Sr. Supplier Process 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
Responsible for ensuring suppliers meet ISI requirements for quality, service, delivery, and cost.
Drive both suppliers and internal teams to continuously improve both manufacturing and business
processes. Evaluate and collaborate on supplier selection with cross functional partners. Support
both NPI and ongoing production by engaging with suppliers to improve supplier performance,
monitor product and process performance, scale-up production, and work with design and
manufacturing teams to implement improvements. Lead and execute detailed supplier projects to
implement changes affecting product quality, cost, capacity, risk mitigation/supply continuity, and
integration of new manufacturing technologies.
The ideal candidate possesses a broad process experience in metal machining and/or plastic
Injection molding and extrusions, and has the skills and experience to assess and develop
optimal supplier partners in these categories while mentoring others in this skillset.
Essential Job Duties
• Partner with suppliers to execute cost reductions, capacity improvements, and risk
mitigation projects for high severity parts, sole suppliers, or proprietary materials.

• Manage complex supplier changes including manufacturing process changes, design
changes, production optimization, facility changes, new equipment qualification, and new
line validations.
• Complete part qualification deliverables including: First Article, Supplier pFMEA, Process
Validations (IQ/OQ/PQ), Inspection Reports, Gage R&R, and Process Capability
Analysis, and lead, train, and mentor suppliers through the process.
• Participate in supplier selection process: selecting the right process and supplier for the
part, considering long term fit, and total cost of ownership.
• Drive suppliers to continually improve their business and manufacturing process
performance to meet Intuitive’s requirements for supplier excellence using a collection of
best practices in project management, Six Sigma, Lean, SPC and negotiation. Lead
these efforts at several suppliers simultaneously, without managerial guidance.
• Own and drive to closure supplier nonconformances from symptom through root cause
analysis to corrective action, including Nonconformance Reports and SCAR
documentation.
• Drive changes to ISI requirements as necessary, by initiating and managing changes to
specifications and drawings through the Engineering Change Order process
• Develop metrics for supplier part cost, delivery, quality, capacity, and capability, and
continually drive for timely achievement of those metrics.
• Provide effective and timely component inventory health information and
recommendations to management by creating and delivering data-driven supply base
information.
• Review, analyze, and close customer complaints, manufacturing variance requests, and
first article inspections by judging risk analyses and justifications, determining corrective
and preventive actions at suppliers. Look for opportunities with suppliers to eliminate
recurrence.
• Effectively prioritize and advance multiple concurrent high priority projects. Effectively
integrate and distill communications across multiple teams for cohesive and unified
messaging both internally and externally. Create formal networks with key decision
makers and serve as external spokesperson for the organization.
• Work with suppliers and ISI New Product Development/Introduction Engineering to:
o Create product supplier landscapes to determine launch readiness and report to
management

o Develop supplie