Sr. Manager, Clinical Research Engineering

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. 

Were 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. 

The Future Forward organization is Intuitive’s advanced concepts group. We explore emerging technologies, prototype next-generation solutions, and build software experiences that shape the future of robotic-assisted surgery. 

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

The Senior Manager, Clinical Research Engineering will lead teams of Clinical Research Engineers in the development of highly effective robotic systems that ultimately improve clinical outcome for patients. Sr. Manager will serve as a technical and clinical leader in the design/development of new product concepts, guiding programs from early concept through commercial launch. Leveraging deep clinical, scientific, and engineering expertise, this role will partner with engineers, physicians, interaction designers, human factors specialists, training teams, technical publications, and other internal and external stakeholders to shape product and procedural innovation. The position will also serve as lead for clinical support for early-stage feasibility and confirmatory clinical studies, including proctoring, case observation, and synthesis of clinical insights to inform technology advancement. Responsibilities include identifying and documenting user needs, contributing to product requirements, assessing clinical risk, and providing design guidance throughout the Product Development Process (PDP). This role will also design, develop, and execute pre-clinical experimental strategies to evaluate device performance, safety, and usability, ensuring readiness for commercial launch. Working closely with regulatory, quality, clinical affairs, and finance teams.

Essential Job Duties

Product Development

• Apply in-depth clinical knowledge and technical system understanding in defining and developing products based on clinical needs
• Collaborate with physicians and key clinical users on clinical procedure development and understanding product feedback
• Clearly define clinical need and requirements for product
• Develop test models and test methods for clinically relevant product evaluations.
• Assess potential clinical risks and propose mitigations as an input to product design
• Provide strategic leadership in both individual and team leader capacity for the design and development of new product concepts from early feasibility through commercial launch, leveraging deep clinical, scientific, and technical expertise.
• Leadership for team to conduct comprehensive research into disease states, procedural workflows, and emerging medical technologies to establish subject-matter expertise and guide innovation strategy.
• Partner with marketing, clinical, and physician stakeholders to define market needs and translate them into user-centric platform, procedure, instrument, and accessory designs.
• Lead and collaborate with engineers/CREs and clinicians to establish and validate clinical performance objectives, safety considerations, and usability targets for early-phase technologies.
• Architect, manage and execute clinical de-risking strategies—including pre-clinical and feasibility studies—to accelerate technology readiness and ensure robust clinical adoption potential.
• Manage structured design iteration cycles, incorporating internal evaluations and targeted feedback from key opinion leaders (KOLs) to refine concepts and mitigate risk.
• Define, manage and implement pre-clinical evaluation protocols to support regulatory submissions and first-in-human trials.
• Support regulatory teams in preparing submission-ready technical and clinical documentation.
• Apply a data-driven, analytical approach to identify opportunities for product enhancement and portfolio expansion.

Clinical Research & Innovation