Sr Software Engineer Navigation

Intuitive; Sunnyvale (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Intuitive is seeking a Sr Software Engineer Navigation to bridge embedded UI, CV/ML, and robotic kinematics on surgical navigation platforms. You will design C++ runtime systems that connect live sensor data to perception and inference in resource-constrained hardware.

The role requires building high-performance data pipelines, implementing calibration and registration algorithms, and collaborating with ML and UI teams to deliver accurate, low-latency navigation solutions within a compliant

Qualifications

• Strong C++ skills for embedded systems on resource-constrained hardware.
• Experience with computer vision, robotics, and ML integration.
• Familiarity with real-time data pipelines and latency budgets.
• Collaborative, cross-disciplinary team player.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement high-performance C++ data pipelines (shared-memory ring buffers, lock-free queues, time-synchronized capture) feeding live video, kinematics, and sensor streams into CV/ML on embedded platforms.
• Develop and optimize registration and calibration algorithms (point-cloud alignment, hand-eye calibration, forward kinematics transformations).
• Collaborate with ML engineers to integrate inference models into the real-time navigation stack, ensuring accuracy and latency budgets.
• Partner with UI/graphics engineers to create navigation overlays, 3D visualizations, and augmented guidance within the embedded Qt/QML interface.
• Build and maintain relationships across software engineering, clinical engineering, design, human factors, and regulatory teams.
• Own the medical device software lifecycle end-to-end for navigation components, including requirements, risk, prototyping, development, verification, and release.

Skills

C++

Embedded systems

Computer vision

Robotics

Qt/QML

Real-time systems

Algorithms optimization

Data pipelines

Tools

Qt

Job description

Job Description

Primary Function of Position:

As a Sr Software Engineer Navigation on the Future Forward team, you will bridge digital interfaces and machine learning to extend Intuitive’s robotic product lines. Working at the intersection of embedded UI, computer vision, and robotic kinematics, you will design and optimize the C++ runtime systems that connect live sensor and robot data to CV/ML inference. This role spans the entire development cycle—from prototyping approximate requirements to delivering high-quality production code on resource-constrained hardware. The ideal candidate combines strong systems-level C++ skills with a working knowledge of geometric computer vision and robotics, learns quickly, and thrives in a collaborative, multi-disciplinary environment.

Essential Job Duties

• Design and implement high-performance C++ data pipelines (shared-memory ring buffers, lock-free queues, time-synchronized capture) that feed live video, kinematics, and sensor streams into CV/ML algorithms on embedded platforms

• Develop and optimize registration and calibration algorithms, including point-cloud alignment, hand-eye calibration, and forward kinematics-based coordinate frame transformations to enable accurate surgical navigation

• Collaborate with ML engineers to integrate inference models (depth estimation, 3D reconstruction) into the real-time navigation stack, ensuring accuracy and latency budgets are met

• Partner with UI/graphics engineers to create navigation overlays, 3D visualizations, and augmented guidance within the embedded Qt/QML interface

• Build and maintain effective working relationships across software engineering, clinical engineering, design, human factors, and regulatory teams

• Own the medical device software lifecycle end-to-end for navigation components, including requirement definition, risk assessment, prototyping, development, verification, and release