Job Description
Primary Function of Position
The Software Build team at Intuitive is seeking a Software Engineer Intern to work on a time-boxed, high-impact project focused on build observability in a large-scale Bazel-based build system.
Our organization supports 350+ software developers working on safety-critical surgical robotics software. Small changes to build files (e.g., BUILD, WORKSPACE, macros, rules) can unintentionally cause large regressions in build performance, memory consumption, artifact size, or embedded platform footprint.
The goal of this internship is to make the impact of a pull request on the build system visible and actionable before it lands, enabling early detection of regressions and violations during code review rather than after integration into the main development branch.
This role is intentionally scoped for a 10–12 week engagement, with a clear problem statement, measurable outcomes, and organization-wide impact.
Essential Job Duties (
- Design and implement build observability for Bazel-based workflows, focusing on PR-level impact analysis.
- Examples of impact signals include:
- Changes in number of actions
- Critical path duration
- Memory usage
- Disk / artifact size growth
- Impact on embedded platform images or deployable outputs
- Collect, analyze, and visualize Bazel build metrics using available build event data (e.g., BEP), remote execution/cache signals, or custom instrumentation.
- Integrate observability into the developer workflow, such as:
- CI pipelines
- Pull request checks
- Build dashboards or reports
- Automated guardrails that flag regressions or policy violations
- Define and validate meaningful thresholds or heuristics that distinguish acceptable change from harmful regression.
- Deliver a minimum viable product (MVP) within the internship period and:
- Integrate it into at least one real developer workflow
- Measure and communicate its impact to the build and software engineering organization
- Collaborate closely with senior build engineers during problem definition, architecture, integration, and evaluation, while maintaining strong individual ownership of execution.
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