Staff Architect, Digital Applications

Intuitive; Sunnyvale (CA); On-site; USD 202,000 - 246,000; Full time

Job summary

Intuitive, a global leader in robotic-assisted surgery, seeks a Staff Architect, Digital Applications to define and drive the long-term technology vision across the My Intuitive ecosystem. You will align product, engineering, design, clinical and data teams to transform a collection of applications into a unified digital operating system for robotic surgery.

The role requires deep software architecture expertise, customer-centric thinking, and ability to rally multiple teams around a common

Qualifications

• 12+ years of experience designing and delivering large-scale software platforms and digital products.
• 8+ years operating in senior architecture leadership roles.
• Proven track record defining architecture strategies across multiple products, business domains, and engineering organizations.
• Deep expertise in cloud-native architectures, distributed systems, APIs, microservices, event-driven architectures, and platform engineering.
• Experience building customer-facing ecosystems serving multiple personas and workflows.
• Strong understanding of identity, personalization, engagement, analytics, data platforms, and digital customer experiences.
• Demonstrated ability to influence senior leadership and drive alignment across organizations without direct authority.
• Exceptional communication and strategic thinking skills.

Responsibilities

• Define and evolve the end-state architecture for the My Intuitive ecosystem.
• Establish architectural principles, guardrails, reference architectures, and technical roadmaps aligned with business and customer objectives.
• Drive convergence from fragmented applications toward a unified ecosystem anchored around common identity, customer journeys, data, and platform services.
• Act as the chief architect for customer experience strategy across digital products and platforms.
• Champion a journey-centric architecture spanning Learn, Prepare, Perform, Review, Improve, and Mentor experiences.
• Ensure experiences are designed around customer goals rather than organizational or application boundaries.
• Define reusable experience patterns enabling consistent navigation, personalization, workflow orchestration, and engagement across the ecosystem.
• Advocate for human-centered design principles and frictionless customer experiences.
• Lead architecture across customer identity, entitlement, collaboration, learning, case management, insights, notifications, analytics, integration, and AI capabilities.
• Drive platform-first approaches that maximize reuse, scalability, reliability, and maintainability.
• Guide architecture for cloud-native platforms, APIs, event-driven systems, data products, AI services, and interoperability.
• Ensure solutions support current and future Intuitive platforms and digital services.
• Establish architectural patterns enabling longitudinal customer journeys and personalized experiences.
• Drive integration of AI-enabled workflows, recommendations, insights, learning pathways, and decision support capabilities.
• Partner with Data Engineering, AI/ML, Clinical, and Product teams on future-facing digital experiences.
• Collaborate with leadership to translate long-term business strategy into technology investments and architectural roadmaps.
• Align multiple engineering teams around common architecture standards and platform direction.
• Mentor senior engineers, architects, and technical leaders across the organization.
• Serve as a trusted advisor for strategic engineering decisions and major investments.
• Lead architecture reviews and technical design governance.
• Drive engineering quality, cybersecurity, privacy, compliance, safety, and regulatory considerations into architectural decisions.
• Establish measurable architecture outcomes tied to customer experience, adoption, scalability, and business value.

Skills

Senior leadership

Architecture leadership

Cloud-native

Distributed systems

APIs & microservices

Platform engineering

Customer-centric design

Strategic influence

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field

Job description

• Ways of Working: Set Schedule - This job will be onsite weekly, the percentage of onsite work will be defined by the leader.
• Employee Type: Employee
• Min. Salary Region 1: 223900 USD
• Global Job Level (HCM): Professional 5 (13)
• Min. Salary Region 2: 190300 USD

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

The Staff Architect, Digital Applications is the technical and architectural leader responsible for defining and driving the long‑term technology vision for the My Intuitive ecosystem.

This role is accountable for ensuring that all customer‑facing digital capabilities evolve toward a single, integrated customer experience spanning mobile, web, and future AI‑enabled experiences. The Principal Architect will partner closely with product, engineering, design, clinical, commercial, data, and platform leaders to transform My Intuitive from a collection of applications into a unified digital ecosystem and the digital operating system for robotic surgery.

