Staff Machine Control Engineer

Intuitive; San Carlos (CA); On-site; USD 100,000 - 140,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equal Opportunity Employer

Job summary

Intuitive is seeking an experienced machine controls engineer to lead the development of advanced mechatronic instrumentation for patient care applications. This role requires expertise in control and sensing software for medical robots or diagnostic instruments, ensuring high-precision performance.

The ideal candidate will have a strong programming background in C#, C, and C++, with experience in low-latency machine controls. The position is located in the San Francisco Bay Area and involves close collaboration with cross-functional teams.

Qualifications

• 8+ years industry experience or 5+ years with a PhD in systems control.
• Strong programming knowledge for real-time control on Linux OS.
• Experience developing medical device software per FDA regulations.

Responsibilities

• Architect, design, and implement control software for mechatronic instrumentation.
• Work hands-on with hardware for calibration and experimentation.
• Generate software requirements and test protocols.

Skills

Low-latency machine controls

High-precision optical control

Experimental design

Data analysis/visualization

C#, C, C++ programming

Python scripting

Education

BS/MS in Computer Science or related field

PhD degree in related field

Job description

Primary Function of Position

We are looking for an experienced machine controls engineer to lead the development of advanced mechatronic instrumentation for patient care applications. The ideal candidate will have a proven track record of architecting and developing control and sensing software for medical robots or diagnostic instrumentation from prototype to commercialization. A strong skillset in experimental design, empirical data collection, and data analysis/visualization is critical. Experience in low-latency machine controls, high-precision optical control, and biological sample handling applications is highly desired. This position reports on-site at offices in the San Francisco Bay Area, CA.

What You'll Do

• Architect, design, and implement control and sensing software for advanced mechatronic instrumentation
• Work hands-on with mechatronic hardware daily in system bring-up, calibration, operation, experimentation, and debugging
• Lead system optimization and debugging activity with thoughtful experimental design, execution, and data analysis/visualization
• Interface with embedded systems engineers and electrical engineers to develop appropriate software interfaces to lower-level controllers and firmware
• Work closely with systems engineering and mechanical engineering to architect, select, and optimize electrical control boards, motors, sensors, and other hardware components
• Write clean, structured, and maintainable code, document software designs for various instrument configurations, inclusive of error recovery
• Write and execute unit tests ensuring excellent test coverage for software code
• Use scripting languages (e.g. Python) for bringing up various hardware prototypes, for test automation, and for data analysis/visualization
• Generate detailed software requirements, design specifications, and software test protocols for the company’s Quality System
• Work closely with a multidisciplinary engineering team and company leadership to deliver key technical milestones
• Prioritize and debug reported software issues/bugs

Required Skills and Experience

• BS/MS in Computer Science or related field with 8+ years industry experience, or PhD degree with 5+ years industry experience in systems control and sensing
• Strong knowledge across programming languages for real-time and pseudo-real-time control (C#, C, C++) on Linux OS
• Demonstrated experience in architecting and writing motion control, sensing, and state machine code for one or more diagnostic instruments or medical robots that have reached production
• Experience in low-latency machine controls for time-sensitive applications
• Strong experimental design, empirical data collection, and analysis/visualization skills to support design iteration and optimization using scripting languages such as Python
• Experience developing medical device software per FDA requirements including software risk analysis and cybersecurity through all phases of product development lifecycle (design, implementation, debug, verification, validation, and transfer to manufacturing)
• Strong analytical skills and a creative mindset

Required Education and Training

• Bachelors, Master or PhD in Computer Science or related field

Preferred Skills and Experience

• Experience controlling high-speed precision optics
• Experience with instrumentation involving biological sample processing
• Experience using OpenCV for camera sensing / computer vision applications
• Strong background in performance optimization to ensure deterministic execution of pre-defined software protocols
• Experience developing / interfacing with backend software for instrument data storage and network transmission

Equal Opportunity Employer

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.