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About This Role
Additional Location(s): US\-CA\-Valencia
Diversity \- Innovation \- Caring \- Global Collaboration \- Winning Spirit \- High Performance
At Boston Scientific, we’ll give you the opportunity to harness all that’s within you by working in teams of diverse and high\-performing employees, tackling some of the most important health industry challenges. With access to the latest tools, information and training, we’ll help you in advancing your skills and career. Here, you’ll be supported in progressing – whatever your ambitions.
About the role:
Boston Scientific was recognized by Forbes as one of the Best Workplaces for Engineers in 2026, reflecting a culture where engineers do meaningful work.
The Sr. Research Engineer executes R\&D activities to develop next\-generation platforms for the Neuromodulation business by generating, analyzing and translating scientific data into design inputs. This role applies domain expertise across literature, experimental data, modeling and field learnings to drive innovation from early feasibility through commercialization and post\-market support.
As an advanced individual contributor, this role provides technical leadership and influence without direct people management responsibility. You will collaborate cross\-functionally across R\&D (systems, software, firmware, hardware), quality, clinical, regulatory, marketing, and commercial teams to translate technology capabilities and customer needs into actionable product and therapy recommendations.
At Boston Scientific, we value collaboration and synergy. This role follows a hybrid work model requiring employees to be in our Valencia, CA office at least three days per week. Boston Scientific will not offer sponsorship or take over sponsorship of an employment visa for this position at this time. Relocation assistance is not available for this position at this time.
*This is a defined\-term role with an expected duration of 24 months from the employee’s start date. There is no guarantee of full\-time employment beyond the listed duration.*
Your responsibilities will include:
- Execute neuromodulation research across literature, bench, computational, preclinical, and exploratory clinical domains.
- Perform development activities including data analysis, feature development, and exploratory design input generation.
- Collaborate cross\-functionally to achieve project objectives and timelines.
- Contribute to the development and documentation of next\-generation pain and movement disorder therapies, including neurostimulation systems.
- Support exploratory and technology development phase development through rigorous scientific and engineering practices.
- Develop subject matter expertise to support product development and regulatory approval of state\-of\-the\-art capabilities.
- Build and contribute to collaborations with academic institutions and external partners to advance scientific understanding and product innovation.
Required qualifications:
- Master’s degree in neuroengineering, biomedical engineering, or a related field and 2\+ years of R\&D experience in the medical device industry, or Bachelor’s and 4\+ years of experience in the medical device industry (may consider other regulated industries as relatable experience).
- Demonstrated experience contributing to early\-stage medical device development from concept through feasibility.
- Experience designing and executing computational, preclinical or exploratory clinical research in compliance with regulatory and scientific standards.
- Experience authoring technical documentation.
- Experience collaborating with customers, including physicians and scientists, to gather insights and develop design inputs.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, including technical presentations.
- Ability to travel up to 20%.
Preferred qualifications:
- Ph.D. in a related field.
- Minimum of 5 years' experience in the medical device industry supporting Class II and III active implantable or neurostimulation systems.
- Experience owning design history file, design controls, and regulatory submission deliverables.
- Experience contributing to intellectual property development and filings.
- Demonstrated ability to influence cross\-functional teams without direct authority.
- First author on a peer\-reviewed publications in a relevant technical or clinical field.
- Experience developing prototypes, tools and algorithms using Python and MATLAB.
- Prior experience within a Boston Scientific division.
Requisition ID: 631916
Minimum Salary: $ 82100
Maximum Salary: $ 156000
The anticipated compensation listed above and the value of core and optional employee benefits offered by Boston Scientific (BSC) – see www.bscbenefitsconnect.com—will vary based on actual location of the position and other pertinent factors considered in determining actual compensation for the role. Compensation will be commensurate with demonstrable level of experience and training, pertinent education including licensure and certifications, among other relevant business or organizational needs. At BSC, it is not typical for an individual to be hired near the bottom or top of the anticipated salary range listed above.
Compensation for non\-exempt (hourly), non\-sales roles may also include variable compensation from time to time (e.g., any overtime and shift differential) and annual bonus target (subject to plan eligibility and other requirements).
Compensation for exempt, non\-sales roles may also include variable compensation, i.e., annual bonus target and long\-term incentives (subject to plan eligibility and other requirements).
For MA positions: It is unlawful to require or administer a lie detector test for employment. Violators are subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.
