Company Description

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.

Job Description

What We Are Looking For

The Future Forward Research group within Intuitive Surgical has an immediate opening in Sunnyvale, CA for an AI Research Scientist with focus on Computer Vision, Deep Learning, Generative AI and Robotics, contributing to new technology development for next-generation robot-assisted surgery platforms. This role is an exciting opportunity to join a newly formed team and contribute to its growth and it will give you an opportunity to test your knowledge in a challenging problem-solving environment.

The successful candidate must excel in a high-energy, focused, small-team environment, be able to initiate and drive new research directions, and have a commitment to high research quality. A strong sense of shared responsibility and shared reward is required.

Key Responsibilities

• Research, design and implement AI algorithms for computer vision (image and video analysis), multi-modal data and generative systems.
• Develop effective techniques and infrastructure, from the initial idea to the running prototype and product.
• Contribute to research projects that develop a variety of algorithms and systems in computer vision, robotics, and multi-modal data fusion.
• Advance the state-of-the-art in the field, including generating patents and publications.
• Develop validation methods and evaluation metrics to show scalability to large clinical datasets.
• Contribute to building new clinical datasets and data pipelines.
• Participate in integration of new ML/CV algorithms into existing and future robotic platforms.
• Experiment with several users and clinical advisors to iterate prototype designs based on feedback and performance.
• Develop new technologies and digital products to improve surgeon and team performance on robotic surgery platforms.
• Support academic collaborations in related fields.

Qualifications

Experience and Abilities

• Minimum Doctoral degree in computer science, electrical and computer engineering, or Master's degree with minimum (5) years industry experience developing computer vision and machine learning applications.
• Strong understanding and experience in building effective learning systems (data collection, training, evaluation, and making iterative improvements).
• Strong publication track record in conferences like CVPR, ICCV, MICCAI, etc.
• Strong hands-on experience with at least one of the mainstream deep learning frameworks such as TensorFlow or PyTorch.
• Strong hands-on experience with Python (proficiency), C/C++ (proficiency), Shell Script
• Strong engineering practices, debugging/profiling skills, familiarity with multi-threaded programming.
• Strong  hands-on experience with GPU accelerated algorithms and implementations.
• Strong  hands-on experience with state-of-the-art AI models.
• Excellent communication skills both written and verbal.
• Interested in early phases of product exploration and iteration based on incomplete requirements.
• Solid understanding of computer vision, machine learning, and deep learning algorithms and techniques is required.
• Experience with visualization tools is a plus.
• Self-starter and able to work in a collaborative and results-oriented environment.
• Ability to travel domestically and internationally (5-15%)
• Able to view live and recorded surgical procedures.

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 Employment 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.

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.