Electrical Engineer (Duluth, GA)
Our client in medical devices is currently hiring a Lead Electrical Engineer to lead electrical designs through verification, validation, and regulatory submission. This role is for an Electrical Engineer who designs the electronics inside handheld orthopedic surgical tools (such as powered drills, saws, and cutting instruments). They will own the electrical design, embedded programming, battery systems, and safety testing needed to bring a medical device from concept through FDA approval. Role is a Direct Hire.
Position Summary: We are seeking a highly experienced Senior Electrical Engineer - Surgical Power Tools to provide technical leadership for the design and development of next-generation battery-powered orthopedic surgical instruments. The ideal candidate has experience with medical device product development, including PCB/circuit design, embedded firmware, battery management systems, EMC/EMI testing, and IEC 60601 electrical safety standards. They should understand FDA design controls, ISO 13485 documentation, risk management, and how to design electronics that can withstand sterilization cycles.
The best fit is someone from a medical device OEM (especially orthopedic/surgical tools) who has taken electrical designs through verification, validation, and regulatory submission. Experience in one or more of the following industries ideal: Medical Devices, Portable medical devices, Cordless power tools, Outdoor power equipment, Portable consumer electronics, Industrial handheld equipment, Mobile robotics or drones.
The ideal candidate will have 10+ years of electrical engineering product-development experience, with substantial experience developing powered surgical instruments, orthopedic power tools, or comparable high-performance battery-powered medical devices.We are particularly interested in candidates with experience comparable to engineering organizations developing leading surgical power-tool and orthopedic medical-device manufacturers.
This is a hands-on technical leadership position, not solely a project-management role. The Senior Electrical Engineer will be expected to lead electrical architecture and design while actively participating in motor selection, motor controls, battery systems, electronics development, proto@type testing, troubleshooting, verification, risk management, and design transfer.
Primary Responsibilities:
Technical Electrical Engineering Lead- Serve as the technical lead for electrical engineering on battery-powered orthopedic surgical power-tool development programs.
Define electrical system architecture and requirements for surgical drills, saws, reamers, impactors, drivers, and similar powered instruments.
Lead development and integration of the complete electrical powertrain.
Lead selection, characterization, and optimization of BLDC motors, including slotted and slotless motor technologies (Rechargeable Battery ? BMS / Power Electronics ? Motor Controller ? BLDC Motor ? Geartrain ? Surgical Output).
Evaluate motor torque, speed, Kv, Kt, current, efficiency, winding characteristics, thermal performance, stall conditions, duty cycle, and operating life.
Develop and optimize sensored and sensorless BLDC motor-control systems, including commutation, PWM control, current limiting, torque/speed control, Hall sensing, position feedback, and stall detection.
Develop and integrate rechargeable battery systems, BMS/protection circuitry, charging interfaces, and high-current power electronics.
Establish system power budgets and characterize peak-current demands associated with drilling, cutting, reaming, impacting, startup, overload, and stall conditions.
Lead electrical schematic, PCB, sensor, component, and embedded hardware development.
Partner with firmware/software engineers to develop motor-control strategies and hardware/firmware interfaces.
Lead proto@type development, bench testing, motor characterization, electrical troubleshooting, and system integration.
Evaluate motor/controller/geartrain performance under representative surgical loading conditions.
Lead thermal characterization of motors, batteries, controllers, PCBs, and complete surgical handpieces.
Perform complex root-cause investigations involving electrical, motor, battery, firmware, mechanical, and system-level interactions.
Provide technical direction to motor, battery, PCB, electronics, and contract manufacturing suppliers.
Mentor engineers and provide technical leadership across multidisciplinary development teams.
Medical Device Design Controls & Risk Management- The Senior Electrical Engineer will be expected to operate effectively within a regulated medical-device development environment.
Translate user and system needs into detailed electrical and subsystem requirements.
Develop design inputs, design outputs, engineering specifications, analyses, and technical documentation.
Lead and participate in formal design reviews.
Support electrical and electromechanical risk analysis, DFMEA, fault analysis, and implementation of risk controls.
Establish traceability between requirements, risks, design outputs, and verification activities.
Develop verification strategies, test methods, protocols, acceptance criteria, and reports.
Support design validation and representative-use testing.
Generate and maintain documentation supporting the Design History File (DHF).
Support design transfer and transition into commercial manufacturing.
Support investigations of production issues, field failures, complaints, and component obsolescence.
