Sr. Principal Product Design Engineer

As a global medtech company, we are driven by our Vision of changing the trajectory of lives for a new day and our Mission to create ingenious solutions that ignite patient turnarounds. Our relentless commitment to patients and strong legacy of innovation in healthcare are the foundation of our future. If you're looking for a new chance, a new beginning, a new trajectory, LivaNova is where your talent can truly thrive. Join our talented team members worldwide to become a pioneer of tomorrow - because at LivaNova, we don’t just treat conditions - we aspire to alter the course of lives.

The Sr. Principal R&D Engineer – Technical Lead is a senior, product-oriented technical-clinical leader responsible for shaping and translating neurostimulation therapies for Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) from concept through early clinical validation.

The Sr. Principal Technical Lead owns the intersection of clinical insight, product definition, system architecture, and technical feasibility, ensuring therapy concepts are grounded in real-world clinical needs, deliver meaningful patient outcomes, and are executable within a robust technical framework.

This is an individual contributor role with no direct reports, exercising influence through technical authority, decision ownership, and cross-functional leadership. The role operates with a high degree of autonomy and judgment and serves as a trusted technical authority and escalation point for complex technical and clinical decisions. The successful candidate will bring deep expertise in neuromodulation systems, stimulation-based therapies, implantable medical devices, and clinical application, applying this expertise to guide product and technical direction.

General Responsibilities

This role represents a high-impact individual contributor level within R&D, reserved for scientists and engineers demonstrating enterprise-level technical-clincial influence without formal people management. Focused on innovation and early-to-mid stage development; may support later development phases as needed.

Serve as the technical-clinical lead for innovation and development initiatives, defining and driving technical direction.

Define and communicate technical strategy aligned with product, clinical, and business objectives.

Balance clinical value, technical feasibility, and risk in decision-making

Serve as the escalation point for complex cross-domain design decisions

Maintain deep product and clinical understanding of therapy behavior, workflows, and user needs.

Lead system architecture across hardware, software, sensing, stimulation, data, and clinical interfaces.

Bring broad systems-level understanding spanning therapy, clinical workflows, sensing, software, human factors, and data-driven product capabilities while effectively integrating specialist expertise.

Drive identification, evaluation, and mitigation of key technical risks using disciplined, evidence-based approaches.

Generate and evaluate technical options to support informed decision-making at critical milestones.

Leverage expertise in neuromodulation and implantable systems to shape product concepts.

Translate clinical insights and unmet needs into viable technical solutions.

Drive execution across multidisciplinary functions within the product core teams

Ensure effort focuses on the most critical technical-clinical risks at the right time.

Provide hands-on technical leadership to resolve complex engineering challenges and unblock teams.

Exercise judgment to balance technical rigor, risk, and program timelines.

Accountable for technical quality, integration readiness, and architectural alignment of externally developed systems and components.

Lead and oversee externally executed engineering work through direction, review, and integration oversight.

Ensure external deliverables align with system architecture and overall product intent.

Drive generation of intellectual property and future technology direction.

Minimum Qualifications

15 or more years in medical device development with significant exposure to clinical-facing technologies

3 years or more at Principal or Sr. Principal Engineer level is preferred.

Strong background in neuromodulation, stimulation-based therapies, implantable medical devices, or related active implantable technologies.

Demonstrated experience in system-level product development and clinical-facing technologies.

Demonstrated experience applying clinical insight to product definition, system design, therapy development, or technology strategy.

Proven ability to lead technical strategy, architecture, feasibility, and risk-based decision making.

Track record of driving execution and alignment across multidisciplinary teams without formal authority.

Excellent written, verbal, and visual communication skills.

Preferred Qualifications

Direct experience with neuromodulation or stimulation-based therapies.

Experience developing implantable medical devices and associated clinical workflows.

Experience working closely with clinicians and translating clinical feedback into product design and clinical workflows.

Familiarity with regulated product development environments and design control practices.

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or related field with extensive industry experience; advanced degree (MS or PhD) preferred.

Location & Travel Requirements

This position is based in Houston, TX

This position may require up to 10% business travel

Pay Transparency

A reasonable estimate of the annual base salary for this position is $215,000 - 250,000 plus discretionary annual bonus. Pay ranges may vary by location and are awarded based on experience.

Employee benefits include:

Health benefits – Medical, Dental, Vision

Personal and Vacation Time

Retirement & Savings Plan (401K)

Employee Stock Purchase Plan

Training & Education Assistance

Bonus Referral Program

Service Awards

Employee Recognition Program

Flexible Work Schedules

Valuing different backgrounds:

LivaNova values equality and diversity. We are committed to ensuring that our recruitment process is fair, transparent and free from unlawful discrimination. Our selection process is driven by the key demands/requirements for the role rather than bias or discrimination on the basis of a candidate’s sex, gender identity, age, marital status, veteran status, non-job-related disability/handicap or medical condition, family status, sexual orientation, religion, color, ethnicity, race or any other legally protected classification.

Notice to third party agencies:

Please note that we do not accept unsolicited resumes from recruiters or employment agencies. In the absence of a signed Recruitment Services Agreement, we will not consider, or agree to, payment of any referral compensation or recruiter fee. In the event that a recruiter or agency submits a resume or candidate without a previously signed agreement, we explicitly reserve the right to pursue and hire those candidate(s) without any financial obligation to the recruiter or agency.

Beware of Job Scams:

Please beware of potentially fraudulent job postings or suspicious recruiting activity by persons posing as LivaNova recruiters or employees. The scammers may attempt to solicit confidential, personal information, such as a social security number, or your financial information. LivaNova will never ask for fees prior/during/after the application process, nor will we ask for banking details or personal financial information in return for the assurance of employment. If you are concerned that an offer of employment might be a scam or that the recruiter is not legitimate, please verify by searching for “See Open Jobs” on https://www.livanova.com/en-us/careers, and check that all recruitment emails come from an @livanova.com email address.