Senior Embedded Linux Software Engineer - OS & Device Platform

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.

The Senior Embedded Linux / Yocto Software Engineer will join the platform team for a robotic‑assisted bronchoscopy navigation and biopsy planning software product, reporting to the software development manager. This role owns the Linux operating system and platform‑layer software for the procedure planning laptop, a medical image‑processing system running a custom Yocto‑based Linux distribution.

This role owns embedded Linux OS development, Yocto/Open Embedded layer and recipe maintenance, secure boot, field software update mechanisms, hardware bring‑up for new commercial laptop platforms, and platform‑level debugging. The engineer will work closely with application software, security, field service, systems engineering, and hardware teams to maintain and evolve a reliable, secure, and serviceable medical device platform.

• Own and maintain a custom Yocto/Open Embedded‑based Linux distribution for a medical device platform, including layer authoring, Bit Bake recipes, image configuration, SDK/toolchain support, and OS version upgrades.
• Bring up and qualify new commercial laptop hardware platforms, including Linux driver configuration, BIOS/firmware settings, secure boot enrollment, storage/display/peripheral validation, and platform compatibility testing.
• Maintain and harden the secure boot chain across multiple hardware platforms, including UEFI Secure Boot, GRUB2, TPM 2.0, boot loader signing, key management, and BIOS interactions.
• Sustain and enhance field software update and service upgrade workflows, including package validation, update orchestration support, partition management, rollback mechanisms, BIOS firmware upgrade flows, and error recovery.
• Debug and resolve platform‑level issues such as boot failures, unexpected reboots, TPM lockouts, login screen freezes, USB/HID issues, storage issues, display/GPU issues, and software update failures.
• Implement and maintain platform‑layer services, utilities, scripts, and APIs used by application teams, field service, manufacturing, and system diagnostics.
• Perform OS‑level security hardening and vulnerability remediation, including CVE fixes, user/account hardening, permissions, kernel/module configuration, endpoint security integration, and required documentation.
• Produce and maintain engineering design documents, software change analysis artifacts, test evidence, and technical documentation in accordance with medical device quality procedures.
• Collaborate cross‑functionally with application software, security, field service, systems engineering, hardware, manufacturing, and quality teams.

• Bachelor’s degree with 6+ years of industry experience, or Master’s degree with 4+ years of industry experience, in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related engineering discipline.
• 4+ years of embedded Linux software engineering, with direct OS‑layer development experience.
• Candidates MUST have hands‑on experience building, customizing, debugging, and maintaining Linux‑based product platforms.
• Deep expertise in Yocto Project / Open Embedded: layer authoring (meta‑*),…