Ideal Candidate Profile: The ideal candidate is an experienced surgical power-tool electrical engineer who can own the electrical powertrain rather than only an individual PCB or electronic subsystem. The candidate should be capable of looking at surgical power-tool requirements-such as required output torque, speed, impact energy, runtime, duty cycle, or surgical load-and translating through the complete system. The engineer must understand the engineering tradeoffs among motor size, motor winding, torque, speed, gear reduction, current consumption, battery runtime, thermal performance, device weight, reliability, sterilization durability, and surgical performance.
Qualifications:
Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, or closely related engineering discipline.
10+ years of professional electrical engineering product-development experience.
Demonstrated experience developing sophisticated battery-powered electromechanical products.
Strong hands-on experience with BLDC motors and motor-control systems.
Strong understanding of motor torque, speed, current, efficiency, thermal performance, and motor/geartrain interaction.
Experience with rechargeable battery systems and high-current DC power systems.
Experience with motor-control electronics, power electronics, sensors, and PCB assemblies.
Experience with embedded hardware and hardware/firmware integration.
Demonstrated ability to independently troubleshoot complex electromechanical systems.
Strong laboratory skills using oscilloscopes, current probes, power supplies, electronic loads, torque/speed measurement equipment, data acquisition systems, and related instrumentation.
Experience leading electrical design from concept and feasibility through verification, validation, design transfer, and production.
Demonstrated technical leadership and ability to mentor other engineers.
Highly Preferred Experience:
10+ years within the medical device industry, preferably surgical or orthopedic devices.
Direct development experience with battery-powered orthopedic surgical power tools.
Experience developing BLDC motor systems specifically for handheld surgical applications.
Experience with slotless and slotted BLDC motor technologies.
Experience with high-current lithium-ion and/or LiFePO4 battery systems.
Experience with motor/planetary gearbox integration.
Experience developing reusable surgical devices capable of surviving repeated cleaning, disinfection, and sterilization processing.
Experience with ingress protection, sealing, thermal management, EMC/EMI, and high-cycle reliability requirements.
Experience working directly with custom motor and gearbox manufacturers.
Experience developing or specifying battery packs and charging systems.
Experience conducting competitive product benchmarking and technical teardown analysis of surgical power systems.
Regulatory / Standards Experience- Working knowledge of medical-device development requirements and applicable standards, including: FDA Quality Management System Regulation (QMSR), ISO 13485 - Medical Device Quality Management Systems, ISO 14971 - Medical Device Risk Management, IEC 60601-1, as applicable, IEC 60601-1-2 - EMC, IEC 62304 - Medical Device Software Lifecycle Processes, as applicable, Applicable rechargeable battery safety and transportation requirements, IEC 60529 ingress-protection principles.
What Will Differentiate the Strongest Candidates: The strongest candidates will have personally designed, developed, tested, or technically led commercial battery-powered surgical instruments and will be able to discuss specific examples involving: BLDC motor selection and optimization, Motor winding and performance characteristics, Motor controller development, Battery architecture and current requirements, Motor/gearbox optimization, Torque and speed characterization, Thermal management, Stall and overload protection, Reliability and life testing, EMC/EMI troubleshooting, Sterilization durability, Design verification, Failure investigation and root-cause analysis, Transition from engineering proto@types to commercial production
Surgical Power-Tool Development- The preferred candidate will have direct experience developing one or more of the following: Orthopedic surgical drills and drivers, Oscillating or sagittal bone saws, Reamers, Automated surgical impactors, Battery-powered orthopedic handpieces, High-torque / high-speed surgical motor systems, Powered instruments incorporating motor/gearbox assemblies, Reusable powered surgical instruments, Surgical battery packs and charging systems. Experience developing products with performance and reliability requirements comparable to established orthopedic surgical power systems is strongly preferred.
More about our client:
Client has been serving patients and providers for more than 17 years. What started as a regional leader in orthopedic bracing has transformed into a nationwide Stock-and-Bill provider - designed to meet the needs of urgent care clinics and patients across the U.S.
They partner with urgent care clinics nationwide to deliver braces directly to patients, while we manage billing, compliance, and payer requirements in the background. This eliminates administrative burden for clinics and ensures patients receive the care they need without delay. With deep experience in DMEPOS and a renewed commitment to innovation, they've redefined what it means to be a brace provider in modern healthcare.
Specialties: Orthopedic Bracing, Alternative Pain Management, Electrotherapy, Back, Knee, Ankle Braces, DMEPOS, Stock-and-Bill, Compliance Management, Urgent Care Partnerships, Nationwide Distribution, and Healthcare Automation Integration.
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