Staff Software 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: 

This role will be part of Intuitive Intraoperative Intelligence team that aims to improve surgical outcomes and efficiency by innovating in imaging, machine learning, and augmented reality. We work to empower the surgeon by extracting new information from the surgical scene, presenting it with meaningful visualization, and synthesizing it in a way that supports surgical decision making. 

 

As a member of the Intuitive Intraoperative Intelligence team, you will join a small team of experts in the fields of computer vision, machine learning, graphics, and imaging software. You will collaborate and contribute to the conceptualization, design, and evaluation of new digital interfaces to support a novel robotic system. You will contribute across the entire development cycle, taking concepts from initial prototypes to production software, with an emphasis on evolving early capabilities into clinically meaningful and robust solutions.

 

In this role, you will design and implement a variety of software components as part of the Intraoperative Intelligence software team. The ideal candidate is an independent and fast-paced developer with excellent problem-solving skills, who can translate rough and approximate requirements into working prototypes, and iteratively refine them into high-quality, production-ready solutions.

 

Quick learning and a desire to understand requirements from both an engineering and user perspective are essential to becoming a valuable contributor. A strong sense of shared responsibility and shared reward is required.

 

Essential Job Duties

• Contribute to the development of world-class intraoperative navigation and guidance systems on our next generation robotic software platform and other tools, using performance-critical C/C++ in embedded and/or Linux-based environments.
• Own complex software subsystems end-to-end, including architectural redesign and refactoring of existing components, from early technical exploration through production deployment and long-term maintenance.
• Collaborate closely with designers, clinical engineers, human factors, and other software developers to integrate simple and elegant interfaces into user-friendly applications.
• Work with other engineering team members to define system architecture and select tools used for graphical interfaces and visualization pipelines.
• Define high-level requirements and architect clean, extensible software interfaces for a distributed robotic system.
• Operate effectively in areas of ambiguity, shaping problem definitions, proposing technical approaches, and driving solutions through iterative development.    
• Participate in failure mode analysis to identify and implement robust hazard mitigation strategies.
• Refine prototypes to production-quality software through rapid iterations.
• Provide technical guidance and informal mentorship to other engineers, contributing to overall technical excellence and best practices across the team.

Qualifications

Required Education, Skills & Experience

• Minimum Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Software, Electrical or Computer Engineering (preferred).
• Typically 8+ years of industry experience developing and supporting real-time or user-facing software systems.
• Demonstrated experience across phases of the product lifecycle, including  design, implementation, debug, verification, and maintenance
• Fluent in object-oriented programming using C/C++
• Experience with visual computing or real-time visualization systems, including 2D/3D rendering or related pipelines.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to convey technical content to a broader audience

Preferred Skills & Experience

• Experience with GPU-accelerated computing or performance optimization on heterogeneous systems.
• Experience or exposure to building user interfaces in C++ using modern UI frameworks (e.g., Qt or similar), and interest in owning and evolving a production UI platform.
• Experience integrating user-facing components with underlying systems, backend services, and data communication interfaces in complex software environments.
• Proficient in creating designs that prioritize user delight and safety
• Experience working in a regulated software environment such as the medical device industry
• Experience working with software development methodologies and tools

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): Sunnyvale, CA

Job ID: f5d5d67f-9ea1-40e0-ae6b-5b1a481dadce

Employment Type: OTHER

Posted: 2026-03-03T17:01:07