Staff Mechanical Design Engineer - Instruments

Essential Job Duties

• Drive design efforts to optimize performance, manufacturability and reliability of existing and future Da Vinci SP instruments.
• Work and lead the design cross-functionally with Manufacturing Engineers, Systems Engineers, Systems Analysts, Clinical Development engineers, Supplier Engineers.
• Maintain awareness of customer needs and requirements – develop new device concepts as well as continuously improving existing designs to meet those needs.
• Identify and quantify design risks through Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA).
• Create product, functional, and design specifications.
• Analyze and test product designs.
• Develop vendors to manufacture components.
• Develop initial fixtures and processes to assemble components.
• Participate in clinical labs with appropriate surgical models (Cadaver, Animal, Tissue Analogs).
• Develop product assembly instructions in conjunction with Manufacturing.
• Develop and perform component verification testing and product validation testing.
• Support production of final product by troubleshooting process and component problems.
• Provide engineering support to Manufacturing, Materials, Test Engineering, and Service to facilitate transfer of designs.
• Develop Design History Files per FDA requirements.
• Investigate and establish root cause of both latent and emerging design, manufacturing or material defects.
• Develop, implement, test and document solutions for these opportunities according to corporate standard and departmental operating procedures.

Required Skills and Experience

• An exceptional team player who values collaboration and personal project ownership.
• A passion for creating robust and reliable products as part of a cross functional team.
• Minimum 12 years of experience with Bachelors degree or minimum 8 years of experience with Masters degree and mechanical engineering experience.
• Proficiency using CAD to design and document mechanisms; SolidWorks preferred.
• Mechanical design and analysis skills, including statics, Finite Element Analysis (FEA - computational) materials and stress analysis, Material selection.
• Strong communication and documentation skills required.
• Demonstrated knowledge of component manufacturing processes (including injection molding, machining, MIM, heat treatment).
• Experience with designing hardware products in a regulated industry for mission critical applications is desired, comfort with concepts of design input, design output, traceability, and risk analysis.

Required Education and Training

Minimum education: BSME required, MSME preferred.

Preferred Skills and Experience

• Experience with small mechanism design, plastics, and/or reusable and/or disposable medical products are a strong plus.
• An excitement to learn and get to the bottom of challenging technical problems.
• Familiarity with cleaning and sterilization processes and designing for sterilization.
• Comfortable operating machine shop, measurement and test equipment.
• Medical product experience is desirable but not required.

Working Conditions

Ability to lift 30 lbs. without assistance.