Intuitive Surgical

Job Description

Primary Function of Position:

As a Staff Embedded Software Engineer in the Future Forward organization, you will work at the forefront of innovation, rapid prototyping, and new product development. You’ll collaborate with talented cross-functional teams—including engineers, clinicians, and product managers—to advance Intuitive’s robotic surgical platform, driving the entire product lifecycle from concept to launch.

In this role, you will architect and develop embedded and platform software that connects and supports key system components—such as hardware, firmware, control algorithms, vision pipeline, user interfaces, and test infrastructure with fault injection mechanisms and diagnostic tools. Your work will be pivotal—not only to timely product delivery, but also ensuring safe and reliable operation for patients worldwide.

Success in this role requires excelling in an agile, small-team environment—transforming initial concepts into robust prototypes, methodically iterating designs, and consistently maintaining exceptional product quality with a patient-first mindset.

Essential Job Duties

• Design and develop robust embedded software to enable system infrastructure, including OS drivers, hardware interfaces, real-time data pipelines, inter-processor communication, error handling, and user/test applications.
• Collaborate cross-functionally throughout the product lifecycle with key stakeholders to address clinical needs and safety requirements.
• Translate early requirements into prototype implementations to evaluate, iterate, and advance novel robotic systems.
• Lead unit testing and code integration efforts to ensure exceptional system reliability and robustness.
• Act as a software subject matter expert, conducting hazard and failure mode analysis, identifying risks, and defining effective mitigation strategies.
• Refine and iterate designs, balancing technical requirements, feasibility, schedules, and resource constraints.
• Produce clear and compliant supporting documentation in alignment with Intuitive's development and quality guidelines.
• Ensure all designs meet rigorous quality and safety standards per the Intuitive Quality Management System.