Senior Systems Engineer: Spine Implant & Instrument Systems

Job description

We anticipate the application window for this opening will close on - 20 Jul 2026 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 LifeMedtronic’s Cranial and Spinal Technologies (CST) Operating Unit is committed to transforming patient care through groundbreaking innovations in neurosurgery and spinal procedures. Our comprehensive portfolio includes spinal implants, robotics-assisted surgical solutions like the Stealth AXiS™ Surgical System, StealthStation™ surgical navigation, and biologics for bone healing, all designed to enhance surgical precision, efficiency, and patient outcomes. Beyond technology, we support surgeons through education, training, and clinical research, ensuring they have the tools and knowledge to achieve the best possible results. By continuously driving innovation and collaboration, Medtronic is redefining cranial and spinal care, improving lives worldwide. Impact patient outcomes. Come for a job, stay for a career. As a Sr. Systems Engineer, you will develop life-improving medical device products for spine surgery. Key responsibilities include collaborating with a team to design and develop new systems, implants, and instruments; conducting product and use testing; and managing system interfaces between implant and instrument hardware with enabling technologies including but not limited to navigation, robotics, and pre-operative planning. You will actively seek out Voice of the Customer (VOC) input and translate that into system, product, workflow, and interface requirements and specifications; conceptualize system and workflow solutions; and manage interfaces through system integration. You will work under general and workflow direction, may serve as key functional core team member or as an engineer on an extended team, and support multiple programs at a time. The product focus will be on spinal systems to treat degenerative, deformity, and tumor/trauma conditions. A career at Medtronic is like no other. We’re purposeful. We’re committed. And we’re driven by our Mission to alleviate pain, restore health and extend life for millions of people worldwide. We seek out and hire a diverse workforce at every level: We need fresh ideas and inclusive insights to continue to be an innovative industry leader — that’s why we make it a point to seek out, attract and develop employees who are patient-centric, passionate, and who represent the same wide variety of life experiences as our patients. Responsibilities may include the following and other duties may be assigned. Responsibilities may include the following and other duties may be assigned. Defines spinal systems and features, inclusive of software and hardware components, that meet the expectations and uses of the customer, regulatory agencies, and the business for enabled spine procedures. Collects and analyzes voice of the customer and voice of the business to identify opportunities for system development and generate prioritized customer needs. Translates customer needs into specific, well-written, high-quality stakeholder and system requirements. Leads and supports in person procedural and project labs in mock OR settings. Provides technical leadership in the definition, evaluation, and risk analysis of system designs in collaboration with other functional groups inclusive of R&D and marketing. This includes understanding system interfaces, surgical workflows, and architecture; defining use cases and conditions; investigating and resolving system and hardware (i.e. implant and instrument) issues; making improvements and proposing new functionality to address customer feedback and requests; and leading system-level testing activities in lab-based cadaveric environments or other formative evaluation settings. Documents tradeoffs, rationales, and potential solutions. Verifies that system requirements have been properly implemented (writing, leveling, tracing) through inspection, demonstration, test or analysis. Leads team in identifying and mitigating technical risks, product hazards, and failure modes related to meeting requirements for enabling systems. Defines and performs system validation activities ensuring the system meets user needs and intended use. Tests and troubleshoots functionality using hardware and capital systems. Performs usability studies on workflows and software interfaces with users in a mock OR setting. Collaborates across R&D roles responsible for development of different system elements and cross-functional partners including marketing, quality, regulatory, and project management. Contributes to and builds domain knowledge around spinal procedures and systems, their clinical use and application, and integration of enabling technologies into spine surgery via customer and field visits, literature searches and training. Supports surgeries in a hospital setting. Ensures personal understanding of all quality policy/system items that are applicable. Follows all work/quality procedures to ensure quality system compliance and high-quality work. Establishes and advocates for best practices and continuous improvement as to mature knowledge and processes Ability to travel up to: 10-15% Must Have (Minimum Requirements) To be considered for this role, please ensure the minimum requirements are evident on your resume. Bachelor’s degree required with a minimum of 4 years of relevant experience OR advance degree with a minimum of 2 years of relevant experience Nice to Have (Preferred Qualifications) 4+ years spine, orthopaedic, or enabling technology (i.e. Navigation or Robotics) experience. Engineering MS degree preferred. Experience in Systems Engineering discipline or use of system engineering methodologies in medical devices Experience in product concept development, requirements management, surgical workflow development, functional analysis, use case and condition identification, interface definition and control, verification and validation on a cross functional team on complex programs. Experience in voice of customer collection, requirements development, analysis, allocation, review, tracing, and verification/validation. Experience planning and conducting user evaluations of product concepts, analyzing data, documenting evaluation methods & results, and presenting design recommendations to product teams. Demonstrated systems engineering, analytical, & problem solving skills Ability to understand spinal procedures and systems of systems. Experience with mechanical design, drawings, tolerance analysis, and computer-aided design. Familiarity with software design, algorithm design, and iterative software development practices. Experience working in cross-functional and collaborative team environments. Experience working in a FDA regulated and/or medical device environment and with ISO and Quality System Regulation requirements. Excellent written and verbal communication skills. Ability of working in a deadline driven environment managing multiple priorities. TECHNICAL SPECIALIST CAREER STREAM: An individual contributor with responsibility in our technical functions to advance existing technology or introduce new technology and therapies. Formulates, delivers and/or manages projects assigned and works with other stakeholders to achieve desired results. May act as a mentor to colleagues or may direct the work of other lower level professionals. The majority of time is spent delivering R&D, systems or initiatives related to new technologies or therapies – from design to implementation - while adhering to