Principal Industrial Engineer - Plymouth, MN

Principal Industrial Engineer

The Principal Industrial Engineer will play a critical leadership role at Medtronic's Nathan Lane Manufacturing site in Plymouth, Minnesota - a highly integrated, fast-paced operation supporting the manufacture of life-saving medical devices. This site is known for its complex, high-volume manufacturing, advanced automation, and strong focus on quality and compliance within a regulated environment. As a senior technical leader, this role partners closely with operations, quality, engineering, and supply chain to drive manufacturing excellence, scalability, and sustained operational performance.

In this role, the Principal Industrial Engineer will lead end-to-end industrial engineering strategy, applying deep expertise in Lean, Six Sigma, and systems thinking to solve complex manufacturing challenges. The position is expected to influence across functions and levels, setting standards for capacity planning, labor optimization, line design, and continuous improvement while mentoring other engineers. The ideal candidate thrives in a dynamic, high-expectation environment, brings a strong change-leadership mindset, and is motivated by Medtronic's mission to improve lives through innovation, efficiency, and operational discipline.

At Medtronic, we bring bold ideas forward with speed and decisiveness to put patients first in everything we do. In-person exchanges are invaluable to our work. We're working five days a week onsite as part of our commitment to fostering a culture of professional growth and cross-functional collaboration as we work together to engineer the extraordinary.

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

• Lead enterprise aligned process improvement initiatives delivering measurable gains in safety, quality, delivery, and cost
• Provide technical and thought leadership in Lean, Six Sigma, and process reengineering
• Serve as a change leader, applying structured change management to drive adoption and sustain results
• Lead and facilitate cross-functional teams to execute end-to-end improvement projects
• Analyze and design manufacturing workflows, operations, and layouts to maximize efficiency and utilization
• Perform cost-benefit analyses and ensure value realization from improvement initiatives
• Communicate progress, risks, and outcomes to site leadership and key stakeholders
• Develop organizational capability through training, coaching, and best practice deployment

Minimum Requirements

• Bachelor's degree with a minimum of 7 years of relevant experience
• OR Master's degree with a minimum of 5 years relevant experience
• OR PhD with 3 years relevant experience.

Nice To Have

• Lean Six Sigma Black Belt certification preferred
• Lean / Six Sigma expertise with experience in regulated, high-volume manufacturing (medical device preferred)
• Experience supporting site-level and/or enterprise wide transformation initiatives
• Strong expertise in process mapping, root-cause analysis, performance measurement, and data driven problem solving
• Experience supporting new product introductions (NPI), site expansions, and major operational transformations
• Demonstrated ability to deliver training, facilitate workshops, and coach leaders and teams
• Strong cross-functional influence and technical leadership capabilities
• Previous Medtronic experience, including hands-on application of Lean, Six Sigma, or the Medtronic Performance System, preferred

For Baccalaureate degrees earned outside of the United States, a degree that satisfies the requirements of 8 C.F.R. § 214.2(h)(4)(iii)(A) is required.

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. The physical demands described within the Responsibilities section of this job description are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. For…