Embedded 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 Ion endoluminal system is Intuitive's new robotic platform designed for minimally invasive biopsy in the peripheral lung, with the goal of improving early lung cancer diagnosis. This position is integral to the development of a novel surgical robot system. The engineer will collaborate with a skilled team to design and build the embedded software platform. The successful candidate should thrive in a collaborative team environment, be adept at developing solutions from initial requirements, and be committed to delivering high-quality products. A strong sense of shared responsibility and teamwork is essential

Essential Job Duties

Platform Software Development

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams (EE, FPGA, manufacturing, service and clinical) to define technical requirements, evaluate design trade-offs, and deliver robust platform and infrastructure software.
• Design, implement, and maintain embedded Linux software across the full lifecycle, including:
• System initialization, configuration, and diagnostics
• Middleware for distributed system communication
• Multi-threaded, distributed C/C++ applications
• Third-party networked device integration and API design
• Extend and evolve existing software frameworks to support new processors, operating systems, and hardware platforms.
• Develop research prototypes and proof-of-concept systems for new product capabilities and future platform directions.

Hardware Integration & Debugging

• Collaborate closely with electrical engineers during early hardware bring-up, including bootloader, kernel, device tree, and driver-level integration.
• Debug complex system issues spanning hardware, OS, middleware, and application layers using tools such as gdb, JTAG, logic analyzers, and oscilloscopes.
• Interpret schematics, datasheets, and hardware specifications to inform software design and debugging.

Reliability & Performance

• Design software with robustness, fault detection, graceful degradation, and serviceability in mind.
• Analyze and resolve performance, latency, and resource-usage issues (CPU, memory, I/O, networking).
• Investigate and perform root-cause analysis for system-level failures encountered during development, manufacturing, clinical use, or field deployment.
• Participate in design verification and validation activities and support