Sr/ Staff Human Robot Interaction Design 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

Primary Function of Position

The Human Factors Design Engineer (HFDE) is part of the Human Factors (HF) organization that aims to maximize usability and desirability of Intuitive products while minimizing risk through scientific research and usability engineering. Broadly, HFDE is focused on research and design within product development of new robotic systems, instruments and accessories. This role is more exclusively focused on Human Robotic Interaction Research, Neurorobotics, and Neural Interfaces.

HFDE helps de-risk design strategies within product development through a range of formative research activities and hands-on design engineering activities that inform the definition of user requirements and user interface design requirements underlying the user experience of Intuitive products.

HFDE conducts research that is focused on the psychology, biomechanics, and physiology of end users’ underlying performance associated with robotic teleoperations. This position will generate evidence to provide strategic insight into “what”, “why”, and “how much” end users differ in learning and performance across a range of products. This role functions in ambiguous and strategic stages of product development that involve the ability to position and conduct experimental research within a business.

This role demands extensive follow-through to translate, communicate, ideate, prototype, and build novel evidence-based strategies, tools, and concepts that operationalize and inform the “intuitiveness” of commercialized and future products. This role demands quick changes in direction with capacity to define and implement strategies that have visibility across business units while maintaining focus on tactical details. This role is a unique engineering and scientific opportunity with the expectation that knowledge and skills can be applied to experimental behavioral and neuroscientific research that actionably informs product design strategies for future development, inform product development, and establish product claims with state-of-the-art human-robot interfaces.

The HFDE position reports to a Manager within the broader HF organization at Intuitive.

Essential Job Duties

• Apply deep expertise in robotics, HRI, and mixed-methods research to identify unmet user needs, performance limitations, and opportunities for future product innovation.
• Independently generate, prioritize, and communicate actionable design insights that shape product strategy, influence development priorities, and advance human factors capabilities.
• De-risk design strategies focused on the analysis of human performance, workflow, and usability factors, while identifying and mitigating systemic usability risks across product lines.
• Serve as the human factors lead for complex initiatives, partnering with engineering, product management, quality, and regulatory teams to drive usability-centered design decisions.
• Influence product and business decisions by balancing user needs, safety, usability, technical feasibility, and organizational priorities.
• Lead the definition and management of usability design inputs across robotic systems, instruments, and accessories, translating research findings into actionable user and interface requirements.
• Conduct literature reviews that justify research strategy and study design
• Conduct experiments end-to-end ranging in scale and complexity, including data processing and analysis from multimodal data capture
• Translate scientific evidence to a range of internal and external stakeholders into actional recommendations for product design strategies, product requirements, or product claims
• Develop and evaluate conceptual prototypes that communicate design strategies, performance considerations, and future product concepts.
• Data extraction, transformation, processes, analysis and visualization with multiple data sources from biometrics, psychometrics, and system data logs from lab-based experiments and field-based experiments
• Prototype and iterate on designs, develop tests, and deliver high-quality software in Python or C++ required for ML performance modeling
• Manage updates on systems configurations for reliable data capture pipeline from lab-based and field-based experiments
• Build and validate experimental conditions within virtual and physical environments
• Develop and validate novel and OTS bioinstrumentation and psychometrics that can be implemented in experiments to reliably measure individual differences related to human performance
• Author and maintain early stage human factors engineering deliverables, ensuring compliance with design controls, usability engineering processes, and regulatory requirements. Mentor peers and project teams in applying HF methodologies, frameworks, and best practices while fostering innovation through the integration of user insights and cross-functional expertise.

Qualifications

Required Skills and Experience

• ​​​​Minimum 8 - 15 years relevant experience in industry.
• Minimum 6 years relevant human subjects.
• Ability to campaign and drive user-centered design strategies, as well as usability engineering principles to product research, development, and design.
• Ability to independently propose and position research plans across a range of products and a myriad of internal and/or external stakeholders
• Ability to develop experimental conditions and stimuli in virtual and physical environments.
• Ability to translate findings from studies into product requirements for complex, software-controlled electro-mechanical medical device.
• Experience with authoring and reviewing scientific manuscripts.
• Expertise in robotic systems, including mechanical design (kinematics/ mechanisms), sensing and perception, control systems, software engineering (programming/ simulation) and human-robotic interaction. 
• Ability to work with and across various groups and levels of management within a matrixed organization.

Required Education and Training

• Minimum post-graduate degree in Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, Biomedical Engineer, Bioengineering, Psychology, Neuroscience, Biomechanics with emphasis on Human-Robotic Interactions.

Working Conditions

• Ability to travel internationally as well as domestically (up to 25%).
• Primarily office-based set schedule working model.

Preferred Skills and Experience

• Experience in research on Neuromotor/ Sensorimotor Control and Learning
• Experience in research on Neuroscience, a plus
• Experience in Computational Psychology or Data Science, a plus.
• Experience in Differential Psychology, a plus.
• Experience with bioinstrumentation, a plus.
• Experience in medical device, or similar regulated industry, a plus.

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.

Accommodation & Accessibility Notice:

Intuitive is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities. If you require assistance or an accommodation during any part of the application or interview process, please contact People Services at [email protected].

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: $203,400 USD - $292,600 USD
Base Compensation Range Region 2: $172,900 USD - $248,700 USD
Shift: Day
Travel: 25% of the time
Workplace Type: Set Schedule - This job will be onsite weekly, the percentage of onsite work will be defined by the leader.