Rising Technical Contributor Award
Megan Johnson
Boston Scientific
For advancements in lifesaving technology for medical devices; for cross-functional technical leadership; and for demonstrating the curiosity and tenacity that spark innovation.
Megan Johnson works as a process development engineer II for the structural heart franchise at Boston Scientific and is currently the core team lead for the company’s Sentinel Cerebral Protection System in Maple Grove, Minnesota. She is responsible for managing an international team of 10 engineers across three Boston Scientific sites to execute on three project deliverables to reduce costs, increase yields, and reduce processing time.
Johnson is responsible for managing the project’s $1 million budget and transferring the technology from Boston Scientific’s site in California to its manufacturing site in Costa Rica. In addition to managing the logistics of the project, she co-leads the technical initiative to redesign the process for creating the filters of the Sentinel device. Currently, the filter-forming process is not ergonomic, yields high scrap rates, and is the highest-cost component on the device. Johnson and her cross-functional process development and R&D team are working to make the filter forming process more automated to reduce costs.
Prior to her current role, Johnson worked for Boston Scientific as a process development engineer on a structural heart device acquired from another medical device company. Although she was brought onto the project as a junior-level engineer, she was soon co-leading the integration efforts. She met with the original engineers of the device and became a subject matter expert on the delivery system. Her project responsibilities included fully transferring the technology from California to Minnesota; launching a production space in Minnesota to create clinical devices; and training and managing a team of five medical device specialists to build the device, implement design changes, and develop manufacturing documents and R&D test methods.
Johnson led the delivery system team to an early feasibility study submission three months ahead of schedule, which gained the team U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval to implant in patients in the United States. Her work on the acquired structural heart device ultimately led to an early promotion and opportunity to lead another high-profile structural heart device project.
In four years with Boston Scientific, Johnson has designed aspects of four medical devices that will be used to save lives across the globe. She also holds a patent for a novel magnetic coupling design that functions through a magnetic field instead of a physical connection.
Johnson is the Minnesota chapter lead for Boston Scientific’s Young Professionals Network employee resource group, managing a team of 22 to deliver on key diversity, equity, and inclusion goals.
A member of the Society of Women Engineers for six years, she joined as a student at the University of Minnesota, where she led a subcommittee for the section. Following graduation, she joined SWE Boston.
She holds a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Minnesota and will graduate from Duke University with an M.S. in engineering management later this year. She lives in Minneapolis and is looking forward to traveling sometime soon.