Sr. Machine Learning Engineer

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 Ion™ endoluminal system is Intuitive's new robotic platform for minimally invasive biopsy in the peripheral lung, with an initial goal of improving the early diagnosis of lung cancer. We are seeking a senior algorithm engineer to play a lead technical role in conceptualizing, designing, and evaluating our next-generation planning and guidance software. This role is dedicated to developing advanced algorithms to analyze real-time ultrasound (US) imaging- specifically endobronchial ultrasound (EBUS) and min-profile ultrasound probes – for the accurate detection, segmentation, and classification pulmonary structures. This position focuses heavily on processing temporal, high-resolution ultrasound video streams, mitigating inherent acoustic artifacts, and fusing ultrasound data with pre-operative imaging modalities to improve targeting confidence and clinical outcomes.

Essential Duties 

• Drive the full cycle of medical imaging analysis software development, developing algorithms from R&D concepts into robust, commercial medical device products.
• Design, prototype, and implement advanced computer vision and machine learning algorithms tailored for real-time processing of diverse ultrasound modalities, including EBUS and ultrasound probes.
• Develop specialized algorithms to handle the unique challenges of high-frequency ultrasound data, including speckle reduction, acoustic shadowing mitigation, and temporal tracking across video frames.
• Apply and fine-tune state-of-the-art architectures, including spatio-temporal Vision Transformers (ViTs), recurrent networks, nnU-Net, Graph Neural Network (GNN) and Diffusion models, adapting them for noisy, high-frame-rate clinical ultrasound datasets.
• Architect and execute model deployment pipelines, seamlessly integrating trained models into high-performance C++ production environments, utilizing techniques like quantization, pruning, and hardware acceleration to ensure real-time performance on constrained medical systems.
• Support system integration and testing while generating formal design documentation and patent applications.

Qualifications

• MS or PhD in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, or a related field.
• 5+ years of hands-on industrial experience in algorithm development, with a deep specialization in medical imaging and computer vision.
• Exceptional proficiency in Python and C++, with a deep understanding of modern software component design for production environments.
• Expert knowledge of ML frameworks and software toolkits, including PyTorch, OpenCV, MONAI, ITK, VTK, and model optimization tools such as TensorRT or ONNX.
• Strong domain expertise in ultrasound physics, acoustic image processing, and temporal/video data analysis is highly preferred, especially experience with data from EBUS or high-resolution small-profile transducers.
• Experience with spatiotemporal deep learning architectures and deployment of low-latency real-time applications for ultrasound imaging applications.
• Experience or knowledge of the development of AI/ML features in strict alignment with Good Machine Learning Practice (GMLP) principles, ensuring data representativeness and model transparency.
• A proven track record of shipping commercial AI/ML software products is bonus.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills for effective cross-functional collaboration with clinical and engineering teams.

Due to the nature of our business and the role, please note that Intuitive and/or your customer(s) may require that you show current proof of vaccination against certain diseases including COVID-19.  Details can vary by role.

Intuitive is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We provide equal employment opportunities to all qualified applicants and employees, and prohibit discrimination and harassment of any type, without regard to race, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, color, age, religion, protected veteran or disability status, genetic information or any other status protected under federal, state, or local applicable laws.

Mandatory Notices

U.S. Export Controls Disclaimer:  In accordance with the U.S. Export Administration Regulations (15 CFR §743.13(b)), some roles at Intuitive Surgical may be subject to U.S. export controls for prospective employees
who are nationals from countries currently on embargo or sanctions status.

Certain information you provide as part of the application will be used for purposes of determining whether Intuitive Surgical will need to (i) obtain an export license from the U.S. Government on your behalf (note: the government’s licensing process can take 3 to 6+ months) or (ii) implement a Technology Control Plan (“TCP”) (note: typically adds 2 weeks to the hiring process).  

For any Intuitive role subject to export controls, final offers are contingent upon obtaining an approved export license and/or an executed TCP prior to the prospective employee’s
start date, which may or may not be flexible, and within a timeframe that does not unreasonably impede the hiring need. If applicable, candidates will be notified and instructed on any requirements for these purposes. 

We will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records in accordance with fair chance laws.

Preference will be given to qualified candidates who do not reside, or plan to reside, in Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, or Tennessee.

This position may be filled at a different job level than listed here depending on
business need and/or on the selected candidate’s experience, knowledge and skills.
Compensation will be based primarily on the job level at which the role is filled and the
candidate’s qualifications, consistent with applicable law.

We provide market-competitive compensation packages, inclusive of base pay, incentives, benefits, and equity. It would not be typical for someone to be hired at the top end of range for the role, as actual pay will be determined based on several factors, including experience, skills, and qualifications. The target compensation ranges are listed.