Sr. Principal Ultrasound Engineer, Mounds View, MN
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
Medtronic is seeking a Senior Principal Ultrasound Engineer to serve as a recognized technical leader in ultrasound and acoustic design. This individual 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.
Key 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
Cross-Functional Influence and Mentorship
- 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.
Innovation, IP, and External Engagement
- 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.
Quality, Compliance, and Manufacturing
- Serve as a technical authority during regulatory submissions and audits.
Level Expectations
-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.
Minimum Qualifications
- 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.
Preferred Qualifications
- 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.
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.
Recruitment Fraud Alert
We are aware of phishing scams targeting job seekers. Please keep the following in mind:
Apply only through official Medtronic channels. All legitimate Medtronic recruiting communications come from approved Medtronic platforms and official @medtronic.com email addresses.
Medtronic will never ask for payment or sensitive personal information (such as bank account or Social Security details) during early stages of the hiring process. Any such requests are not legitimate.
If you receive a suspicious message claiming to be from Medtronic, do not respond, click links, or open attachments.
If you have any questions, concerns regarding the authenticity of a communication alleged to have been made by or on behalf of Medtronic, please contact us immediately at AskHR@medtronic.com.
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.
This 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, and Simple 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), and Capital 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.