Principal R&D Engineer, RF & Impant Power
San Diego, CAFull-time$160–200K/yrPosted 3 days agoStill listed 1 day ago
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Job overview
The Senior or Principal R&D Electrical Engineer owns RF and power electronics for Synchron’s next-generation implantable electronics, from concept through design verification. The role covers wireless telemetry, antennas, inductive power, battery charging, and power management, using electromagnetic modeling to guide design decisions. It partners with firmware, FPGA, mechanical, and systems engineers and external design partners; a Principal engineer also sets architecture across product generations and mentors the team.
Skills & qualifications
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Full job description
TITLE Sr. / Principal R&D Engineer, RF & Implant Power
DATE November 2026
WORK LOCATION In-Office 5x/week in San Diego
BASE SALARY RANGE $160k - $200k/year
About the Role We are seeking a Senior or Principal R&D Electrical Engineer to own the RF and power electronics of Synchron's next-generation implantable electronics, from concept through design verification. The role covers the implant's wireless telemetry links, including transceiver IC selection, RF board design, and antenna design within a hermetic implant and its external devices. It also owns the implant power system: the inductive power link, battery charging, and power management for a rechargeable implant, designed to thermal and safety limits within a medical device design-controls framework. Electromagnetic finite-element modeling, particularly in COMSOL Multiphysics, is central to the role: simulating antennas, coils, tissue heating, and SAR to drive design decisions ahead of hardware. FPGA and firmware are owned by dedicated engineers; this role partners closely with both and provides technical direction to external design partners. A Principal engineer also sets RF and power architecture across product generations and mentors the team. Key Responsibilities RF, Telemetry & Antennas
- Define the implant's wireless architecture for control and high-rate neural data; select transceiver ICs and wireless SoCs against throughput, power, size, and coexistence
- Derive and maintain link budgets through tissue, enclosure, and header; design RF front ends, matching, and RF layout
- Design and integrate implant and external antennas, accounting for tissue loading, detuning, efficiency, and SAR; validate in tissue phantoms
- Lead radio regulatory and wireless coexistence testing (FCC Part 15, ETSI, IEC 60601-1-2, AAMI TIR69)
Inductive Power, Battery & Implant Power System
- Design the inductive power link: coils, resonant tuning, power amplifier, rectification and regulation, alignment and load tolerance, back-telemetry
- Own the implant power architecture: rechargeable cell selection, charging and protection, fuel gauging, power management, and power budgets
- Design for single-fault safety with protection circuits, redundant disconnects, and defined safe states; hold tissue heating within ISO 14708-1 limits
- Lead battery qualification (IEC 62133, UN 38.3, cycle life, abuse testing) and address MRI constraints on coils and magnetic materials
EM Modeling, Design & Verification
- Build COMSOL models (RF, AC/DC, Heat Transfer, bioheat) for antennas, coils, SAR, and tissue heating; correlate with bench measurements
- Lead RF and power schematic design, component selection, and layout in Altium for miniaturized PCB and flex-rigid assemblies
- Define and execute RF and power verification; lead EMC/EMI and safety testing and failure analysis within design controls (ISO 14708, IEC 60601-1, ISO 14971)
- Provide technical direction to external design partners and work with firmware, FPGA, mechanical, and systems engineers through bring-up and production transfer
Required Qualifications
- BS in electrical engineering or related discipline; MS preferred
- Senior: 8+ years in RF and/or power hardware design. Principal: 12+ years, including RF or power architecture ownership
- Hands-on RF design for shipped wireless products: transceiver selection, front-end and matching design, RF layout, link budgets
- Antenna design for compact, body-worn, or implanted devices, validated by measurement
- Inductive power transfer or wireless charging design, built and characterized on the bench
- Li-ion battery charging, protection, and power management in compact battery-powered products
- EM simulation (COMSOL, HFSS, or CST) used to drive design decisions and correlated with measurements
- Proficiency with VNA, spectrum analyzer, RF power meters, and oscilloscopes; high-density PCB design in Altium
- Experience taking electronics from prototype through design verification into production
Preferred Qualifications
- COMSOL Multiphysics expertise (RF, AC/DC, Heat Transfer), including bioheat, SAR, and coil-coupling models — highly desired
- High-throughput radio integration and wireless coexistence design
- Active implantable medical device experience (neurostimulators, cochlear implants, cardiac rhythm devices)
- Implant battery qualification and design to ISO 14708-1 thermal limits; MRI-conditional design (ASTM F2182/F2213, ISO/TS 10974)
- Antenna and coil integration with hermetic enclosures, feedthroughs, and polymer headers
- Embedded C for radio and charger drivers; experience supporting IDE, PMA, or 510(k) submissions
How this job compares
Set against the 10,352 open Electrical Engineer jobs on Olive Jobs, counted November 10, 2026.
- Pay
- This posting$160–200K/yr
- California median$130–190K/yr1,106 salary ranges
- US median$107–168K/yr6,769 salary ranges
This range's midpoint, $180K, is 13% above the California median midpoint ($160K) — in the middle half of Electrical Engineer salary ranges in California.
- Openings
- Olive Jobs lists 1,353 open Electrical Engineer jobs in California and 10,352 across the US. 3% of them nationwide are listed as remote or flexible.
- Experience
- This posting asks for at least 8 years of experience; Electrical Engineer postings that state a minimum ask for 5 years at the median (8,623 postings).
- Education
- This posting asks for a bachelor's degree; 6,634 of the 10,352 open Electrical Engineer jobs (64%) ask for a bachelor's degree or higher.
Counted across the open, public US postings on Olive Jobs on November 10, 2026. Pay medians are the middle values of the low ends and of the high ends of postings that list both ends of a range in the same cadence (a yearly salary or an hourly rate); a range's midpoint is halfway between its ends. Pay and experience figures resting on fewer than 20 postings are left out.
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