Manager, Mechanical Design Engineering

Primary Function of the Position

The Manager Mechanical Design Engineering leads cross-functional teams to maintain and improve the design, production, and service of the da Vinci® Surgical Systems. This includes determining root cause of complex problems with electro-mechanical components, manufacturing process and system performance. This also includes identifying mechanical design and manufacturing process solutions to improve performance, cost, and reliability, and perform the development, documentation, verification, and implementation of these solutions. The successful candidate must be a "player / coach" comfortable with some individual technical contribution as well as the leadership of deeply technical individual contributors.

Essential Job Duties

• Leads cross-functional project teams to design, develop and verify modifications to robotic or other complex mechanisms.
• Investigate and determine root cause of latent and emerging design, manufacturing or material defects.
• Develop, design, test, document, and implement solutions for these defects according to corporate standards and departmental operating procedures.
• Identify, develop, and implement alternate part fabrication methods and sources to reduce hardware cost and/or improve strength of supply chain.
• Develop and execute design verification/validation test protocols and document results in test reports.
• Support product risk assessments, Corrective and Preventive Actions, and quality/regulatory audits as required.
• Interface with teams across Intuitive including mechanical, software, systems analysis, manufacturing, test, supply chain, quality, regulatory, service, tech pubs, etc.
• Provide administrative leadership and control for planning, staffing, budgeting, and project/program cost tracking.
• Establish project teams, assign tasks, set priorities, establish metrics, and track progress against overall goals.
• Recognize and attract top talent, mentor, and train team members through one-on-one coaching as well as team wide initiatives.
• Support quality assurance, product reliability, and product regulatory initiatives in responding to customer concerns and other product requirements.

Required Skills and Experience

• Comfortable with all phases of the product development lifecycle including design, analysis, debug, verification, transfer to manufacturing, and sustainment.
• Understand concepts of FMEAs, design input/output, and requirement traceability.
• Technical proficiency in mechanism design and robotics.
• Design, manufacture and troubleshooting of electromechanical components and assemblies including brushless DC motors, brakes, encoders and other sensors.
• Design, manufacture and troubleshooting of precision mechanical components including bearings, gears, ball screws and linear actuators.
• Component selection and design for reliability and manufacturability.
• Proficiency at failure analysis.
• Mechanical analysis, including statics, dynamics, kinematics, stress, fatigue, thermal, and reliability.
• Follow good documentation principles and configuration control methods.
• Demonstrated knowledge of a wide variety of manufacturing processes.
• Metallurgical heat treatment, stress relief, grinding/lapping.
• Component fabrication methods including CNC machining, wire EDM, brazing, and surface coatings.
• High-volume fabrication methods including plastic injection molding, metal-injection molding, stamping, aluminum/steel casting (sand, investment, die).
• Comfortable operating machine shop, measurement, and test equipment.
• Proven ability to lead departmental and cross-functional projects and strategic initiatives from concept through completion.
• Proven ability to prioritize and organize while guiding your team to tackle many complex projects simultaneously.
• Ability to communicate effectively (written, oral) across all levels and organizations.
• Ability to rigorously adhere to and create robust processes.
• Ability to utilize deep technical knowledge and broad expertise to achieve company objectives in creative and effective ways.
• Real excitement to learn and get to the bottom of tough technical problems.
• Passion for creating robust, reliable products with a strong commitment to high product quality.
• Excel in a fast paced, high transaction, mass-production environment.
• Sense of shared responsibility and reward.

Required Education and Training

• Minimum Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering or similar technical field.
• Minimum 8 years of experience designing and manufacturing electromechanical products.
• 1-3 year as a people manager or prior management responsibilities through project management or team leadership efforts.
• Fluency in ASME Y14.5 GD&T and tolerance stack analysis.
• Design, analyze and document components, structures, and mechanical assemblies in SolidWorks or similar CAD software.

Preferred Skills and Experience

• Advanced degree in Mechanical Engineering or similar technical field.
• Experience in medical device industry and/or experience in a regulated industry.
• Experience with Statistical Process Control in a Mass Production environment.
• Mechatronics experience. Capability to use MATLAB to create or modify test scripts and system software.