Senior Mechanical Engineering Technician

Primary Function of Position

The Future Forward group within Intuitive Surgical is seeking a Senior Mechanical Engineering Technician to support early-stage R&D of next-generation flexible energy delivery instruments and accessories. This is a hybrid role: you'll build and iterate functional prototypes from early engineering concepts, and you'll also support dosimetry-focused testing (benchtop, ex vivo, and in vivo) to help the team understand the energy dose delivered to tissue and resulting tissue effects. The candidate should be comfortable working with minimal supervision, and with minimal work instructions and be able to take ideas from R&D engineers and figure out how to build fully functional instrument prototypes. The ideal candidate is hands-on, detail-oriented, comfortable with minimal supervision, and able to translate rough direction into reliable builds, experiments, and data.

Essential Job Duties

• Builds and refines medical device components and catheter assemblies and provide input for the catheter assembly.
• Assisting with all aspects of early prototype builds, including procurement of material, inspection of materials and subassemblies, rework of components, assembly, troubleshooting, and repair of prototype instruments.
• Prepare instruments/electrodes/fixtures/tissue samples and run experiments from approved protocols.
• Support preclinical lab evaluations (including in vivo), equipment setup, and procedural assistance as needed.
• Perform tissue handling and histology prep activities (orientation/inking/trimming, fixation, cassette prep, labeling, sample tracking); coordinate outsourced histology and perform cryosectioning when applicable.
• Assisting engineers in benchtop and excised tissue lab evaluations of prototypes.
• Collecting, recording, and reporting test results.
• Preparation of prototype instruments and accessories for benchtop testing and pre-clinical lab evaluations, organizing, overseeing, and collaborating with other groups to assemble and test prototypes.
• Setup, organization, and maintenance of engineering lab and equipment.
• Documenting assembly procedures and training other technicians on assembly.
• Assisting in knowledge transfer to other groups / teams.

Required Skills and Experience

• 5+ years R&D technician experience in medical device development
• Minimum Associate of Science degree, or equivalent work experience
• Strong hands-on prototyping/assembly skills and comfort working from limited work instructions
• Hands-on skills and knowledgeable in prototyping and manufacturing methods, including soldering, microscopic wire and cable stripping, use of rotary tools, drills, small hand tools and adhesive bonding
• Knowledge of catheter materials and manufacturing processes including laminating, braiding, bonding, flaring, tipping
• Manual dexterity to assemble small components, with microscope or similar magnification
• Experience running benchtop and/or tissue-based testing; comfortable in an animal lab environment
• Experience with tissue prep for histology and meticulous sample/data record keeping
• Proficiency with Excel/Word/PowerPoint; familiarity with ImageJ or similar image analysis tools

Preferred Skills and Experience

• Cryosectioning and outsourced histology submission experience
• Basic electrical measurement experience (multimeter/oscilloscope) and metrology tools (calipers/micrometers/vision)
• Knowledge of medical grade adhesives
• Ability to inspect components using metrology equipment (including calipers, micrometers, vision systems, CMM)
• Computer skills in Microsoft Office required, SolidWorks experience desirable
• Excellent organizational skills
• Able to work independently
• Strong design to learn and apply new technology