Medical
Technology
Specialist talent for Australia's medical-device and digital-health firms.
Engineering, regulatory, quality, clinical and software talent for the firms designing implantable devices, SaMD (Software as a Medical Device), surgical platforms and connected-health products across Australia. Sydney's medtech ecosystem - Cochlear, ResMed, Saluda Medical and the surrounding scaleup tier - is one of the most concentrated and well-funded outside the US.
What we do here
Medical technology is a senior-IC and regulatory-dense market - the briefs we run here are usually for named specialists with five-plus years inside a Class II/III environment, a TGA / FDA submission under their belt, or a SaMD project they have shipped commercially. The realistic candidate pool in Australia for a senior medical-device firmware role is typically fewer than thirty people, and a senior regulatory-affairs specialist with TGA/FDA commercial experience is often a pool of fewer than fifty.
Most engagements here are retained executive search or research-led specialist recruitment. Contingency does not work at this depth.
What “great” looks like at intake
We pressure-test the brief against the realistic Australian candidate pool, the firm’s stage (Series A / scale / commercial), and the regulatory pathway the role needs to support. For roles that genuinely require US / EU clearance experience we flag international relocation conversations early - the alternative is a six-month search that closes outside expectation.
How we work this market
Most senior candidates we approach in medtech are not actively looking. They have been at Cochlear, ResMed or one of two or three scaleups for years, and the decision to move is rarely about compensation alone - it is about the device, the team, the seriousness of the regulatory pathway and how credible the commercial bet looks. We respect that on first contact.
Capabilities we cover
- ▸ Medical device engineering (mechanical, electronics, firmware, RF)
- ▸ Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) and connected health
- ▸ Regulatory affairs - TGA, FDA, ISO 13485, IVDR
- ▸ Quality systems, post-market surveillance and risk management
- ▸ Clinical affairs, trials and human-factors engineering
- ▸ Manufacturing engineering for Class II / III sterile environments
Typical roles & bands
- Senior Biomedical / Medical Device Engineer$140k-$195k base
- Senior Regulatory Affairs Specialist$150k-$200k base
- Senior SaMD / Medical Device Software Engineer$150k-$205k base
- Senior Quality Engineer (medical device)$140k-$185k base
- Senior Clinical Affairs Manager$150k-$210k base
- Director of R&D / Engineering$240k-$340k total
- Source. The founder's placement records across 15 years of recruitment practice, continuing into AEY, plus ongoing market benchmarking.
- Composition. Base salary unless otherwise specified. Total-comp roles include equity / bonus / day-rate where stated.
- Variance. Actual offers move with stage, location, technical specialism, clearance status and the candidate's alternative options. The bands above are 25th–75th percentile, not floor and ceiling.
- Currency. All amounts in AUD.
Market notes
Australia's medtech sector is anchored by Cochlear, ResMed and a small set of well-funded scaleups (Saluda Medical, Compumedics, BiVACOR, Naxen and others). The senior engineering and regulatory-affairs pool is genuinely small - most candidates we approach have worked at one of three or four firms across their career, and the network is well-connected enough that a brief becomes a named-target search within a day. Compensation has lifted materially in the last 24 months, particularly for cleared software (SaMD), regulatory and quality leads, as the surrounding scaleup tier matures into commercial scale.
Heavily concentrated in Sydney (Macquarie Park / North Ryde) and Melbourne, with smaller pools in Brisbane (medtech adjacent to UQ / QUT) and Perth. We track specialism crossover - cleared firmware with medical-device exposure, RF + implantable, regulatory-with-clinical.
Anonymised, never shared. Maintained as a live working map, not a database.
How medtech engineers actually get hired in Sydney
The job ad you replied to was probably placed by a Head of Engineering who owes their board a hire in a fortnight and has already exhausted their network. That is not the job you want.
The first engineering leader medtech founders keep getting wrong
There is a hire we see medtech founders make, then unmake. It is the first Head of Engineering at a Series A / B firm building a Class II or III device. The person hired is impressive on paper. They leave, or are asked to leave, inside eighteen months.
Let's talk about medical technology.
A 30-minute call is enough for us to know whether we can add value - and whether you should be talking to us, or to someone else.