market compensation and benefits will apply for others).The following benefits and additional compensation are available to those regular employees who work 20+ hours per week: Health, Dental and vision insurance,Health Savings Account,Healthcare Flexible Spending Account,Life insurance, Long-term disability leave,Dependent daycare spending account,Tuition assistance/reimbursement, andSimple Steps (global well-being program).
The following benefits and additional compensation are available to all regular employees:Incentive plans, 401(k) plan plus employer contribution and match,Short-term disability,Paid time off,Paid holidays,Employee Stock Purchase Plan,Employee Assistance Program,Non-qualified Retirement Plan Supplement (subject to IRS earning minimums), andCapital Accumulation Plan (available to Vice Presidents and above, or subject to IRS earning minimums).
Regular employees are those who are not temporary, such as interns. Temporary employees are eligible for paid sick time, as required under applicable state law, and the Employee Stock Purchase Plan. Please note some of the above benefits may not apply to workers in Puerto Rico.
Further details are available at the link below:
Medtronic benefits and compensation plans
It is the policy of Medtronic to provide equal employment opportunity (EEO) to all persons regardless of age, color, national origin, citizenship status, physical or mental disability, race, religion, creed, gender, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, genetic information, marital status, status with regard to public assistance, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law. In addition, Medtronic will provide reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities.
If you are applying to perform work for Medtronic, Inc. (“Medtronic”) in any position which will involve performing at least two (2) hours of work on average each week within the unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County, you can find here a list of all material job duties of the specific job position which Medtronic reasonably believes that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship potentially resulting in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment. Medtronic will consider for employment qualified job applicants with arrest or conviction records in accordance with the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act.