Senior Software Engineer - Simulation & ML Platform

Intuitive Surgical, Inc. in; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 160,000 - 271,000; Full time

Job summary

Intuitive Surgical is seeking a Senior Software Engineer in Simulation & ML Platform to build scalable software for robotic simulations and ML workflows. You will collaborate with data scientists and ML teams to translate research requirements into robust systems.

The role focuses on developing simulation pipelines, data generation, and tools for headless and cloud-based execution, with strong emphasis on modular, reusable software architecture.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, software engineering, robotics, or related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 5+ years of industry experience in simulation, ML, robotics, or autonomous systems.
• Strong proficiency in Python and at least one of C++, Java, or TypeScript.

Responsibilities

• Build software infrastructure for robotic simulations and ML pipelines using modern simulation tools.
• Architect scalable data pipelines and APIs for synthetic data and simulation workloads.
• Develop automated integration/validation for simulation platforms and NVIDIA AI ecosystem.

Skills

Python

C++

Distributed systems

ROS/ROS2

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/related

Tools

NVIDIA Isaac Sim

MuJoCo

Gazebo

Docker

Kubernetes

Job description

Senior Software Engineer - Simulation & ML Platform (Finance)

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

As a Senior Software Engineer - Simulation & ML Platform, you will build software platforms supporting simulation-based data generation and machine-learning development for robotic motion AI. You will work closely with Simulation Data Scientists and ML teams responsible for simulation strategy, synthetic-data design, action-model development, sim-to-real evaluation, and machine-learning experimentation. The Senior Software Engineer will translate those research and data-science requirements into reliable, scalable, and extendible software systems.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain software infrastructure for robotic simulations & ML using NVIDIA Isaac Sim, Isaac Lab, MuJoCo or custom simulation environments.
• Architect scalable pipelines for generating synthetic and procedurally varied robotic interaction data including development of APIs, configuration systems, command-line tools, and SDKs for defining and launching simulation workloads.
• Build automated integration and validation pipelines for evolving simulation platforms, physics engines, and the NVIDIA AI ecosystem, enabling rapid adoption of new releases while maintaining compatibility, reproducibility, and stability across the robotics simulation software stack.
• Develop AI-assisted engineering workflows for automated code refactoring, maintainability analysis, architectural consistency, and CI/CD optimization, enabling readable, modular, and sustainable codebases while improving engineering productivity across large-scale software projects.
• Create reusable abstractions for robot configurations, tasks, sensors, scene assets, domain randomization, failure injection, data capture, episode termination, and evaluation.
• Build tools that allow data scientists to define experiments without modifying low-level platform code. Support headless, interactive, local, cluster, and cloud-based execution.
• Develop secure, GPU-enabled containerized environments for simulation, data processing, model inference, and experimentation. Develop common interfaces for robot state, coordinate frames, actions, trajectories, control commands, sensor observations, timing, and safety status.
• Build tools for importing physical robot logs into analysis and simulation environments. Enable software-in-the-loop, hardware-in-the-loop, and controlled trajectory replay where appropriate.
• Collaborate with controls, embedded, systems, and robotics engineers to manage differences between simulated and physical interfaces.
• Establish standards for software development, testing, documentation, code review, release management, and operational ownership.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, software engineering, computer engineering, robotics, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 5+ years of industry experience developing software for simulation, machine learning, robotics, computer vision, or autonomous-systems. Experience with high-volume image, video, time-series, or scientific data and formats such as Parquet, Zarr, or HDF5.
• Strong proficiency in Python and at least one additional language such as C++, Java, or TypeScript.

• Experience building data-intensive applications or data-processing pipelines. Experience designing and operating production-quality backend or platform systems. Experience with asynchronous processing, distributed workers, message queues, or event-driven architectures.

• Strong understanding of API design, data modeling, concurrency, failure handling, and distributed-system fundamentals.
• Experience with Docker, Linux, testing, observability, and production deployment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with NVIDIA Isaac Sim, Isaac Lab, MuJoCo, Gazebo, PhysX, or another robotics simulation platform. Familiarity with USD assets and scene composition.
• Experience with coordinate transforms, robot kinematics, joint states, trajectory representations, sensor synchronization, or closed-loop control.
• Experience with ROS or ROS 2 and GPU-enabled applications or infrastructure.
• Experience with Redis, RabbitMQ, Kafka, Ray, Celery, Kubernetes, Slurm, or cloud batch systems.
• Experience building scientific, engineering, ML, or internal developer tools.
• Experience with PyTorch, JAX, TensorFlow, MLflow, or Weights & Biases.

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: $188,600 USD - $271,400 USD
Base Compensation Range Region 2: $160,300 USD - $230,700 USD
Shift: Day
Workplace Type: Onsite - This job is fully onsite.