{"id":2201782,"url":"https://alion.io/job/intuitive-surgical-sr-ai-automation-engineer-robotics","title":"Sr. AI & Automation Engineer, Robotics","company":{"id":3128,"name":"Intuitive Surgical","domain":"intuitive.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/intuitive","size_band":"1001-5000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"SmartRecruiters","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":76,"open_postings":75,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.973,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":28,"computed_at":"2026-10-29T05:49:05Z"}},"role":"Robotics","role_family":"Robotics","seniority":"senior","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Sunnyvale, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":215000,"max_usd":433000,"period":"year","method":"role_seniority_country_remote_cell","sample_n":220},"experience_years_min":5,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"C++","optional":false},{"name":"CI/CD","optional":false},{"name":"Docker","optional":false},{"name":"Fine-tuning","optional":false},{"name":"Linux","optional":false},{"name":"LLM","optional":false},{"name":"Physical AI","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"Isaac Sim","optional":true},{"name":"Model Context Protocol","optional":true},{"name":"MuJoCo","optional":true},{"name":"ROS","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-09T19:35:59Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-09","last_verified_at":"2026-10-30T00:06:03Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":20,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":20},"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.\nWe’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.\nThe 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.\nIf you’re ready to contribute to something bigger than yourself and help transform the future of healthcare, you’ll find your purpose here.\n About the Team\nThe Future Forward organization is Intuitive's advanced concepts group. We explore emerging\ntechnologies, prototype next-generation solutions, and build software experiences that shape\nthe future of robotic-assisted surgery. Our research team is building advanced augmented\ndexterity capabilities for next-generation robotic platforms.\nThe Role\nOur researchers should spend their time on ideas, not on the manual work required to turn\nthose ideas into results on real robots.\nAs a Senior AI & Automation Engineer, you will build the AI tools, automation systems,\nintegrations, and evaluation capabilities that help researchers and engineers train, test, and\nevaluate models faster and make better decisions. You'll leverage existing AI technologies while\ndeveloping new solutions, from agent-driven workflows and AI tooling to the APIs, services, and\nautomation frameworks that support engineering and research activities.\nThat could mean agents that set up and run experiments, automation workflows that accelerate\ntesting and evaluation, or tools that sort through logs and video to help teams understand\nfailures and improve outcomes. It's a hands-on engineering role that uses AI to improve how\nphysical AI systems are trained and tested. You'll automate that work; you won't design the\nmodels themselves. You'll work closely with ML researchers, simulation engineers, and robotics\nengineers.\nWhat You'll Do\nBuild and integrate AI tools, APIs, and agent workflows that automate engineering and\nresearch work across the team.\nAutomate the training and fine-tuning workflow, from setting up experiments to\nlaunching, tracking, and comparing runs, so researchers can reproduce results without\nhand-built scripts.\nBuild automation and integration workflows that help researchers and engineers\nevaluate new ideas in simulation and on real robots, quickly, reliably, and at scale.\nDesign evaluations and experiments that show, with statistical confidence, whether a\nchange is a real improvement.\nBuild logging, analysis, and debugging tools that help the team understand results and\nfailures, and that turn robot sessions into data the team can train on.\nMake what you build reliable, secure, and safe to run, with human approval where it\nmatters and responsible use of AI throughout.\nEvaluate emerging AI tools, models, and technologies, and bring in the ones that deliver\nmeasurable impact.\nMeasure the impact of what you build, document it clearly, and make successful tools\npart of how the team operates.\n What You Bring\nWe care more about real depth in a few of these areas than shallow coverage of all of them.\nHands-on work with real robots. You've built testing, automation, or evaluation\nsystems that ran on real robot hardware or other physical systems via software\ninterfaces, not only in the cloud or in simulation.\nAI and automation you've built and put into daily use. You've built LLM-agent\nworkflows, AI tool integrations, copilots, or automation pipelines for real engineering\nwork and measured whether they helped. Be ready to walk us through one: what it did,\nwhere it failed, and what you changed.\nEvaluation and experimental rigor. You know how to design experiments and\nunderstand the statistics needed to determine whether an improvement is real.\nStrong software engineering. You have 5+ years of software engineering experience.\nYou write production-quality Python, can read C++, and are comfortable with Linux,\nCI/CD, Docker, containerized services, APIs, and distributed systems.\nStrong candidates often come from robotics, autonomous systems, physical AI, or robot-\nlearning research, and have applied AI tooling to real hardware. You're comfortable working\nacross disciplines in a fast-moving research environment and can explain trade-offs clearly to\nresearchers and engineers alike.\nIf you don't check every box, we still want to hear from you.\nEducation\nBS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science, Robotics, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical\nEngineering, or a related technical field.\nAdvanced degree (MS or PhD) preferred.\nBonus Points\nNone of these are required. They're signals, not gates, and any one of them is a nice plus.\nRobotics simulation, such as NVIDIA Isaac Sim/Lab or MuJoCo\nEvaluating AI/ML, robotics, or robot-learning systems\nSurgical or medical robotics, including da Vinci Research Kit (dVRK) systems\nROS 2 or other robot middleware\nAgent frameworks, tool integrations, or MCP servers adopted by engineering teams\nAI assistants, copilots, or productivity tools built for engineers or researchers\nAI applied to scientific, engineering, or research workflows\nDue 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.\nIntuitive 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.\nMandatory Notices\nU.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 employees who are nationals from countries currently on embargo or sanctions status.\nCertain 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).\nFor 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’s start 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.\nWe will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records in accordance with fair chance laws.\nPreference 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.\nThis position may be filled at a different job level than listed here depending on\nbusiness need and/or on the selected candidate’s experience, knowledge and skills.\nCompensation will be based primarily on the job level at which the role is filled and the\ncandidate’s qualifications, consistent with applicable law.\nAccommodation & Accessibility Notice:\nIntuitive 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 .\nWe 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. 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