R&D engineer
What is R&D Engineering
An R&D Engineer is in charge of the development of product prototypes while exploring its technical feasibility and overcoming development complications until it's ready to be placed on the market.
What does an R&D Engineer do? A day in the life of an R&D Engineer
An R&D Engineer works closely with his teammates: since the development of new medical technologies requires a broad range of skills and knowledge, each team member needs to work in synergy with other professionals to ensure the success of the project.
Depending on the size of the company, the required tasks and assignments may vary and potentially overlap with those of a process engineer. However here are a few common ones:
- Study a specific process/device/state of art research to develop the product
- Design specific experiments to understand experimental phenomena
- Develop manufacturing processes
- Design tests to validate expected outcomes
- Use simulation software (e.g. CAD) to obtain mechanical or electrical prototyping
- Reverse engineer final device or processes to understand underlying principles or troubleshoot potential issues
- Presentation of results and writing of technical reports to technical and non-technical teammates
- Communicate with suppliers
- Supporting manufacturing engineers and technicians when needed
The work of an R&D Engineer requires to be continuously up-to-date about the state of the art in the medical area where the company or the project is focusing. This role is mainly site-related and requires interaction with the team and suppliers. Generally, there is no interaction with the final customer while some business trips might be required from time to time. On a weekly basis, 50% of the work is done in the lab while the other 50% at the desk. Remote working is only partially possible due to the nature of laboratory experiments.
Job outlook: stats and growth of this role
Giving the recent evolution of the medical field area, the role is expected to grow in the next years, since the employment of biomedical has predicted to grow 5% from 2019 to 2029, according to the US Bureau of statistics.
Regarding the career progression within a company, after 2-4 years of experience as an R&D engineer, you could get promoted to a managerial role, where you would focus more on project management and leadership than laboratory work. This promotion is not as common as one might think because not all great engineers thrive as managers and some engineers prefer to keep focusing on the technical aspects of a project while progressing in terms of responsibilities and seniority (e.g. senior engineer, principal engineer). Also, the promotion to a managerial role might depend upon the obtention of a PMP certification, an equivalent formation, or a cross-department traineeship. This is highly dependant on the size of the company and whether different roles are very structured or quite dynamic.
How much does an R&D Engineer earn?
Entry-level (gross annual salary, average estimation)
- 24k € - 28k € (Itay)
- 70k CHF - 80k CHF (Switzerland)
- 25000 £ - 30000 £ (UK)
Types of R&D Engineer
Depending on their background and technical expertise, an R&D engineer might deal more with some specific technical areas compared to others (electronic and software rather than mechanics or materials). Moreover, depending on the company size, and interpretation of the role, an R&D engineer can also work closer to manufacturing translation or regulatory/quality affairs.
Top skills needed
For sure, this role requires one to be always prone to new challenges and in particular, to never be scared of dealing with problems that may seem out of reach. This is why one needs to build a solid technical yet transversal knowledge (MSc in engineering or equivalent) and must be eager to keep on studying to be ready to jump on the next task which may require an additional effort to understand underlying scientific knowledge and technical skills.
To wrap up, these are some of the key required skills:
- Being a generalist. Especially in small to medium enterprises, you might be asked to do completely different tasks over time, so be brave to take on whatever it's required
- Being self-organized and analytical, so to perform research in a well-structured way and being able to transform it into a real product
- Being multi-tasking is essential to move forward the different phases of the project at the same time, cope with the complex nature of them and deal with needs from different stakeholders
- Being able to communicate effectively and being concise while giving the essential information to technical and non-technical audiences. Clearly report the activities you are performing individually, to allow a good integration with the other teammate's tasks and to come up with clear execution plans for the entire team
- Being ready to tackle problems with different perspectives, especially because in the very early stage of a project, the solution might not be straightforward, and looking at the problem with different eyes, might help you find a solution
