Staff Software Engineer, Platform Engineering - Digital, Data and Applications

At Intuitive, we are united behind our mission: we believe that minimally invasive care is life-enhancing care. Through ingenuity and intelligent technology, we expand the potential of physicians to heal without constraints.

As a pioneer and market leader in robotic-assisted surgery, we strive to foster an inclusive and diverse team, committed to making a difference. For more than 25 years, we have worked with hospitals and care teams around the world to help solve some of healthcare's hardest challenges and advance what is possible.

Intuitive has been built by the efforts of great people from diverse backgrounds. We believe great ideas can come from anywhere. We strive to foster an inclusive culture built around diversity of thought and mutual respect. We lead with inclusion and empower our team members to do their best work as their most authentic selves.

Passionate people who want to make a difference drive our culture. Our team members are grounded in integrity, have a strong capacity to learn, the energy to get things done, and bring diverse, real world experiences to help us think in new ways. We actively invest in our team members to support their long-term growth so they can continue to advance our mission and achieve their highest potential.

Join a team committed to taking big leaps forward for a global community of healthcare professionals and their patients. Together, let's advance the world of minimally invasive care.

Overview

As a Staff Software Engineer on Intuitive’s Platform Engineering team, you will architect and build a next-generation automation platform that bridges our digital products with robotic systems. You’ll design and implement automated pipelines—spanning AI/ML model training and deployment, simulation, hardware-in-the-loop environments, and cloud data ingestion—to drive improved software reliability, faster iteration, and enhanced visibility for our web and mobile applications. This role requires a balance of hands-on engineering, architectural leadership, and cross-functional collaboration with software, SDET, and DevOps teams.

Key Responsibilities

1. CI/CD & Automation

• Architect, implement, and maintain end-to-end build, test, and deployment pipelines for digital products and AI/ML workflows, all integrated with robotic platforms.
• Develop reusable automation frameworks and scripts (Python, shell, etc.) to reduce manual effort, minimize errors, and accelerate delivery.
• Design and extend Jenkins, GitLab CI, or similar tooling to enforce consistent quality gates (static analysis, unit tests, integration tests) before every release.

2. Integration & Reliability

• Act as a true systems engineer and lead efforts to integrate hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing of our edge devices with simulator-based test suites that validate edge-device interactions with robotic systems and cloud-native solutions.
• Build processes to ingest test results and telemetry data into a scalable cloud data pipeline (AWS/GCP) for real-time analysis and visualization of software reliability metrics.
• Collaborate with embedded and digital teams to ensure consistent interfaces between edge devices, cloud services, and client-facing applications.
• Leverage AI/ML tools, data analytics, and predictive modeling to enhance pipeline reliability, automate anomaly detection, optimize test coverage, and enable data-driven decision making through real-time monitoring and actionable insights derived from pipeline and test execution data.

3. Collaboration & Enablement

• Serve as a technical mentor to DevOps engineers, SDETs, and SWE peers—conduct design reviews, share best practices, and encourage incremental improvements.
• Facilitate cross-team workshops or design sessions that align hardware, software, and QA roadmaps; translate complex requirements into automated test strategies.
• Act as the primary point of contact for integration questions—help unblock teams by clarifying dependencies, reviewing architecture proposals, and advocating for automation first.

Qualifications

Required (Must-Have)

• 8+ years of hands-on experience in DevOps, release engineering, configuration management, or related software development discipline.
• Proven track record building and operating CI/CD pipelines for distributed systems (e.g., Jenkins, GitLab CI, CircleCI).
• Expert in Python (scripting, automation frameworks) and comfortable authoring build/test tooling.
• Strong experience with containerization and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes) and integrating containers into CI/CD workflows.
• Demonstrated ability to write and maintain infrastructure-as-code (Terraform, CloudFormation, or equivalent) and integrate IaC into automated pipelines.
• Solid knowledge of Linux (Ubuntu, RHEL) and Windows server environments, including configuration and troubleshooting.
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS and/or Google Cloud) for deploying build servers, data pipelines, or test infrastructure.
• Excellent communication skills—able to lead technical discussions, document standards clearly, and mentor peers.
• Proven ability to learn complex systems quickly and drive creative yet practical solutions from high-level requirements.
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field (or equivalent work experience).

Nice to Have

• Prior exposure to hardware-in-the-loop testing or robotics integration (real-time constraints, device drivers, communication protocols).
• Familiarity with AI/ML concepts as applied to CI/CD, test automation, or reliability engineering.
• Experience with predictive analytics or self-healing mechanisms in CI/CD pipelines.
• Experience building/interfacing to large-scale data pipelines and visualizing reliability metrics via cloud-native dashboards.
• Familiarity with medical device software standards or FDA validation requirements.
• Hands-on experience with HashiCorp tools (Terraform, Vault, Consul) or other configuration management suites (Ansible, Chef, Puppet).
• History of mentoring or leading small teams of SDETs, DevOps engineers, or software developers.
• Contributions to open-source DevOps/CI/CD projects or active participation in DevOps-focused communities.

Why You’ll Love This Role

• Innovation: Be at the forefront of integrating AI, data-driven insights, and advanced automation into software delivery pipelines for cutting-edge robotic systems.
• End-to-End Impact: A true full stack experience—from data on our robots, to local developer builds, to cloud data dashboards—shaping how we deliver safe, reliable software for robotic platforms.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work closely with embedded engineers, data scientists, SDET teams, and product owners to break down silos and accelerate feature delivery.
• Continuous Improvement: Drive incremental changes in automation practices that reduce time-to-market and lower operational risk, while coaching teammates on best practices.
• Growth & Learning: Gain exposure to hardware testing frameworks and large-scale cloud data pipelines, broadening your expertise in both DevOps and robotics integration.

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

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.

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 salary ranges are listed.