Engineering Director - AI COE Engineering and Program Management

At Medtronic you can begin a life-long career of exploration and innovation, while helping champion healthcare access and equity for all. You’ll lead with purpose, breaking down barriers to innovation in a more connected, compassionate world.

A Day in the LifeThe Director of AI COE Engineering and Program Management is a high-impact, visionary leadership role sitting at the intersection of AI Research, Data Science, and Scalable Engineering. Reporting directly to the MEIC Software and Systems organization, with a dotted line to Medtronic’s Chief AI Officer, you will serve as the strategic architect of Medtronic’s AI execution engine at the MEIC site. This role demands a distinguished practitioner leader who transcends traditional delivery models to build a world-class innovation hub acting as a global force multiplier for operating unit R&D organizations.  This leader will support the AI COE vision of contributing to the Medtronic’s impact on the future of healthcare technology through development of advanced AI/digital programs.

Responsibilities may include the following and other duties may be assigned.

• Plans, directs and implements all aspects of the company's design and development of new medical device products or software systems.

  
  

• May develop, evaluate, implement and maintain technical quality assurance and control systems or reliability systems and standards pertaining to materials, techniques, or company products.

  
  

• Oversees the investigation and evaluation of existing technologies.

  
  

• Guides the conceptualization of new methodologies, materials, machines, processes or products.

  
  

• Directs the development of new concepts from initial design to market release.

  
  

• Manages feasibility studies of the design to determine if capable of functioning as intended.

  
  

• Monitors documentation maintenance throughout all phases of research and development.

  
  

• Organizes the coordination of activities with outside suppliers and consultants to ensure timely delivery.

  
  

• Selects, develops and evaluates personnel to ensure the efficient operation of the function.

  
  

Strategic Vision & Governance

• Architect of Transformation: Translate the Chief AI Officer’s global vision into a robust regional technical strategy, ensuring the MEIC AI COE remains at the vanguard of the Enterprise AI roadmap.

  
  

• Global Engineering and Program Management: Interface with all 14 operating units across Medtronic’s global business structure to support the AI COE enterprise AI enablement strategy.  Guide the team to produce high level quality and measurable outcomes that are then embedded into the operating unit processes, products, and solutions.

  
  

• Governance & Strategic Alignment: Represent the MEIC site in critical global governance forums (QMR, Leadership Connects). Ensure absolute compliance with the AI COE operating model and global KPIs.

  
  

• Stakeholder Synergy: Interface directly with global OU R&D leadership to support on-time, in-budget execution. Maintain high-level relationships with internal and external partners, including IT and Hyperautomation programs, to ensure total alignment with the enterprise roadmap.

  
  

• Ecosystem Orchestration: Champion Medtronic’s technical brand within the regional AI ecosystem, engaging with elite academic institutions, startups, and industry bodies to influence the trajectory of innovation.

  
  

Program Leadership & Infrastructure Management

• Program Leadership: Drive cross‑functional alignment, disciplined delivery, and measurable business impact for AI application programs. Lead communication to global operating units and synthesized strategic communications to the enterprise AI COE.

  
  

• Strategic Execution Leadership: Oversee the end-to-end development and deployment of AI solutions. Manage the budget, delivery timelines, and critical KPIs for the MEIC AI COE team and global programs.

  
  

• Infrastructure Readiness: Own the readiness and optimization of AI infrastructure, including specialized labs and high-scale compute resources required for advanced model training.

  
  

• Resource & Vendor Orchestration: Coordinate complex vendor engagements and External Service Provider (ESP) resources to augment team capacity and technical depth.

  
  

• Full-Spectrum Delivery: Drive rigorous execution across the complete data lifecycle: Data Science, Data Engineering, and Annotation Services.

  
  

Engineering Excellence & Technical Oversight

• Technical Stewardship: Provide executive oversight for the architectural integrity of integrated software algorithms, ensuring AI solutions are robust, scalable, and ethically sound across structured and unstructured environments.

  
  

• Algorithmic Mastery: Accountable for the high-fidelity performance of predictive, prescriptive, and descriptive algorithms. Ensure that technical specifications are translated into production grade code with high precision.

  
  

• Innovation Synthesis: Lead the adaptation of cutting-edge ML into specialized domains such as Robotics, Augmented Reality (AR), and Interactive Systems, bridging the gap between theoretical research and product grade engineering.

  
  

• Data Strategy & Sovereignty: Partner with the Global Data Office to define sophisticated data strategies, ensuring MEIC’s pipelines and modeling environments are optimized for next-generation AI training.

  
  

Talent, Capability & Culture Building

• Enterprise Capability Building: Lead AI upskilling initiatives using platforms like Coursera, Worker, andDegreed to maintain a state-of-the-art technical workforce.

  
  

• Knowledge Orchestration: Establish Communities of Practice and structured knowledge sharing sessions to democratize AI expertise across the enterprise.

  
  

• Talent Management: Oversee the full talent lifecycle, including onboarding, performance coaching, and career development. Align resource planning with project pipelines and high-priority OU needs.

  
  

• Culture of Excellence: Build a distinctive "Culture of Innovation" at the MEIC site that balances rigorous engineering discipline with creative research freedom.

  
  

Differentiating Leadership Factors

• Strategic Acumen: The ability to navigate a complex, matrixed global organization and influence executive-level stakeholders on the long-term ROI of AI investments.

  
  

• Engineering Sophistication: A "leader-as-expert" profile capable of conducting deep technical due diligence and architectural reviews.

  
  

• Operational Autonomy: Empowered to make high-stakes decisions that impact financial performance, employee engagement, and the global image of Medtronic AI.

  
  

Required Knowledge and Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in Electronics & Communication, Computer Engineering, AI/Data Science, or a related technical field

  
  

• 20+ years of relevant professional experience with a focus on technical leadership

  
  

• Minimum of 10+ years of managerial experience

  
  

• Deep expertise in modern programming ecosystems, large-scale computing frameworks, and the full lifecycle of AI productization

  
  

• Experience interfacing with global business teams to drive business results

  
  

Physical Job Requirements
The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by employees assigned to this position, but they are not an exhaustive list of all the required responsibilities and skills of this position. 

Benefits & Compensation

Medtronic offers a competitive Salary and flexible Benefits Package
A commitment to our employees lives at the core of our values. We recognize their contributions. They share in the success they help to create.We offer a wide range of benefits, resources, and competitive compensation plans designed to support you at every career and life stage.
 

This position is eligible for a short-term incentive called the Medtronic Incentive Plan (MIP).This position is eligible for an annual long-term incentive plan.About Medtronic

We lead global healthcare technology and boldly attack the most challenging health problems facing humanity by searching out and finding solutions.
Our Mission — to alleviate pain, restore health, and extend life — unites a global team of 95,000+ passionate people. 
We are engineers at heart— putting ambitious ideas to work to generate real solutions for real people. From the R&D lab, to the factory floor, to the conference room, every one of us experiments, creates, builds, improves and solves. We have the talent, diverse perspectives, and guts to engineer the extraordinary.

Learn more about our business, mission, and our commitment to diversity here