Abbott Posted October 4, 2026

Principal Mechanical Engineer

Alameda, California, United States FULL_TIME
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Abbott is the source of truth for this posting and owns the application process. We surface normalized context and market comparison you won't find on the original listing.

About this opportunity

Abbott is a global healthcare leader that helps people live more fully at all stages of life. Our portfolio of life-changing technologies spans the spectrum of healthcare, with leading businesses and products in diagnostics, medical devices, nutritionals and branded generic medicines. Our 122,000 colleagues serve people in more than 160 countries.

The Opportunity:

This position will be on-site at our Alameda, California location. Recognized expert with broad expertise in mechanical design engineering, new product development and design transfer with responsibility for resolving significant technical issues as well as providing direction for new technology and product development activities with a broad impact to the company goals. Works on the design and development of significant new products.  Key decision-maker in identifying areas of technology for potential implementation into our products and processes. Leads the technical supervision and project management of complex engineering projects and activities. Develops networks involving cross-functional and cross-departmental groups (Operations, Marketing, Quality, Regulatory) as well as communication to senior and executive management.

What you will do:

Specify, design, verify and validate new mechanical designs, in accordance with applicable medical regulatory standards.

Support high-level technical investigation of manufacturing line issues.

Responsible for the development of technical project plans and schedules covering all engineering activities, meeting all design control and product development SOP requirements

Works in the development and management of resource plans, budgets, schedules, etc.

Lead the development of product specifications, FMEAs, DOEs, verification and validation protocols and plans.

Responsible for managing resources, the creation of project schedules and setting and maintaining budgets.

Communicates effectively and participates in cross functional development teams.

Participates in technical design reviews of mechanical design, hardware, PCBA interface, mechanical assemblies, production processes, product design and requirements documents.

Writing, submittal, and approval of Engineering Changes, as required.

May review and approve ECs.

Act as independent reviewer on programs in which not directly involved.

Responsible for utilizing and maintaining the effectiveness of the quality system.

Ensure that product designs, components and materials meet all applicable standards

Responsible for compliance with applicable Corporate and Divisional Policies.

Development and execution of new medical devices, processes, equipment, materials, verification and validation Implement approved Design Control procedures for product development in accordance with FDA guidelines.

Provide mentoring, technical guidance for mechanical engineering team.

Required Qualifications:

Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering or equivalent engineering or scientific discipline.  Master’s degree is preferred.

Minimum 10 years related experience in engineering.

Strong technical experience in mechanical engineering, with excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Excellent knowledge of general engineering principles.  Extensive knowledge of regulations for medical device development (ISO15197, ISO134851, ISO13485, FDA) desired.

Extensive understanding of processes and materials used in the development and manufacturing of medical devices is ideal.

Preferred Qualifications:

Extensive experience in all of the following: Performing complex engineering calculations and relating results to controlled tests, including statistical analysis, tolerance analysis.

Working in a development environment with an emphasis on medical device product development.

Writing product requirements and design specifications.

Supporting equipment/facility/process commissioning and validation required.

Working on a development team with an emphasis on minimizing time to market.

Design for manufacture of low-cost, high-volume disposable products.

Extensive knowledge and understanding of GxP, ISO and medical device regulations and the development and implementation of new products in a regulated environment desired.

Extensive experience working in cross-functional team environments is required.

The base pay for this position is $130,700.00 – $261,300.00. In specific locations, the pay range may vary from the range posted.

Job details

Seniority
Principal
Function
Manufacturing & CMC
Therapeutic area
Not listed
Location
Alameda, California, United States
Employment type
FULL_TIME

How this role compares

Computed from every other active Manufacturing & CMC role in our database, not just this employer's listings.

We currently track 624 comparable Principal Manufacturing & CMC roles across 87 biopharma companies.

624Comparable roles tracked
603Currently active
87Companies hiring similar roles
29Countries represented

Salary context

231 of 624 peers report a salary range (USD, annualized)

Peers share this role's job function and a matching or adjacent seniority level -- not necessarily the same therapeutic area or country.

This roleSubject Not listed on this posting
Lowest disclosed · Senior Maintenance Technician - Medicine Foundry · Lilly $22/hr – $32/hr (≈ $44,990–$65,998/yr)
Peer group range $55,494 – $288,000 (median $150,000)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 624 comparable roles

United States411
India44
Ireland27
Germany16
Netherlands15
China13

+ 23 more countries

Seniority mix

624 of 624 peers have a known seniority level

Senior399
Principal126
Director99

Therapeutic area mix

6 of 624 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Vaccines & Infectious Disease3
Oncology1
Respiratory1
Dermatology & Aesthetics1

Similar opportunities

The closest matches from our peer group, ranked by how similar they are, not how well you'd qualify for them -- treat this as market context, not a guaranteed shortlist; a weak match is labeled as one below.

60%similar
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60%similar
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60%similar
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60%similar
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc (USA) Renss, United States Principal
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60%similar
Lilly Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America Principal
Same function Same seniority Same country

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How we calculate "similar"

No black box, no LLM guesswork: a deterministic score built from four normalized attributes. Here's this role's own peer group at different match levels, so you can see the mechanism, not just the result.

Every comparison starts from the same 100-point budget: 25 for working in the same function, 40 for the same therapeutic area, 20 for the same or adjacent seniority, 15 for the same country. A dimension we can't confirm on both sides contributes nothing, never a guess, never a free pass.

60%
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Merck · Rahway, New Jersey, United States of America · Principal
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
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Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc (USA) · Tarrytown, United States · Principal
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
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Principal Process Engineer - Purification, Lilly Medicine Foundry
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Principal - Engineer - Automation (Data & Platforms integration)
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Unmatched or unknown dimensions score exactly the same: 0 points, never a partial guess. A role we know almost nothing about beyond its function bottoms out at 25%; it never inflates to 100% just because there's little to compare against. Seniority uses a defined ladder (Associate → Manager → Associate Director → Senior → Principal → Director → Senior Director → Executive/VP) so "Director" and "Senior Director" count as adjacent, but "Director" and "Executive/VP" do not.