What's your job about?
Cochlear is a medical device company that produces implants that can provide the sensation of hearing to people with hearing loss. I work in the Research and Development (R&D) department as a Systems Engineer. Cochlear’s products include implants, sound processors, fitting software, and mobile apps, which all work together. As a Systems Engineer, my job is to look at our products from a high level and understand how they work together and interact as a system. Tasks that I work on include system-level design, managing requirements and traceability, risk management activities, and ensuring compliance with relevant standards. This involves a lot of collaboration with different engineering disciplines such as electrical, mechanical and software engineering, as well as with different departments such as regulatory affairs and marketing.
What's your background?
I grew up in Sydney, which is also where I live now. At school, I always was most interested in subjects like maths and science, so it was no surprise that I ended up in STEM. That said, I had very little idea of what I wanted to study at university until quite late. I considered things like medicine, veterinary medicine, different science degrees and even teaching, but it wasn’t until my physics teacher suggested it that I thought about engineering. Biomedical engineering was the discipline that resonated with me the most, so that’s what I decided to do. During university, I completed three internships, one in data engineering, one as a repair technician for respiratory devices and one at Cochlear, which led to the graduate program. I also did an exchange semester in Austria. In 2022, I started the grad program and completed rotations in five different teams. Then in 2023, I started my permanent role in Systems Engineering.
Could someone with a different background do your job?
Absolutely! Diversity of thinking is very important in systems engineering, so it’s great to have engineers from a range of backgrounds with a range of different perspectives. The systems team includes people with biomedical, electrical, mechanical and software engineering backgrounds.
What's the coolest thing about your job?
The coolest thing about working at Cochlear is that our products literally change lives! My favourite thing about working as a Systems Engineer specifically is getting to work on multiple different products and with people from a range of disciplines. I really enjoy thinking about how our different products interact and having the opportunity to work collaboratively.
What are the limitations of your job?
Medical devices are a highly regulated industry. This is of course very important to ensure that products are safe and reliable for patients but does result in things moving very slowly. There is a lot of work required to ensure that our products are compliant with all relevant standards and will be accepted by regulators. This can mean a lot of repetitive testing and boring documentation work. However, despite some of the more boring aspects, working on products that improve people’s lives is very rewarding.
3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...