Senior Clinical Development Engineer, Digital

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  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 the Position The Digital Senior Clinical Development Engineer translates surgeon needs and clinical workflow insights into requirements, risk assessments, validation strategies, and product recommendations for Intuitive’s digital, automated, and software-enabled robotic surgery products.

Essential

Job Duties Apply in-depth knowledge of the operating room environment and of the da Vinci Surgical Systems to become an expert within the company on the clinical application of Intuitive’s products

Serve as the clinical voice for digital, automated, and robotic surgery products, representing surgeon needs, workflow fit, usability, clinical performance, and patient impact.

Identify unmet clinical needs through surgeon engagement, OR observation, workflow analysis, competitive assessment, and cross-functional collaboration.

Partner with engineering, software, systems, data science, human factors, product, regulatory, and quality teams to define requirements, risks, mitigations, and validation strategies.

Plan, execute, and document prototype, simulated-use, preclinical, workflow-based, and clinical performance evaluations.

Analyze qualitative and quantitative data to develop clinical rationale and recommendations that guide product decisions and milestone readiness.

Support design-control, risk management, regulatory, labeling, training, and customer-facing documentation as needed.

Maintain expertise in robotic surgery, digital surgery, automated surgical tasks, AI/ML-enabled technology, clinical applications, and emerging standards.

Lead complex clinical development work streams, mentor others, and influence cross-functional product direction.

Keep Intuitive’s vision and values at the forefront of decision making

Perform other duties as required to support the company’s overall strategy and goals

Qualifications

Required Skills and Experience Minimum of 8 years of experience in medical device industry with a Bachelor’s degree, 6 years experience with a Master’s degree, or 3 years with a PhD degree

Proven experience in supporting a medical product from design to launch

Experience in regulated medical device product discovery and/or new product development.

Experience working with surgeons or clinical experts in OR, simulation, lab, or clinical evaluation settings.

Strong knowledge of surgical terminology, anatomy, technique, and minimally invasive or robotic surgical workflows.

Ability to translate clinical needs into user needs, use cases, requirements, clinical performance criteria, and validation plans.

Ability to work in operating room, simulation, lab, and preclinical environments as required.

Nice to have:

Experience with digital surgery, robotic automation, AI/ML-enabled tools, computer vision, navigation, image…