Boston Scientific transforms lives through innovative medical technologies that improve the health of patients around the world. As a global medical technology leader for more than 45 years, we advance science for life by providing a broad range of high\-performance solutions that address unmet patient needs and reduce the cost of healthcare. Our portfolio of devices and therapies helps physicians diagnose and treat complex cardiovascular, respiratory, digestive, oncological, neurological and urological diseases and conditions. Learn more at www.bostonscientific.com and follow us on LinkedIn.
Boston Scientific Corporation has been and will continue to be an equal opportunity employer. To ensure full implementation of its equal employment policy, the Company will continue to take steps to assure that recruitment, hiring, assignment, promotion, compensation, and all other personnel decisions are made and administered without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, citizenship, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, veteran status, age, mental or physical disability, genetic information or any other protected class.
Please be advised that certain US based positions, including without limitation field sales and service positions that call on hospitals and/or health care centers, require acceptable proof of COVID\-19 vaccination status. Candidates will be notified during the interview and selection process if the role(s) for which they have applied require proof of vaccination as a condition of employment. Boston Scientific continues to evaluate its policies and protocols regarding the COVID\-19 vaccine and will comply with all applicable state and federal law and healthcare credentialing requirements. As employees of the Company, you will be expected to meet the ongoing requirements for your roles, including any new requirements, should the Company’s policies or protocols change with regard to COVID\-19 vaccination.
Among other requirements, Boston Scientific maintains specific prohibited substance test requirements for safety\-sensitive positions. This role is deemed safety\-sensitive and, as such, candidates will be subject to a prohibited substance test as a requirement. The goal of the prohibited substance testing is to increase workplace safety in compliance with the applicable law.
Salary Context
This $82K-$156K range is in the lower quartile for Research Engineer roles in our dataset (median: $188K across 44 roles with salary data).
View full Research Engineer salary data →Role Details
About This Role
Research Engineers bridge the gap between research and production. They implement papers, build experiment infrastructure, optimize training pipelines, and make research prototypes production-ready. They're the engineers who make research work at scale.
The role sits at a unique intersection. You need to understand the math well enough to implement novel architectures correctly, and you need the engineering chops to make them run efficiently on distributed systems. When a research scientist has a breakthrough idea, you're the person who turns it from a notebook prototype into a training pipeline that runs on 256 GPUs.
Across the 3,708 AI roles we're tracking, Research Engineer positions make up 2% of the market. At Boston Scientific, this role fits into their broader AI and engineering organization.
Research Engineer roles are growing as AI labs recognize that research velocity depends on engineering quality. The role is less competitive than Research Scientist (no PhD required), but the bar for engineering skill is very high. These roles are concentrated at major labs and well-funded startups.
What the Work Looks Like
A typical week involves: implementing a new attention mechanism from a recent paper, profiling and optimizing a training pipeline that's bottlenecked on data loading, building evaluation infrastructure for a new benchmark, debugging distributed training issues across a GPU cluster, and pair-programming with a research scientist on their latest experiment. The work is deeply technical.
Research Engineer roles are growing as AI labs recognize that research velocity depends on engineering quality. The role is less competitive than Research Scientist (no PhD required), but the bar for engineering skill is very high. These roles are concentrated at major labs and well-funded startups.
Skills Required
Strong software engineering fundamentals plus ML knowledge. Python, C++, and CUDA experience are common requirements. You'll need to read papers and turn ideas into working code. Distributed systems experience (especially distributed training) is highly valued. Performance optimization skills separate great candidates from good ones.
Experience with large-scale training infrastructure (FSDP, DeepSpeed, Megatron), GPU programming (CUDA, Triton), and the internals of ML frameworks (PyTorch internals, custom autograd functions) is what makes candidates stand out. The best research engineers can debug issues that span the full stack from GPU memory management to numerical precision to algorithmic correctness.
Strong postings mention the team's recent research, the infrastructure scale, and the specific technical challenges. They often list the research areas you'd support. Look for roles that emphasize both implementation quality and research understanding.
Compensation Benchmarks
Research Engineer roles pay a median of $280,000 based on 147 positions with disclosed compensation. Mid-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $200,000. This role's midpoint ($119K) sits 57% below the category median. Disclosed range: $82K to $156K.
