Applications Developer at Intuitive in Santa Clara, CA

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 the Position

As a Front-End Engineer on the Diagnostic App team, you will be designing, developing, and maintaining responsive and scalable user interfaces that help internal field service and engineering teams make sense of complex robotic system data. This role focuses on translating design requirements into high-quality code, contributing to reusable UI components, and ensuring seamless user experiences.

What you’ll do:

• Create new interfaces that help engineering users debug robotic systems, triage issues, and more easily understand complex system interactions.
• Translate UX/UI designs into clean, maintainable, and reusable code
• Build and maintain shared UI components and contribute to component libraries
• Ensure consistent UI behavior across multiple platforms and applications
• Participate in code reviews to maintain code quality and enforce front-end standards
• Collaborate with Product Managers and Designers to clarify requirements and refine user interactions
• Work closely with embedded teams to integrate APIs and ensure seamless data flow
• Troubleshoot UI defects and performance issues
• Support QA in identifying root causes of UI-related defects
• Contribute to improving UI architecture, standards, and documentation
• Participate in sprint planning, backlog grooming, and estimation activities
• Maintain awareness of evolving front-end technologies and recommend improvements when appropriate

What you’ll bring:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and experience in front-end development experience with deep expertise in JavaScript/TypeScript and modern React.
• Proven ability to design responsive UI/UX flows for complex technical users (e.g., engineers, dev tools, or internal productivity tools).
• Strong systems thinking with the ability to understand how backend data, logs, states, and robotic system events interconnect.
• Ability to operate autonomously in a small, high‑trust team with ambiguous or evolving requirements across teams.
• Familiarity with REST APIs and asynchronous data handling
• Experience with version control systems such as Git
• Understanding of UI performance optimization techniques
• Ability to debug UI issues effectively and independently

You'll impress us if you have:

• Experience contributing to or maintaining a design system or component library
• Experience working across multiple applications or shared UI platforms
• Experience with 3D visualization, simulation, or interactive graphics (nice to have, not required).
• Familiarity with log analysis tools, developer tooling, or internal platform engineering.
• Exposure to Python, Linux, or cloud deployment environments (AWS).
• Exposure / experience in bringing in AI agentic solutions that could improve user experience.

What Success Looks Like

• You quickly gain a deep understanding of Diagnostic App users and propose UI solutions the end users haven’t thought of asking for.
• You design and deliver intuitive visualizations that make debugging and understanding robotic systems substantially easier.
• You collaborate closely with the Product team and existing Diagnostic App team to shape strategy, architecture, and roadmap direction.
• You demonstrate strong ownership by seeing problems end‑to‑end and driving improvements to both product and process.

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.

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 base compensation ranges are listed.