Staff Electrical and Electronic Design Engineer - Future Forward

The Future Forward group within Intuitive Surgical is searching for a Staff Electrical and Electronic Design Engineer to architect, design, and bring up the electronic hardware behind next-generation robotic and vision systems. This role is an exciting opportunity to join a small and innovative team in the early phases of product development, where design decisions made at the schematic and architecture level shape the performance of the entire 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 Staff Electrical and Electronic Design Engineer owns analog, digital, and mixed-signal circuit design from concept through schematic capture, layout direction, prototype bring-up, design verification, and transfer to manufacturing. The ideal candidate designs for electromagnetic compatibility and signal integrity from the first block diagram rather than after the first chamber failure, and can isolate the most difficult board-level and system-level failures on the bench.

A strong sense of integrity, care, and attention to detail is required, together with a commitment to developing products of the highest quality.

• Design analog, digital, and mixed-signal circuits from concept through schematic capture, layout direction, prototype bring-up, and transfer to manufacturing.
• Lead schematic and design reviews, and guide PCB layout for signal integrity, power integrity, and manufacturability.
• Design for EMC and EMI from the start through grounding, shielding, filtering, isolation, and ESD protection, and support pre-compliance and compliance testing.
• Bring up and debug prototypes in the lab, and drive hardware issues to root cause and a verified fix.
• Integrate sensors, cameras, illumination, motor drives, and compute platforms in partnership with Mechanical, Firmware, Software, Vision, and Test teams.
• Document designs, verification protocols, and results under Intuitive design controls.
• Mentor engineers and help shape design practices, reference designs, and the technology roadmap for future products.
• Drive external suppliers and design partners for camera, sensor, optics, and PCBA subsystems, setting technical direction and holding builds to schedule and quality targets.

• Minimum 10 years' experience designing production electronics in the medical device, automotive, or robotics industry, including at least one product taken from concept to production.
• Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Computer Engineering, or Computer Science; a Master of Science degree preferred.
• Strong schematic design, review, and debug skills across analog, digital, and mixed-signal circuits, using Altium Designer, Cadence OrCAD/Allegro, or Siemens Xpedition.
• Practical EMC and EMI design and troubleshooting experience, with working knowledge of standards such as IEC 60601-1-2, CISPR 11/32, or the IEC 61000-4 immunity series.
• Solid signal integrity and power integrity fundamentals for high-speed interfaces such as MIPI CSI-2, LVDS, PCIe, USB, DDR, or Ethernet, including impedance control, return paths, crosstalk, and decoupling.
• Direct experience with imaging and vision hardware, motor drive electronics, or precision sensing, and with transferring designs into manufacturing and production test.
• Confident in the lab with oscilloscopes, spectrum analyzers, near-field probes, and logic or protocol analyzers, working with embedded interfaces such as I2C, SPI, UART, CAN, USB and Ethernet, and using Python or MATLAB for test automation and data analysis.
• Experience under a regulated quality system such as ISO 13485, FDA 21 CFR Part 820, IEC 60601-1, and ISO 14971, or automotive functional safety such as ISO 26262, is desired; FPGA design experience with VHDL or System Verilog is a plus.
• Clear communication, strong documentation habits, and the ability to lead technical decisions, work independently, and mentor others.

Due to the nature of our business and the role, please note that Intuitive…