Staff Mechanical Engineer

Company Description

At Intuitive, we are united behind our mission: we believe that minimally invasive care is life-enhancing care. Through ingenuity and intelligent technology, we expand the potential of physicians to heal without constraints.

As a pioneer and market leader in robotic-assisted surgery, we strive to foster an inclusive and diverse team, committed to making a difference. For more than 25 years, we have worked with hospitals and care teams around the world to help solve some of healthcare's hardest challenges and advance what is possible.

Intuitive has been built by the efforts of great people from diverse backgrounds. We believe great ideas can come from anywhere. We strive to foster an inclusive culture built around diversity of thought and mutual respect. We lead with inclusion and empower our team members to do their best work as their most authentic selves.

Passionate people who want to make a difference drive our culture. Our team members are grounded in integrity, have a strong capacity to learn, the energy to get things done, and bring diverse, real world experiences to help us think in new ways. We actively invest in our team members to support their long-term growth so they can continue to advance our mission and achieve their highest potential.

Join a team committed to taking big leaps forward for a global community of healthcare professionals and their patients. Together, let's advance the world of minimally invasive care.

Job Description

Primary Function of Position:

Intuitive Surgical designs and manufactures highly complex mechanical systems (including instruments and accessories) for use in surgery. The successful Staff Mechanical Engineer will lead the design, sourcing, development, and integration of novel mechanical and mechatronic concepts for instrument and accessory related products.

The candidate must be able to identify and evaluate new candidate technologies, establish design requirements and create novel designs to meet customer needs, work with suppliers and other outside companies to realize viable technical solutions, and refine designs for transfer to the new product development organization. He or she must excel in a high-energy team environment and be capable of creative problem solving when faced with the time pressures and incomplete information typical of early stage product development. The successful candidate must have outstanding technical depth in relevant areas, and be as comfortable collaborating and leading across organizational boundaries as they working independently.

Roles and Responsibilities:

• Work with subject matter experts to understand the clinical, usability, and other needs of users of da Vinci systems as they relate to surgical instruments and accessories.
• Develop technical requirements for designs based on an understanding of user needs.
• Perform conceptual design, detailed design, analytical modeling, prototyping, and troubleshooting of novel instruments and accessories for the da Vinci robotic surgical system.
• Create new product architectures to solve complex and highly constrained design problems.
• Develop and perform early design verification and validation testing, with assistance from other functions as needed.
• Assist with clinical evaluation of prototypes by supporting ex-vivo and in-vivo laboratory testing.
• Assist with mechanical engineering problem-solving in any part of the organization as needed to solve challenges on urgent or critical programs.
• Identify, test, and report on new materials, manufacturing process, and technologies that could benefit existing products or enable new product designs.
• Develop and manage relationships with key suppliers.
• Provide written protocols, reports, and presentations related to design activities on an ongoing basis.
• Document, prepare and review patent submissions.
• Review mechanical engineering designs of other engineers in both a formal and informal capacity.
• Refine and document product designs as needed to support successful transfer into the new product development organization.

Qualifications

Skill/Job Requirements:

• Minimum BS (Mechanical Engineering or related engineering field) required, MS or PhD preferred. 
• Minimum five (7) years of experience taking products from concept to production (medical product experience preferred).
• At least eight (10) years of experience with precision mechanical design.
• Familiarity with all phases of the product development lifecycle including design, implementation, debug, verification, qualification, and transfer.
• Understanding of mechatronics, robotics, and servo-controlled systems strongly preferred. Experience developing software control algor