Senior Human Factors Engineer

IDE Group | Minneapolis

The Company

idegroup is a group of like-minded people that love working together suing design, engineering & an entrepreneurial approach to bring products to life. Since 2003, we have been building better futures with our partners, have grown over 150 companies within medical technology through over 500 projects across the medical technology landscape, including respiratory care, drug delivery, radiology, and point-of-care diagnostics.

Making a difference matters to us and our values of being resourceful, curious, thinking positively, putting others first, embracing complexity and taking ownership to drive successful outcomes.

The Role

We are seeking a Senior Human Factors Engineer with a passion for entrepreneurship, design, and bringing great new products and services to market.

The position is based out of our new office in Minneapolis, MN, USA, and will work with our other global locations: Sydney, Australia (headquarters), Rotterdam, Netherlands, and Newton Square, Pennsylvania.

The Senior Human Factors Engineer will be the technical lead in IDE user research and human factors engineering projects and/or activities. They will be responsible for planning user research and human factors activities and leading usability activities for execution. They will work with the project manager to ensure we create valuable ventures, products and services by balancing quality, time and budget.

Responsible for leading and coordinating activities necessary to complete human factors engineering projects. Activities include:

Generative

• Leading user research activities including ethnographic user research to identify user needs, contextual inquiry, user needs prioritization and translation to requirements and opportunity areas

Definition

• Evaluating concepts and prototypes to validate and inform selection
• Performing workflow, task and use error analyses
• Support project teams to ensure sound human factors principles are considered and implemented

Evaluation

• Conducting Formative Usability testing
• Plan and conducting Summative Validation testing
• Prospecting & Proposal Building – In concert with the Business Unit Director, work to engage potential client prospects by sharing IDE user research and human factors engineering capabilities, scoping potential projects, liaising with & requesting quotes from 3rd party recruiters & testing facilities, and providing technical competency in face-to-face strategy and risk planning discussions.
• Project Planning – Work with the project manager to define solutions that are desirable / feasible / viable in the context of the venture. Assist the project lead in planning and estimating the project by giving input to the required user research and human factors engineering activities and resources to achieve the project aim.
• Technical Execution - Select or modify the most appropriate processes and methods to apply in User Research and Human Factors activities. Defines the appropriate level of quality for program deliverables to ensure it is achieved.
• Risk Management –Identify and manage product risks appropriately, with effective controls implemented. Provide input to the Project Lead to identify and manage project risk.
• Review and Approvals - Ensure effective Technical Reviews for PD activities are conducted as planned. Co-ordinate and conduct effective System Level Design Reviews.
• Mentor & Coach – Provide mentorship and guidance from your experience to expand and develop our aspiring junior team members.

Skills and Experience

• Degree in Design, Human Factors Engineering, or a related discipline required
• 5 years of relevant human factors/usability engineering
• Proven ability to apply knowledge of human factors principles (human performance and limitations – perceptual, cognitive, motor skills, anthropomorphic) and techniques (user research, user-interface design, usability testing) to the design, development, and evaluation of hardware and/or software products
• Experience leading Human Factors activities across the product lifecycle, including ethnographic research, user needs identification, workflow and task analysis, requirements development, user interface design, user error analysis, usability and validation testing
• Understand and conducted work according to Applying Human Factors and Usability Engineering to Medical Devices standard or equivalent (IEC 62366-1)
• A proven ability to:
• Author Human Factors Engineering plans and execute on them
• Plan, write and conduct usability studies (including unbiased, repeatable protocols)
• Conduct use risk related analyses (E.g. URRA)
• Plan, write & conduct stakeholder insights gathering activities and derive meaningful needs which will inform the design of the product & in which it will be measured against
• Plan, conduct and write reports for Formative & Summative studies
• Work with cross-functional teams and provide technical leadership
• Interface with team members and clients in a highly professional manner
• Experience with software and/or hardware user-interface design
• Ability to quickly learn complex methods and processes and apply them to their work
• Excellent verbal and written communication and presentation skills

Why join IDE

At IDE, Human Factors is not a checkbox at the end of development. It is central to how we build ventures, reduce risk and create differentiated medical products.

You will get:

• Ownership of human factors strategy across high-impact MedTech ventures
• Exposure to founders, investors and global partners
• Projects ranging from connected diagnostics and digital health to capital equipment, drug-device combinations and automation platforms
• The opportunity to shape how human factors is embedded across global programs
• A clear pathway into Practice Leadership, Program Leadership or broader Venture Leadership roles
• A culture that values curiosity, accountability, technical excellence and commercial thinking

If you are looking for a role where you can shape product strategy, influence regulatory outcomes and build meaningful medical device businesses through human-centred design, this is that role.