Senior Mechanical Design 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 R&D group within Intuitive Surgical is searching for a senior mechanical engineer with a focus on the mechanical design of surgical instruments, contributing to the exploration of a novel system concept and optimization of established system concepts for a new application of surgical robotics. This role is an exciting opportunity to join a small and innovative team focused on successful implementation of product development.

The Instrument and Accessories team at Intuitive is a cross-functional team dedicated to the creation of innovative medical robotic tools and technologies. We create transformational technologies to address the major pain points and unmet needs in our healthcare system.

Joining Intuitive Surgical means joining a team dedicated to using technology to benefit patients by improving surgical efficacy and decreasing surgical invasiveness, with patient outcomes as our highest priority. The Senior Mechanical Engineer will focus on the development of robotic surgical instruments for minimally invasive surgical applications. The successful candidate will have both the technical depth to resolve complex mechanical, materials and manufacturing design issues and the ability to work in an interdisciplinary team to troubleshoot to root cause higher level system issues. They must excel in a high-energy, focused, small-team environment, and have a commitment to high quality prototypes and concepts and a demonstrated record of developing and creating innovative engineering solutions. A strong sense of shared responsibility and reward is required as well as a commitment to high product quality.

Essential Job Duties

Design and develop novel robotic surgical instruments, including design and procurement of components, prototype assembly and builds, and design and development of testing and assembly fixtures and methods.

• Work in a small, cross-functional team to define and develop product requirements and functional specifications for robotic instruments, subsystems, and systems
• Analyze and test product prototype designs, critically analyze results, and present results to the engineering team
• Provide written protocols, reports, presentations, and perform technical design reviews to solicit feedback on design activities on an ongoing basis
• Development and documentation of mechanical design and manufacturing documentation including: inspection procedures, assembly instructions, new manufacturing processes, test methods, purchase specifications, BOMs, component / assembly drawings per the company’s operating procedures
• Create and maintain SolidWorks CAD databases, including components, assemblies, and detailed drawings
• Contribute to and make decisions based on risk assessments, industry standards, and regulatory frameworks
• Observe pre-clinical and clinical cases and interface with clinical experts to inform designs and identify user needs through workflow analysis
• Document, prepare and review patent submissions

Qualifications

Required Skills and Experience

• Minimum 8 years of experience developing commercial medical products
• Demonstrated ability to work in cross-functional research and development teams
• Command of evaluating designs via prototype testing and rigorous mathematical analysis
• Ability to investigate and determine root cause of both latent and emerging design problems
• Experience with metals, plastics, fabrication methods, plastics molding, MIM, extrusions, process equipment, adhesives, and/or disposable medical products are a strong plus
• Proficiency using CAD to design and document mechanisms; SolidWorks preferred