Associate Principal R&D EngineerLocation: Covington, GeorgiaWork Arrangement: Primarily onsite; scheduled work-from-home days availableEmployment Type: Full-Time, PermanentExperience Required: 10+ years (ideally 10–15 years)Education: Bachelor's degree requiredTravel: OccasionalThe Associate Principal R&D Engineer will serve as the Platform Technology Architect for the Pump & Fluid Platform across the UCC urine evacuation product portfolio.
This senior technical leadership position is responsible for defining and guiding the multi-generation technology strategy for pump-enabled urine evacuation systems and related platform capabilities.
The individual will establish architectural direction, technical standards, platform interfaces, capability targets, and reusable technology strategies across multiple product generations.
Key technology areas include:
- Pump and fluid evacuation performance
- Battery, power, and charging architecture
- Patient, device, and canister interfaces
- Liquid-level detection and sensing
- Leak and fault detection
- Odor and smell reduction
- Acoustic and noise reduction
- Product reliability and serviceability
- Platform-level verification and testing methods
This is a platform-level technical strategy role rather than a day-to-day detailed component design position. The selected engineer will influence product teams and cross-functional stakeholders to ensure technology improvements are standardized, reusable, measurable, and consistently implemented across product releases.
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor's or Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Systems Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
- 10+ years of experience in one or more of the following:
- Electromechanical medical devices
- Portable pump systems
- Fluid management systems
- Regulated product development
- Platform-based product development involving reuse across multiple product releases
- Demonstrated success leading cross-functional technical strategy, beyond individual subsystem design or program execution.
- Strong knowledge of:
- Systems engineering and system architecture
- Platform architecture and technology roadmaps
- Engineering trade studies and technical decision-making
- Risk management and design controls
- Verification and validation strategy
- Reliability engineering
- Supplier and technology evaluation
- Ability to influence engineering and business stakeholders without direct authority across mechanical, electrical, software, systems, quality, regulatory, operations, marketing, and supply chain functions.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience with portable pumps, fluid management systems, or battery-powered clinical/consumer devices.
- Knowledge of vacuum, pressure, and flow systems.
- Experience with pump mechanism selection, motor/control strategies, power management, battery and charging systems.
- Experience with liquid-level sensing, occlusion detection, leak detection, fault detection, and alarm management.
- Knowledge of acoustics, noise reduction, odor control, and consumables ecosystems.
- Experience with FDA-regulated medical devices, design controls, risk management, verification and validation, usability/human factors, complaint trending, and regulated product releases.
- Experience establishing platform governance, architecture review boards, capability scorecards, reusable modules, interface standards, and reference architectures.
- Experience with manufacturing scale-up, supplier strategy, component technology evaluation, reliability engineering, serviceability, cost reduction, and lifecycle management.