Staff Quality Engineer

Company Description

It started with a simple idea: what if surgery could be less invasive and recovery less painful? Nearly 30 years later, that question still fuels everything we do at Intuitive. As a global leader in robotic-assisted surgery and minimally invasive care, our technologies—like the da Vinci surgical system and Ion—have transformed how care is delivered for millions of patients worldwide.

We’re a team of engineers, clinicians, and innovators united by one purpose: to make surgery smarter, safer, and more human. Every day, our work helps care teams perform with greater precision and patients recover faster, improving outcomes around the world.

The problems we solve demand creativity, rigor, and collaboration. The work is challenging, but deeply meaningful—because every improvement we make has the potential to change a life.

If you’re ready to contribute to something bigger than yourself and help transform the future of healthcare, you’ll find your purpose here.

Job Description

Primary Function of Position:

Intuitive Surgical designs and manufactures highly complex surgical systems including cameras, instruments, and accessories for use in surgery. We are looking for a proven quality functional leader to support the projects associated with the development of next generation innovation products.

The Staff Quality Engineer supports product development from concept through commercialization and will serve as the core team member for the cross-functional product development team. Staff Quality Engineer will provide subject matter expertise and guidance to the team on design control and risk management from early development through design transfer, Design for Reliability and Manufacturing, product Development Life Cycle, and Process Validation. In addition, this position will play a working role to ensure that the developed products meet quality standards consistent with Intuitive’ s quality processes, while meeting all external design control and regulatory requirements.

Roles & Responsibilities:

Design Control and Risk Management Stewardship: Planning and execution of design controls, risk management, and design verification/validation for new products

• • Advocate product design history file and ensure compliance with internal processes and external standards and regulations.
  • Understand user needs and assure they are translated to the design, while ensuring compliance with usability and human factors standards and regulations.
  • Partner with engineering to define design inputs, design outputs, and traceability matrices.
  • Contribute to the strategy and execution of risk-based design verification and validation.
  • Accountable for overall risk management file: participate and support the development of product risk management file, to analyze and assess the product risks associated with user, design, process and supplier.

Support design controls activities associated with new product development. Advocate and ensure the transfer of reliable and scalable designs to manufacturing

• • • Review and provide feedback on design architecture, selections, requirements, and drawings from early design.
    • Collaborate with manufacturing, purchasing, test engineering, and supplier engineering to facilitate transfer of scalable designs into production.
    • Contribute to new product development Technical Reviews and Design Reviews.
    • Support Regulatory Affairs with creating submissions and responding to submission questions.
    • Author CAPAs to ensure implementation of timely and effective corrective & preventive actions.
    • Perform and/or support audits (internal, external, and by regulatory agencies).
    • Provide quality engineering support for the company’s contract manufacturing operations.
    • Coach, mentor, teach, and influence the engineering staff in best quality practices, data analysis, protocol development, and design for quality and reliability methods.

Qualifications

Qualifications

Skills, Experience, Education, & Training:

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in electrical, mechanical, biomedical or system engineering, math, or physics. Advanced degree preferred.
• Experience working with Energy Delivery products (e.g. Mapping Catheters, RF Ablation, Pulsed Field Ablation etc.).
• 12+ years of working experience in Quality Engineering or related field, minimum 6 years in medical device design environment specifically with Class II or Class III products.
• Advanced expertise in design control and risk management from early design and development through commercialization and demonstrated experience with electromechanical systems.
• Experience with medical standards compliance, including ISO 13485, ISO 14971 and FDA Quality System Regulations with a focus on design controls and design optimization.
• Able to navigate quality systems with minimal oversight on individual projects.
• Balanced risk decision making to drive product quality, gain consensus, and work through technical challenges.
• Able to articulate complex information to teams, including executive management.

Additional Information

Due to the nature of our business and the role, please note that Intuitive and/or your customer(s) may require that you show current proof of vaccination against certain diseases including COVID-19.  Details can vary by role.

Intuitive is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We provide equal employment opportunities to all qualified applicants and employees, and prohibit discrimination and harassment of any type, without regard to race, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, color, age, religion, protected veteran or disability status, genetic information or any other status protected under federal, state, or local applicable laws.

Mandatory Notices

U.S. Export Controls Disclaimer:  In accordance with the U.S. Export Administration Regulations (15 CFR §743.13(b)), some roles at Intuitive Surgical may be subject to U.S. export controls for prospective employees
who are nationals from countries currently on embargo or sanctions status.

Certain information you provide as part of the application will be used for purposes of determining whether Intuitive Surgical will need to (i) obtain an export license from the U.S. Government on your behalf (note: the government’s licensing process can take 3 to 6+ months) or (ii) implement a Technology Control Plan (“TCP”) (note: typically adds 2 weeks to the hiring process).  

For any Intuitive role subject to export controls, final offers are contingent upon obtaining an approved export license and/or an executed TCP prior to the prospective employee’s
start date, which may or may not be flexible, and within a timeframe that does not unreasonably impede the hiring need. If applicable, candidates will be notified and instructed on any requirements for these purposes. 

We will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records in accordance with fair chance laws.

Preference will be given to qualified candidates who do not reside, or plan to reside, in Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, or Tennessee.

We provide market-competitive compensation packages, inclusive of base pay, incentives, benefits, and equity. It would not be typical for someone to be hired at the top end of range for the role, as actual pay will be determined based on several factors, including experience, skills, and qualifications. The target compensation ranges are listed.

Client-provided location(s): San Francisco, CA

Job ID: d9398939-e38f-44e1-9f11-911e86f244a0

Employment Type: OTHER

Posted: 2026-02-06T19:32:40