Principal Software Engineer - 3D Visualization (OpenGL)

We anticipate the application window for this opening will close on - 17 Aug 2026

Careers that change lives start here. Medtronic is a global leader in healthcare technology with a Mission to alleviate pain, restore health, and extend life. Our 95,000 employees work across more than 150 countries to put patients first - developing innovative medical technologies that improve the lives of 72+ million patients each year.

Your unique talents will help shape the future of healthcare while building a career grounded in purpose, growth, and impact.

A Day in the Life 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 a minimum of 4 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.

As a Principal Software Engineer - 3D Visualization (OpenGL) you will set the technical direction for real-time 3D visualization on the Prism Mapping platform - the rendering architecture behind every map clinicians work with. You'll lead architecture for the rendering pipeline (OpenGL, VTK, Qt/QML integration, GPU resource management, real-time performance), shape the long-term direction for how visualization scales to new clinical modalities and new hardware, and partner closely with UI/UX leaders, signals and algorithms leaders, and product to define what's possible.

You'll mentor senior engineers across the visualization space, drive root cause on the hardest rendering and performance problems, and raise the bar for visual fidelity, latency, and reliability in a medical device.

The Affera Prism Mapping System is an advanced electrophysiology mapping platform used by physicians to diagnose and guide the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias. It captures and processes signals from inside the beating heart, builds detailed real-time three-dimensional maps of cardiac anatomy and electrical activity, and presents that information to clinicians and mapping specialists during live procedures.

Engineers on this team build the software that makes that possible - from the runtime and data pipelines that move signals in milliseconds, to the algorithms that turn raw signals into clinically meaningful information, to the visualization and UI surfaces clinicians rely on in the lab.

- Lead architecture for the Prism Mapping 3D visualization stack - OpenGL/VTK pipeline, Qt/QML integration, GPU resource management, and real-time performance strategy.

- Define multi-release direction for visualization: new clinical modalities, new rendering capabilities, evolving GPU/driver landscape, and future hardware.

- Set the engineering bar for rendered output on visual fidelity, latency, determinism, and testability.

- Lead the design and delivery of major subsystems, cross-cutting architecture, or large technical initiatives.

- Exercise broad technical judgment in defining approaches to complex system and architectural problems with limited oversight.

- Drive technical alignment across software, systems, quality, product, and other cross-functional teams.

- Establish and promote software design patterns, engineering standards, and development best practices.

- Provide technical leadership across teams through mentoring, design reviews, and guidance on critical engineering decisions.

- Identify and drive improvements in architecture, development processes, and system design.

- Shape the technical roadmap and architectural direction for major subsystems or product capabilities.

- Communicate complex technical tradeoffs, risks, and recommendations to stakeholders across functions.

- Bachelor's degree and a minimum of 7 years of relevant experience

- OR Master's degree with a minimum of 5 years of relevant experience

- Deep expertise architecting real-time 3D visualization systems in OpenGL, WebGL, Vulkan, DirectX, or comparable rendering APIs, integrated with VTK and Qt/QML.

- Strong understanding of GPU pipelines, shader architecture, and rendering performance under real hardware constraints.

- Track record of shaping visualization architecture for complex technical or clinical products across multiple releases.

- Deep expertise in Python and C++ and in software architecture for complex, multi- component systems.

- Proven experience delivering complex, real-time, device-integrated, or networked systems.

- Experience leading large, complex, cross-functional technical initiatives.

- Experience defining architecture, standards, or technical direction across multiple components or teams.

- Experience solving ambiguous, high-impact technical problems spanning multiple domains or subsystems.

- Experience influencing technical decisions beyond immediate team boundaries.

- Advances how the team uses AI tools - introduces new approaches that raise team productivity and quality.

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 Office Roles: While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to be independently mobile. The employee is also required to interact with a computer, and communicate with peers and co-workers. Contact your manager or local HR to understand the Work Conditions and Physical requirements that may be specific to each role.

At Medtronic, we are committed to fostering an environment where employees can thrive and make a meaningful impact. In alignment with our enterprise-wide workforce planning approach, U.S. work authorization sponsorship (H-1B, TN, J, etc.) is offered exclusively for Principal-level roles and above, where specialized expertise aligns with long-term business needs.

Roles below the Principal level require candidates to possess unrestricted U.S. work authorization at the time of hire and for the duration of employment.