Across all AI roles, the market median is $217,500. Top-quartile compensation starts at $272,100. The 90th percentile reaches $325,000. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Safety ($300,000) and AI Architect ($254,798). By seniority level: Entry: $120,000; Mid: $200,000; Senior: $230,000; Director: $272,150; VP: $250,000.
Boston Scientific AI Hiring
Boston Scientific has 3 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across Data Scientist, Research Engineer, AI/ML Engineer. Positions span Marlboro, MA, US, Santa Clarita, CA, US, Arden Hills, MN, US. Compensation range: $156K - $202K.
Location Context
Across all AI roles, 14% (508 positions) offer remote work, while 3,180 require on-site attendance. Top AI hiring metros: New York (1,045 roles, $220,000 median); San Francisco (810 roles, $277,088 median); Los Angeles (397 roles, $215,000 median).
Career Path
Common paths into Research Engineer roles include Software Engineer, ML Engineer, Research Intern.
From here, career progression typically leads toward Senior Research Engineer, Research Scientist, ML Architect.
This is one of the best entry points into AI research without a PhD. Build a strong engineering portfolio with ML projects, contribute to open-source ML frameworks, and demonstrate that you can implement complex ideas correctly and efficiently. The transition to Research Scientist is possible with published first-author work, which some research engineer roles support.
What to Expect in Interviews
Technical screens test both engineering skill and research understanding. Expect coding rounds with performance-critical implementations (GPU optimization, efficient data loading). Be prepared to discuss papers relevant to the team's research area and explain how you'd implement key ideas. System design questions focus on training infrastructure: distributed training, experiment tracking, and compute resource management.
When evaluating opportunities: Strong postings mention the team's recent research, the infrastructure scale, and the specific technical challenges. They often list the research areas you'd support. Look for roles that emphasize both implementation quality and research understanding.
AI Hiring Overview
The AI job market has 3,708 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 102 entry-level, 1,705 mid-level, 1,469 senior, and 432 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 14% of the market (508 positions). The remaining 3,180 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.
The market median for AI roles is $217,500. Top-quartile compensation starts at $272,100. The 90th percentile reaches $325,000. Highest-paying categories: AI Safety ($300,000 median, 21 roles); Research Engineer ($280,000 median, 147 roles); AI Architect ($254,798 median, 67 roles).
Research Engineer roles are growing as AI labs recognize that research velocity depends on engineering quality. The role is less competitive than Research Scientist (no PhD required), but the bar for engineering skill is very high. These roles are concentrated at major labs and well-funded startups.
The AI Job Market Today
The AI job market spans 3,708 open positions across 16 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (2,605), Data Scientist (310), AI Software Engineer (259). These three account for the majority of open positions, though smaller categories often have higher per-role compensation because of specialized skill requirements.
The seniority mix tells a story about where AI teams are in their maturity. Entry-level roles (102) are outnumbered by mid-level (1,705) and senior (1,469) positions, reflecting that most companies are past the 'build a team from scratch' phase and need experienced engineers who can ship production systems. Leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level) total 432 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.
Remote work availability sits at 14% of all AI roles (508 positions), with 3,180 requiring on-site or hybrid attendance. The remote share has stabilized after the post-pandemic correction. Senior and specialized roles (Research Scientist, ML Architect) are more likely to be remote-eligible than entry-level positions, partly because experienced hires have more negotiating power and partly because these roles require less hands-on mentorship.
AI compensation is structured in clear tiers. The market median sits at $217,500. Top-quartile roles start at $272,100, and the 90th percentile reaches $325,000. These figures include base salary with disclosed compensation. Total compensation (including equity, bonuses, and sign-on) runs 20-40% higher at companies that offer those components.
Category matters for compensation. AI Safety roles lead at $300,000 median, while Prompt Engineer roles sit at $140,000. The spread between highest and lowest-paying categories reflects the premium on specialized technical skills versus broader analytical roles.
The most in-demand skills across all AI postings: Python (1,890 postings), Aws (1,103 postings), Azure (877 postings), Rag (855 postings), Gcp (631 postings), Prompt Engineering (560 postings), Pytorch (545 postings), Claude (498 postings). Python dominates, appearing in the vast majority of role descriptions regardless of category. Cloud platform experience (AWS, GCP, Azure) is the second most common requirement. The newer entrants to the top skills list (RAG, vector databases, LLM APIs) reflect the shift from traditional ML toward generative AI applications.
Frequently Asked Questions
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