Staff User Inface System Test Engineer

Company Description

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.

Job Description

The Staff Test Engineer will lead the development, execution, and continuous improvement of test
strategies for complex electromechanical systems and software within Intuitive's products. In this
role, you will collaborate with cross-functional engineering teams to define clear, testable, and traceable
requirements, identify design gaps, and ensure comprehensive system-level test coverage. You will also
drive alignment with regulatory and quality teams to ensure compliance with external standards and
internal quality requirements. Additionally, you will support team growth by participating in interviews,
evaluating potential talents, and mentoring engineers. The ideal candidate demonstrates deep technical
expertise, strong accountability and ownership, leadership skills, and a passion for delivering safe, high-
quality products.

Essential Job Duties

• Partner closely with user interaction designers, system analysts, and developers to ensure clear, testable, traceable, complete, consistent requirements. Identify design gaps.
• Design, develop, and execute comprehensive and robust manual and automated test plans and protocols for end-to-end user interaction features, including - but not limited to - functional, integration, regression, coexistence, and user journey focused E2E testing.
• Develop and maintain automated test scripts to support ongoing verification and validation activities.
• Log and manage issues in the issue tracking system, work with development and cross-functional teams to debug.
• Generate comprehensive and clear test documentation to contribute to product design history files and support regulatory submissions.
• Provide technical leadership at the project level by creating test strategies to ensure comprehensive test coverage.
• Support cross-functional decision-making by providing technical directions to resolve system quality issues.
• Represent the software test engineering function, leading alignment with regulatory and quality teams to ensure compliance with external standards (such as IEC 62304, FDA, ISO 13485) and internal quality requirements.
• Champion continuous improvement by streamlining and optimizing verification workflows, guiding the development and implementation of automated documentation tools, and utilizing test tool / metrics to enhance productivity, efficiency and improve overall software reliability.
• Mentor engineers promote best practices and facilitate knowledge sharing across the organization.

Qualifications

Required Education, Experience & Skills

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical discipline with 8+ years of relevant experience
• Excellent knowledge of product / software development lifecycle, testing methodologies.
• Expertise in designing and executing tests for complex electromechanical systems and embedded software.
• Experience developing detailed test plans, assessing risks, filing detailed bug reports, and providing relevant data for test reporting.
• Strong experience in troubleshooting, triaging and providing detailed debug information for expediting issue resolution.
• Ability to drive cross-functional communication, understand dependencies, maintain strict timelines, and apply strong problem-solving skills
• Proficiency in scripting/programming languages (e.g., Python, C/C++) for test automation.
• Proactive self-starter with a keen eye for details with focus on end-user experiences and ability to go above and beyond to ensure a high-quality release.
• Continuously learning and advancing skills across multiple areas.

Preferred Experience & Skills

• Experience with robotics and surgical devices.
• Experience with regulatory requirements and quality standards (e.g., IEC 62304, FDA 21 CFR Part 820, ISO 13485).
• Knowledge of risk management tools (e.g., FMEA, Fault Tree Analysis).

Additional Information

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.

Base Compensation Range Region 1: $186 100 USD - $267 900 USD
Base Compensation Range Region 2: $158 200 USD - $227 700 USD
Shift: Day
Workplace Type: Onsite - This job is fully onsite.