Supplier Engineer - Castings

Overview

Staff Supplier Engineer - Castings (Finance)

In this role, you will move surgery forward by putting the highest quality and most innovative products in the hands of our customers to enable better surgical outcomes for patients. The ideal candidate needs to have a vast knowledge in various metal casting processes such as V Process, sand casting and investment casting and will apply their broad and deep hands-on experience in casting (especially Aluminum) to help our suppliers manufacture high quality casting parts meeting our design standards and expectations for da Vinci surgical systems in the Multiport Business Unit.

This role is responsible for on-going sustaining and NPI products for all active Systems products with a focus on mechanical casting components and assemblies. This role will provide technical leadership, to a broad cross functional team such as design engineers and suppliers by developing casting design and inspection guidelines, performing DFM and ensuring casting suppliers can continuously produce high quality parts meeting Intuitive s standards.

The Staff Supplier Engineer must be capable of making sound decisions when faced with time constraints and ambiguous or incomplete information which is typical in a research and development environment. They will interface with suppliers and manufacturing to build high-quality casting parts and productize new designs.

Casting Engineering & Manufacturing Excellence

• Applies deep, hands-on expertise in aluminum and iron/steel casting processes (V-Process, sand casting, tilt-pour, investment casting, die-casting) to deliver robust, production-ready process and parts.
• Exercises strong engineering fundamentals to evaluate casting feasibility, influence part architecture, and select manufacturing processes that balance performance, quality, and risk.
• Reviews and guides mold and tooling designs, including gating, risers, solidification behavior, and defect prevention, to enable stable and repeatable production.
• Strong understanding of various heat treatment processes which influences the mechanical properties of castings and a solid grasp of mechanical property testing systems.
• Establishes clear casting design, inspection, and acceptance standards that enable consistency across programs and suppliers.

• Assesses supplier capability with rigor and fairness, identifying strengths, gaps, and development opportunities across casting, tooling, inspection, and process control.
• Drives supplier-owned execution of qualification and validation deliverables (PPQP/PPAP, pFMEA, special process validation, IQ-OQ-PQ, FAI, Cpk, capacity studies).
• Partners with suppliers to improve process capability, capacity, yield, inspection effectiveness, and long-term reliability.
• Builds durable supplier relationships grounded in trust, transparency, and shared accountability.

• Applies ISO-based quality system principles (ISO 9001 / ISO 13485) to supplier processes with a strong focus on prevention rather than detection.
• Uses risk-based thinking to make timely, disciplined decisions that protect product integrity while enabling program execution.
• Leads thorough root cause analysis and corrective/preventive actions that address systemic issues rather than symptoms.
• Supports supplier audits with a mindset of learning, improvement, and sustained compliance.

• Owns supplier-related deliverables across NPI and sustaining programs, ensuring commitments are met with high quality and clarity.
• Acts as a technical connector between design, suppliers, machining partners, manufacturing, and quality teams.
• Communicates status, risks, and trade-offs clearly to stakeholders, enabling informed decisions.
• Contributes to cost, capacity, and supply continuity improvements without compromising quality or compliance.

• Act with Integrity and
  
  Purpose:
  
  Makes decisions grounded in what is right for patients, customers, and the company. Holds self and partners to high ethical and quality standards.
• Demonstrate Ownership:
  Takes full…