Platform Software Development Manager

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. 

Joining Intuitive Surgical means joining a team dedicated to using technology to benefit patients by improving surgical efficacy and decreasing surgical invasiveness, with patient safety as our highest priority. We work in a high-energy, focused, small-team environment, and believe in applying first principle thinking, data-driven decision making, continuous learning, systematic planning to deliver results and achieving our goals.

Primary Function of Position:

As part of the Future Forward organization, the Software Development Manager will have the responsibility to lead the embedded software team in building and improving the embedded software at the heart of an early-stage robotic surgical platform. The team has broad responsibility on the software infrastructure and architecture of the entire system, with a focus on the safe and reliable operation of each node, on the communication interfaces, and all system aspects that derive from it.

The successful candidate must excel in a high-energy small, focused team environment, be able to drive to solutions from rough requirements and methodical prototype iterations and have a commitment to high product quality that places patients first.

Quick learning and a desire to understand requirements from a user’s and engineering’s perspective are essential to become a valuable leader. A strong sense of shared responsibility and shared reward is required, as is the ability to make work fun and interesting. Supporting you will be a development and management team that knows and cares about what you are doing and wants you to succeed.

Essential Job Duties

• Own full development lifecycle for embedded software team and associated documentation (negotiate requirements, systematic risk assessment and mitigation, prototyping, development, testing, and software releases).
• Champion best practices in software development (e.g., code reviews, scrums, bug scrubbing meetings, coding conventions, continuous integration, defensive programming, static analysis, design patterns).
• Drive technical development across a variety of areas ranging from board bring up, inter-node communication protocols, OS management, cybersecurity, and safety algorithms.
• Interface with a multitude of technical and product teams, understanding embedded software needs in order to create, maintain, and track a bottom-up schedule that best support top-down goals.
• Recognize and attract top talent, mentor and train existing team members and new hires through one-on-one coaching as well as team wide initiatives.

Required Education and Training

• Bachelor’s degree or above in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering or Computer Engineering, or similar technical field.
• Advanced degree preferred.
• A minimum of 8 years of experience in developing and supporting embedded systems (or 6 years with a Master’s degree, or 3 years with a PhD degree).
• A minimum of 3 years as people manager or prior management responsibilities through project management or team leadership efforts.

Required Skills and Experience

• Extensive experience creating, presenting, and refining clear, compelling technical specifications from top-level system architecture documents down to low-level implementation guides and test plans.
• In-depth experience working with embedded systems and safety-critical, complex electromechanical systems, including failure mode and risk analysis.
• Extensive experience planning and executing complex software deliverables on tight deadline and with interdependencies with hardware development.
• Experience in all phases of the product development lifecycle including design, implementation, debug, verification, validation, and transfer to manufacturing.
• Strong problem-solving skills and debugging of complex embedded software and electromechanical systems.
• Experience recruiting, mentoring, and functionally managing teams of highly skilled engineers.
• A real excitement to learn and to get to the bottom of tough technical problems, and to help patient’s lives.

Preferred Skills and Experience

• Experience designing software products in a regulated industry or for mission critical applications; comfort with concepts of design input, design output, traceability, risk analysis, and mitigations.
• Experience with designing and developing mission-critical cross-platform code in C++ or C is a plus—particularly in embedded and real-time systems (e.g., QNX), including work on applications, board bring-up, and device drivers for multi-core and multi-processor architectures.
• Familiarity with multi-threaded and multi-process programming, as well as inter-process and inter-node communication techniques for Linux
• Working knowledge of Python or Matlab for automation, diagnostics and testing.
• Working knowledge of version control systems such as Git and experience with defining and executing software release processes.
• Cyber-security concepts such as secure boot, authentication and encryption.

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.