Staff Software Build 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

The Software Build team at Intuitive is seeking a hands-on Staff Software Engineer to design, build, and operate the next-generation unified build system across all robotic surgery platforms.

This role is for an experienced engineer who writes code, debugs real build failures, prototypes infrastructure, and scales systems through direct technical contribution. You will own core build architecture while remaining deeply involved in implementation—driving measurable improvements in build speed, correctness, and developer productivity across large, safety-critical C/C++ codebases.

You will serve as a technical leader and mentor, but this is not an oversight-only role. Expect to spend significant time designing build rules, implementing tooling, debugging distributed builds, and evolving CI infrastructure in production.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and maintain Bazel-based build systems for large-scale C/C++ embedded software, including custom toolchains and cross-compilation flows.
• Directly implement and optimize Bazel Remote Caching and Remote Execution (RBE) to enable fast, deterministic builds across local, CI, and cloud environments.
• Write production code in Rust, C/C++, and Python to support build tooling, infrastructure services, and developer workflows.
• Own and evolve build performance: cache hit rates, execution parallelism, dependency hygiene, hermeticity, and reproducibility.
• Build and maintain developer-facing tooling that improves local iteration speed and CI reliability.
• Integrate and operate build infrastructure across on-premises and cloud environments, balancing performance, security, and cost.
• Work directly with firmware, platform, and application teams to debug real-world build issues and eliminate systemic bottlenecks.
• Improve observability of build systems through metrics, logging, and analytics.
• Mentor engineers through code reviews, architectural discussions, and hands-on problem solving.
• Act as a technical advocate for modern build practices and scalable development workflows.

Qualifications

Required Skills & Experience

• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience with a strong record of hands-on technical ownership.
• Deep, practical expertise with Bazel in complex C/C++ and embedded environments.
• Proven experience implementing and operating Bazel Remote Caching and Remote Execution at scale.
• Strong programming experience in Rust, C/C++, and Python.
• Experience debugging and optimizing distributed build systems, CI pipelines, and build infrastructure under real production constraints.
• Solid understanding of compiler toolchains, linkers, and build graph behavior.
• Ability to communicate technical tradeoffs clearly and influence teams through technical leadership.

Preferred Skills & Experience

• Experience with Nix and Nix-based packaging for reproducible builds and developer environments.
• Familiarity with BuildBuddy (or similar Bazel observability / remote execution platforms).
• Experience with Yocto-based toolchains and embedded Linux build workflows.
• Exposure to REAPI-compatible execution backends and remote build infrastructure.
• Experience supporting safety-critical or regulated software systems (medical, automotive, aerospace).
• Advanced degree (Master’s or PhD) in Computer Science or related field.

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