Senior Software 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. Primary Function of Position The Interaction Software Engineering (ISE) organization is seeking a Senior Software Engineer with strong hands-on development experience to design, develop, optimize, and troubleshoot embedded software applications for the da Vinci surgical robotics systems. You will tackle complex technical challenges and build robust solutions across the full software stack - from embedded modules to platform infrastructure, and distributed data and processing frameworks, and user-facing applications. You will collaborate closely with cross-functional teams to deliver high-quality applications across all layers, ensuring seamless integration into the da Vinci systems. Our team empowers application developers with easy-to-use APIs, tools, and reliable, performant runtime software frameworks that accelerate development. This is an opportunity to work on complex yet interesting problems at the intersection of embedded Linux software development, distributed system frameworks (data pipelines, edge inference, inter-process and inter-node communication), and hybrid compute architectures (CPU vs. GPU, edge vs. cloud), all within the da Vinci ecosystem.  The ideal candidate is a self-driven, hands-on developer who excels in a high-energy, cross-functional environment, consistently delivers high-quality products and solutions, while taking full end-to-end ownership and demonstrating a strong sense of shared responsibility. Essential Job Duties Design and develop Linux software across all system layers - including OS components, platform/infrastructure services, applications, inter-layer frameworks, libraries, and tools - using modern C++, Python, and shell scripts Design and maintain APIs, interfaces, and abstractions for the platform service layer that bridges low-level hardware/OS services and upper-level user-facing and data-driven applications Develop distributed frameworks for edge data processing, ML inference pipelines, and UI data delivery - defining clean service boundaries, transport protocols, and data contracts Evaluate design trade-offs (e.g., CPU- vs. GPU-intensive, on-device vs. distributed, latency vs. throughput) and make architectural decisions to integrate diverse components within embedded software Integrate user-facing applications with software platform and infrastructure, designing extensible interfaces that decouple presentation layers from underlying compute and data services Analyze and optimize run-time system performance using metrics across all system layers, from the operating system and platform/infrastructure to user-facing applications Create high-quality technical documents capturing key design concepts and principles behind software design and architectures Write production-ready, high-quality, and easily testable code; improve regression detection and debugging processes Required Skills and Experience Strong modern C++ skills with hands-on experience developing advanced Linux software Hands-on experience developing software in Python and shell scripts Strong understanding of systems design principles with a focus on performance, testability, scalability, and maintainability Experience designing and developing platform-layer APIs, SDKs, or framework interfaces that abstract hardware and OS capabilities for application developers Extensive hands-on experience implementing software/hardware interfaces in complex devices, including Linux-based interfaces to external devices and network communication interfaces Familiarity with inter-process communication patterns and distributed messaging (e.g., shared memory, pub/sub, gRPC, or similar RPC frameworks) Strong problem-solving and analytical skills, with the ability to analyze complex system issues and troubleshoot software and hardware problems Self-motivated, flexible team player to support all aspects of software development life cycle with the ability to define goals and work independently in a fast-paced environment Required Education and Training  BS in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field with 7+ years of industry experience; or MS with 5+ years of industry experience Preferred Skills and Experience  Knowledge and hands-on experience with GPU technologies and machine learning frameworks Experience with containerized deployments (Docker, Kubernetes) and scaling embedded ML systems in production Experience building data ingestion or streaming pipelines for edge/embedded environments (e.g., sensor data aggregation, telemetry, or real-time inference) Familiarity with UI framework integration patterns (e.g., data-binding layers, backend-for-frontend services) that connect platform services to front-end applications 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 Employe