Sr. New Product Development Engineer - Mechanical Design

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.

Primary Function of Position:

The individual will lead design, development, and testing of components and sub-systems for existing and next generation Endoluminal instruments, steerable catheter-based devices, and accessories that will interface with a robotic system. This role serves as a key technical contributor and leader, responsible for complex design challenges, project leadership, and advancing solutions through the product development process. The candidate will work within a technical team and with outside suppliers to develop and evaluate new technology solutions, establish design requirements to meet customer and company needs, prototype and refine designs, and advance them through the product development process to commercialization.
 

The successful candidate must excel in a fast-paced team environment and be capable of creative and efficient problem solving while ensuring attention to detail and quality when faced with time pressures. The individual must possess the technical expertise to understand complex mechanical designs and a passion for integrating quality into products. A strong sense of shared responsibility and commitment to high product quality is essential.

Essential Job Duties

• Design, prototype, troubleshoot, and optimize components and subassemblies of rigid and flexible catheter structures

• Evaluate component and subsystem designs within the context of overall system performance, reliability, manufacturability, and user experience.

• Establish technical direction, driving trade-off decisions, and influencing cross functional teams

• Collaborate cross functionally to understand and drive clarity on clinical, usability, and business needs, and decompose these needs into design requirements.

• Drive rigorous understanding of design risks by learning not just how a design behaves, but why.

• Complete detailed drawings and conduct tolerance analysis statistical best practices appropriately.

• Drive failure investigations using rigorous but efficient experimental plans.

• Prepare protocols/reports/summaries/readouts to capture and communicate design progress and defend / propose design decisions.

• Develop and improve test methods and assembly fixturing to support building and testing on prototypes.

• Collaborate cross functionally with supplier engineers, manufacturing process development engineers.

• Review design changes on existing products for impact on regulatory and manufacturing

• Mentor and guide technicians and junior engineers.

Required Education and Training

·         Bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering or equivalent

Required Skills and Experience

• Minimum 6 years of experience in a mechanical design or catheter design role.

• Proficiency using CAD to create, fabricate, and document medical device designs.

• Experience with a range of prototyping and fabrication methods, including 3D printing, extrusion, injection molding, machining, wire EDM, welding, etc.

• Proven ability to apply (or learn where needed, then apply) engineering first principles to understand and achieve quick and reliable solutions to engineering problems.

• Exceptional mechanical aptitude and visual thinking skills.

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, utilizing engineering tools such as finite element analysis, statistics, and experimental designs.

• Proven ability to iterate prototypes and mock-ups rapidly.

• Experience applying GD&T, tolerance stack analysis, and design-for-manufacturing principles.

• Excellent written and verbal communication and presentation skills. Ability to present to a wide range of audiences.

• Experience collaborating with multi-disciplinary internal functions like quality engineering, manufacturing engineering, clinical engineering, human factors, supplier engineering etc. and external suppliers

• Strong understanding of all phases of Design Control

• Proven ability to work well in a team environment as well as “solo” assignments.

• Demonstrated ability to follow through / sense of urgency.

• Self-starting, hands-on, and habitually curious.

• Demonstrated ability to handle multiple complex priorities as a matter of routine.

Preferred Skills and Experience  

• MS in Mechanical Engineering or equivalent.

• Experience with catheter design and manufacturing.

• Understanding of mechatronics, robotics, and servo-controlled systems.

• Experience developing requirements and performing risk assessment of candidate designs.

• Demonstrated ability to be resilient, creative, and make progress when faced with organizational and project complexity and constraint.

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.

Accommodation & Accessibility Notice:

Intuitive is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities. If you require assistance or an accommodation during any part of the application or interview process, please contact People Services at [email protected].

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.