Staff Clinical Research 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 Staff Clinical Research Engineer will serve as a technical and clinical leader in the design and 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 Staff Clinical Research Engineer will lead 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, the Staff Clinical Research Engineer will contribute to defining clinical indications, shaping commercialization strategies, and driving technologies from concept to market-ready products.

Essential Job Duties

Pre-Clinical Research & Commercial Concept Development

• Provide strategic leadership in the design and development of new product concepts from early feasibility through commercial launch, leveraging deep clinical, scientific, and technical expertise.
• 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.
• Collaborate closely with engineers and clinicians to establish and validate clinical performance objectives, safety considerations, and usability targets for early-phase technologies.
• Architect and execute clinical de-risking strategies—including pre-clinical and feasibility studies—to accelerate technology readiness and ensure robust clinical adoption potential.
• Lead structured design iteration cycles, incorporating internal evaluations and targeted feedback from key opinion leaders (KOLs) to refine concepts and mitigate risk.
• Define and implement pre-clinical evaluation protocols to support regulatory submissions and first-in-human trials.
• Serve as a subject matter expert in the creation of user manuals, training programs, and procedural documentation.
• 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

• Lead the planning and execution of early-stage feasibility, pilot, and pivotal clinical trials to inform technology development, regulatory strategy, and reimbursement pathways.
• Identify, evaluate, and prioritize product enhancements and new product opportunities based on clinical needs, market trends, and physician feedback.
• Gather, analyze, and synthesize clinical insights from case observations and study data to refine product requirements, inform training programs, and proactively address clinical risks.
• Direct prototype evaluations in clinical en