The successful candidate combines deep software architecture expertise, customer‑centric thinking, platform strategy, organizational influence, and the ability to align multiple product and engineering organizations around a common architectural north star.

Ecosystem Vision and Architecture Leadership

• Define and evolve the end‑state architecture for the My Intuitive ecosystem.
• Establish architectural principles, guardrails, reference architectures, and technical roadmaps aligned with business and customer objectives.
• Drive convergence from fragmented applications toward a unified ecosystem anchored around common identity, customer journeys, data, and platform services.
• Act as the chief architect for customer experience strategy across digital products and platforms.

Customer Experience Architecture

• Champion a journey‑centric architecture spanning Learn, Prepare, Perform, Review, Improve, and Mentor experiences.
• Ensure experiences are designed around customer goals rather than organizational or application boundaries.
• Define reusable experience patterns enabling consistent navigation, personalization, workflow orchestration, and engagement across the ecosystem.
• Advocate for human‑centered design principles and frictionless customer experiences.

Platform and Systems Architecture

• Lead architecture across customer identity, entitlement, collaboration, learning, case management, insights, notifications, analytics, integration, and AI capabilities.
• Drive platform‑first approaches that maximize reuse, scalability, reliability, and maintainability.
• Guide architecture for cloud‑native platforms, APIs, event‑driven systems, data products, AI services, and interoperability.
• Ensure solutions support current and future Intuitive platforms and digital services.

Applications and AI

• Establish architectural patterns enabling longitudinal customer journeys and personalized experiences.
• Drive integration of AI‑enabled workflows, recommendations, insights, learning pathways, and decision support capabilities.
• Partner with Data Engineering, AI/ML, Clinical, and Product teams on future‑facing digital experiences.

Cross‑Functional Influence

• Collaborate with leadership to translate long‑term business strategy into technology investments and architectural roadmaps.
• Align multiple engineering teams around common architecture standards and platform direction.
• Mentor senior engineers, architects, and technical leaders across the organization.
• Serve as a trusted advisor for strategic engineering decisions and major investments.

Governance and Technical Excellence

• Lead architecture reviews and technical design governance.
• Drive engineering quality, cybersecurity, privacy, compliance, safety, and regulatory considerations into architectural decisions.
• Establish measurable architecture outcomes tied to customer experience, adoption, scalability, and business value.

Qualifications

Required Skills and Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field.
• 12+ years of experience designing and delivering large‑scale software platforms and digital products.
• 8+ years operating in senior architecture leadership roles.
• Proven track record defining architecture strategies across multiple products, business domains, and engineering organizations.
• Deep expertise in cloud‑native architectures, distributed systems, APIs, microservices, event‑driven architectures, and platform engineering.
• Experience building customer‑facing ecosystems serving multiple personas and workflows.
• Strong understanding of identity, personalization, engagement, analytics, data platforms, and digital customer experiences.
• Demonstrated ability to influence senior leadership and drive alignment across organizations without direct authority.
• Exceptional communication and strategic thinking skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with healthcare, medical devices, surgical technologies, clinical applications, or regulated environments.
• Experience building platform ecosystems that span mobile, web, cloud, edge, and connected device experiences.
• Knowledge of AI‑enabled customer experiences and intelligent workflow orchestration.
• Experience defining multi‑year technology strategies and organizational transformation initiatives.
• Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field preferred.

Success Measures

Success is measured by:

• Progress toward one My Intuitive ecosystem architecture.
• Less duplication and technology fragmentation (reduce cost to serve).
• Product Quality at expected levels.
• Greater reuse of shared platform services.
• More consistent customer experiences.
• Higher adoption and engagement.
• Faster delivery through reusable architecture.

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.

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 employeeswho 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’sstart 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
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.

Accommodation & Accessibility Notice:

Intuitive is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities. If you require assistance or an accommodation during any part of the application or interview process, please contact People Services at [e-mail].

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.

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