Staff AI Engineer — Surgical Robotics & AI Product Vision

Socket.dev; Sunnyvale (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 290,000; Full time

Job summary

Intuitive Surgical is seeking a Staff AI Engineer – Applied Research to help shape AI capabilities for surgical robotics, leading end-to-end lifecycle from research through production.

You will collaborate across engineering, product, regulatory and clinical teams to align AI strategy with real-world needs, translate operatory requirements, and advance state-of-the-art methods into reliable, safe features for the platform.

Qualifications

• PhD or Master’s in CS, Robotics, Biomedical Engineering or related with focus on DL/Computer Vision/Embodied AI.
• 10+ years AI/ML development, 4+ years from research to productization.
• Experience shaping product vision and tech roadmaps for AI in product-driven orgs.
• Experience across engineering, product, regulatory, clinical.

Responsibilities

• Shape the AI product vision and maintain a multi-year AI capability roadmap.
• Support prototyping, pilot testing, and transition of research models into production-ready capabilities.
• Coordinate cross-functional program planning across product, engineering, data, regulatory and clinical teams.
• Translate operative needs into technical requirements for AI-enabled features.
• Collaborate on data strategy with data engineering and privacy teams.
• Contribute to regulatory and safety strategy for AI capabilities.
• Provide technical guidance bridging hardware, clinical affairs, and commercial strategy.
• Stay current with leading-edge AI for surgical robotics; contribute to reviews, publications and patent activity.
• Mentor engineers and researchers to elevate team capabilities.

Skills

AI/ML development

Deep Learning

Computer Vision

Embodied AI

PyTorch

TensorFlow

Edge computing

Robotics integration

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

PhD or Master’s in CS/Robotics/BME focusing on DL/Computer Vision/Embodied AI

Tools

PyTorch

TensorFlow

Robotic systems integration

Job description

Intuitive Surgical is seeking a Staff AI Engineer – Applied Research to help shape AI capabilities for surgical robotics, leading end-to-end lifecycle from research through production.

You will collaborate across engineering, product, regulatory and clinical teams to align AI strategy with real-world needs, translate operatory requirements, and advance state-of-the-art methods into reliable, safe features for the platform.