WHAT DOES A DEVELOPMENT ENGINEER DO?
Published: Oct 21, 2024 - The Development Engineer collaborates with the R&D team to design and develop innovative enteral feeding delivery systems, focusing on enhancing device performance, usability, reliability, and cost-effectiveness. This position engages with the enteral feeding community to integrate specific user requirements into product designs and leads the creation of detailed specifications and manufacturing processes. This role manages the product development lifecycle, including design verification, validation, and risk management activities, to ensure robust and reliable medical device outcomes.
A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Development Engineer
1. Development Engineer Duties
- Hardware Development Support: Support Lead Design Engineers in design and development of new electronics hardware platforms (both digital and analogue electronics).
- Product Evolution: Perform diverse development activities involving product evolution and design.
- Lifecycle Management: Overall input in new product development and product lifecycle.
- Technical Assistance: Provide technical assistance and training to internal departments.
- Global Support: Provide technical assistance to worldwide support organizations.
- Research Assistance: Provide assistance in research projects.
- Compliance Support: Follow and support design procedures as set out in the Safeline management system.
- Continuous Improvement: Participate in and recommend continuous improvement activities through the involvement of teamwork.
- Cross-Departmental Collaboration: Liaise with other departments to efficiently and effectively resolve problems.
- Safety and Compliance: Ensure safety, health, and environment is inherent in all projects.
- Laser Design and Development: Designing and developing DPSS lasers (CW and pulsed) and diode laser systems.
- Subsystem Development: Designing and developing sub-systems.
- Testing and Optimization: Testing and optimization of laser and system designs.
- Design for Manufacturing: Design for manufacture, helping drive successful designs into a production environment through NPI processes and collaboration with cross-functional teams.
2. Development Engineer Details
- Technical Ownership: Demonstrate technical ownership of responsible projects in development.
- Technical Knowledge: Develop and maintain a thorough knowledge of the Company’s technical design standards and methodologies.
- Feasibility Analysis: Perform project feasibility studies.
- Constraint Identification: Identify technical constraints associated with proposals.
- Client Representation: Effectively represent the company while performing technical site visits.
- System Modeling: Create accurate and timely system performance models in PVsyst and Helioscope.
- Equipment Evaluation: Evaluate and select equipment to optimize system economics, functionality, reliability, and safety.
- Preliminary Drafting: Create preliminary drawings including system layouts, site plans, and one-lines in AutoCAD.
- Proposal Compilation: Compile engineering submittals for proposals.
- Cost/Benefit Analysis: Perform cost/benefit analysis of design and technology variants to optimize economic and performance outcomes.
- Consultant Management: Bid and manage outside engineering consultants.
- Site Planning: Develop site constraint plans using civil, environmental, and interconnection considerations.
- Innovation and Research: Continually seek new equipment and design methodologies for PV systems.
- Design Tool Development: Develop and update design tools and guides.
3. Development Engineer Responsibilities
- Data Analysis: Performing data extraction, cleaning, and analysis.
- Machine Learning Development: Developing analytic tools using machine learning-based solutions.
- Anomaly Detection: Solution to detect anomalies, trigger automated tasks/alarms, and provide predictive analysis of machine condition.
- UI/UX Collaboration: Engaging and working closely with business users to develop UI/UX interfaces.
- Technical Support: Serving as a technical resource for internal and external contacts.
- Technology Strategy: Creating technology roadmaps and providing input regarding technology strategy planning.
- Project Portfolio Management: Planning and ensuring an optimal project portfolio for the team, and overseeing efficient project execution.
- Process Improvement: Recommending, developing, and improving processes and procedures to enhance local operations.
- Vendor Management: Identifying and managing vendors in relation to components, processes, and equipment.
- Design Verification Support: Supporting the identification of device design verification requirements.
- Test Protocol Development: Developing test protocols that ensure all required information is captured as efficiently as possible.
- Test Method Development: Developing test methods and fixturing for product verification and validation, analyzing, and reporting testing performed.
- Prototype Management: Managing and supporting internal prototype build activities.
- Compliance Assurance: Ensuring all work is performed in full compliance with quality, regulatory, health and safety, and other relevant legislation.
4. Development Engineer Job Summary
- R&D Collaboration: Work with the R&D team in the design and development of novel enteral feeding delivery systems.
- Product Innovation: Contribute to ongoing product innovation.
- Stakeholder Engagement: Liaise with the enteral feeding community to understand and gather specific product requirements.
- Device Design Leadership: Lead the generation of improved (in terms of performance, ease of use, reliability, manufacturability, and cost) device designs.
- Specification Development: Lead the development and refinement of device specifications, in line with user needs and design inputs, including the creation of detailed component and finished device assembly drawings/specifications.
- Manufacturing Management: Manage outsourced manufacturing activities related to any devices being developed.
- Manufacturing Support: Supporting the development of required manufacturing and test capabilities.
- Risk Management: Identify and manage key risks throughout the product development lifecycle.
- Constraint Documentation: Identify, define, and document constraints and assumptions for the development and testing of medical devices.
- Design Verification and Validation: Responsible for developing and performing design verification and validation strategies, plans, and execution activities to clearly defined acceptance criteria.
- Design Review Support: Support design reviews with a focus on requirements definition and V&V activities.
- Risk Assessment: Support risk management activities, including FMEAs, to ensure robust and reliable designs.
- Design Characterization: Lead, develop, and implement design characterization, DOEs, and design verification strategies.
5. Development Engineer Accountabilities
- Development Engineering Support: Provides development engineering support for an assigned set of applications or system elements.
- Technology Solutions Development: Develops solutions for technology processes and practices for build and release management, application lifecycle changes, operation service delivery, and support.
- Project Assistance: Assists with project definition, scoping, resource planning, execution, risk assessment, change control, and monitoring.
- Infrastructure Management: Performs infrastructure installation, setup, administration, and automated deployments.
- Web Application Deployment: Deploys, maintains, and scales web applications.
- Troubleshooting and Debugging: Troubleshoots and debugs servers/processes for system and application issues after deployment.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Collaborates with other engineers and cross-functional technical team members to resolve platform issues.
- Infrastructure Architecture Support: Assists with architecting and implementing/monitoring infrastructure.
- MATLAB Analysis: Familiar with MATLAB software to perform E-propulsion/E-axle performance analysis.
- Benchmarking and Innovation: Generate ideas through benchmarking, initiate engineering changes for cost reduction, new programs, and quality improvement.
- Supplier Coordination: Interface with suppliers for product development and manage the overall timing.
- Cross-Functional Issue Resolution: Interface with cross-functional teams to resolve any issues as the product(s) move to production and distribution.
- dFMEAs and Testing Execution: Creation and execution of dFMEAs, DRDs, and DVPs.
- Process Standardization: Creates, reviews, and updates standard processes and best practices.
- Design Review: Reviews designs for completeness and accuracy.