Manager, Design Development Engineering, R&D

Position Summary

Reporting to the Director of R&D, the R&D Manager of Design will provide the technical leadership responsible for driving product innovation, development, and organizational capability building within the R&D team. The role combines deep technical expertise with strong mentorship and leadership. This position focuses on building and strengthening the organization’s engineering capabilities through talent development, mentorship, and scalable technical practices. This role shifts emphasis beyond individual technical contribution to scaling the organization through people, raising the overall engineering standard, and ensuring long-term capability and innovation.

This position will have between 2 and 4 direct reports and will be a builder of engineers and engineering systems, not just products. 

Principal Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership
•    Actively participate in improving the R&D design function by pursuing opportunities to develop the team’s competencies, processes, strategies, organization, personnel, and execution of business initiatives.
•    Develop strategies for products, including technical, regulatory and intellectual property
•    Develop outside partnerships with companies as appropriate to accelerate key technology development. 

Organizational Development
•    Provide leadership in growing the R&D teams through recruiting top engineering talent, managing and mentoring engineers to provide continuous learning and growth, and leading an R&D team to help drive engineering projects to fulfill business objectives.
•    Actively develop engineers through technical and leadership mentorship and development plans. 
•    Ensure full utilization of R&D talent 
•    Create a team environment that supports a strong collaborative drive to and continually looking for opportunities for continued growth.

Functional Planning
•    Partner effectively with Marketing and PMO by assisting in product development pipeline planning. 
•    Ensure timely completion of development projects based upon agreed plans and budget.
•    Lead end-to-end product development across multiple programs, including design, verification/validation, risk management, and commercialization.

R&D Design Leadership
•    Oversee and guide R&D efforts towards design and development of the product roadmap execution.
•    Coordinate with PMO the planning, scheduling, and budgeting related to R&D activities.
•    Provide technical contributions to product development projects as needed throughout the development process.
•    Foster a culture of creativity, innovation and continuous learning in the organization.
•    Identify organizational capability gaps and implement plans to strengthen technical depth and bench strength.
•    Ensure compliance with department team members regarding job descriptions and training requirements.
•    Define engineering strategy, standards, and best practices that enable scalable and repeatable success.
•    Participate in Quality Audits when required.
•    Serve as a senior technical authority across teams, providing guidance on complex engineering challenges.
•    Perform other duties as assigned.
•    Contribute to our culture of being collaborative, respectful, transparent, ethical, efficient, high-achieving, and fun!

Education / Experience Requirements

•    Bachelor’s degree with at least 10 years of experience in medical device design & development, or a Master’s degree with at least 8 or equivalent practical experience.
•    Demonstrated experience recruiting, developing, and managing a team of engineers 
•    Excellent communication skills with the ability to explain technical subject matter to non-technical stakeholders  
•    Experience with various materials and processes, such as extrusion processing, injection molding, machining operations, fixture and tooling development, and adhesive and thermal bonding techniques are a plus.
•    Experience in project management, documentation, and a working knowledge of quality systems and medical device regulations (ISO13485)
•    Self-starter with strong proactive work ethic, well-organized, and detail-oriented.

Specialized Skills / Other Requirements

•    Able to travel domestically or internationally
•    Prior people management experience is preferred

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