Sunnyvale, CA

Salary
—
Posted
Aug 12, 2026
Location
Sunnyvale, CA
Last confirmed open
Sep 24, 2026

What this job asks for AI summary

A hands-on technical lead role at Intuitive's Sunnyvale engineering group, responsible for architecting and implementing embedded software for novel electrosurgical devices. The engineer will write firmware and software in C/C++, Verilog, and Python for bare-metal and Linux-based systems, develop real-time energy data acquisition and processing, and guide a small team through the full development lifecycle. Medical device industry experience is strongly preferred.

Staff level · 12+ years · San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA · Full-time

Must have (6)
C++ or Cembedded systemsLinuxADC/DAC peripheralsI2C, Spi, Rs232 or Cancontrol systems
Nice to have (4)
VerilogPythonIEC 60601IEC 62304

“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.

We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.

How this req sits in the market our data

Roughly 35 people in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (software developers). range 10–60

Applicant volume Moderate — A normal amount of company. The rare requirements below are what will separate a shortlisted application from the rest.

What gives you an edge
I2C3%

Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.

What won't set you apart
Linux45%

Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.

What the occupation pays Median $217,796 (middle half $177,469–$231,052).

Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Aug 15, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.

Why we read it this way (7)

The title 'Managing Staff Software Development Engineer' implies a Staff-level IC with some team leadership, not a people-manager role; the JD describes leading a small team technically rather than owning headcount/budget, so 15-1252 (Software Developers) is retained over 11-3021.

Experience requirement is stated as '12 years + Bachelor's OR 8 years + Master's OR equivalent'; the overall years minimum is set to 12 (the minimum for the most common path), but the Master's path reduces this to 8.

C and C++ are listed together as a single language requirement ('C/C++') in the JD; they are emitted as separate skills per extraction rules since they are distinct technologies both used in the stack.

Verilog and Python appear in the responsibilities section (not a separate required/preferred block), so they are marked preferred. The serial communication protocols (I2C, SPI, RS232, CAN) are listed as a group under required qualifications; I2C is the primary with the others as alternatives.

IEC 60601 and IEC 62304 are explicitly flagged as 'strongly preferred' in the JD, so they are marked preferred.

No compensation figures were included in the posting despite a reference to 'target compensation ranges'; no comp values are reported.

The posting notes a geographic preference against candidates residing in 14 named states; this is not a hard location gate but may affect candidate pool.

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