Senior Thermal Design Engineer, Medical Vision Hardware

Intuitive Surgical, Inc.; Sunnyvale (CA); On-site; USD 116,000 - 196,000; Full time

Job summary

Intuitive Surgical, Inc. in Sunnyvale, CA, is seeking a Thermal Design Engineer to join the Da Vinci Vision Hardware R&D team to lead thermal architecture from concept to launch.

You will own thermal design across endoscope, illumination, and computing products, deliver robust, compliant solutions, and collaborate with mechanical, optical, electrical, software, and manufacturing teams. This role emphasizes a strong foundation in heat transfer, CFD/FEA, and CAD, with opportunities to influence

Qualifications

• BS in Mechanical Engineering, Thermal Sciences, Physics, or related field.
• 3+ years in thermal engineering, electronics cooling, CFD, or thermal test/validation.
• Strong understanding of heat transfer, fluid mechanics, and thermal management.
• Experience with CFD tools such as ANSYS Icepak, FloTHERM, FLOEFD, Fluent, or similar.
• Direct experience with heat sinks, heat pipes, vapor chambers, TIMs, fans, and high‑power electronics cooling.
• Familiarity with advanced thermal materials and technologies.
• Proficiency in CAD tools (SolidWorks, CATIA) and scripting (Python/MATLAB) is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Own thermal design, analysis, testing, performance, and compliance across vision hardware products and systems.
• Develop thermal solutions including airflow management, heat sinks, heat pipes, vapor chambers, TIMs, and active cooling systems.
• Create analytical, CFD, and FEA thermal models and correlate results with laboratory testing.
• Plan and execute thermal characterization, validation, accelerated life testing, and model correlation activities.
• Define thermal limits, derating strategies, and protection approaches with electrical and software teams.
• Specify and qualify thermal components and collaborate with suppliers.
• Leverage external engineering resources when needed to supplement internal capacity.
• Create and review CAD designs, drawings, assemblies, tolerances, and related documentation.
• Partner with mechanical, optical, electrical, systems, software, and manufacturing teams.

Skills

Thermal design

CFD modeling

Heat transfer

Heat sinks & pipes

SolidWorks/CAD

Python scripting

Cross-functional

Agile change control

Education

BS in Mechanical Engineering

Tools

ANSYS Icepak

FloTHERM

FLOEFD

Fluent

SolidWorks

CATIA

Job description

Intuitive Surgical, Inc. in Sunnyvale, CA, is seeking a Thermal Design Engineer to join the Da Vinci Vision Hardware R&D team to lead thermal architecture from concept to launch.

You will own thermal design across endoscope, illumination, and computing products, deliver robust, compliant solutions, and collaborate with mechanical, optical, electrical, software, and manufacturing teams. This role emphasizes a strong foundation in heat transfer, CFD/FEA, and CAD, with opportunities to influence