Physician - Corporate Strategy

About the role

The Physician, Corporate Strategy is an MD physician innovator embedded within Intuitive’s Future Forward Incubator. This role translates clinical insight and early-market understanding into new growth opportunities, helping identify unmet clinical needs, evaluate strategic fit, and shape technology concepts from initial hypothesis through early de-risking.

Responsibilities

• Identify, frame, and prioritize unmet clinical needs using clinical immersion, literature review, market sensing, and voice-of-customer input.
• Translate physician and patient insights into concise need statements, opportunity hypotheses, clinical workflows, requirements, and early de-risking plans.
• Partner with engineering and design teams to define clinical use cases, procedural workflows, performance goals, and prototype feedback loops for new platforms.
• Lead or support early clinical de-risking activities, including preclinical studies, simulated use, workflow validation, and early feasibility planning where appropriate.
• Develop point-of-view assessments on emerging technologies, startups, venture-backed innovation, adjacent markets, and external partnership opportunities.
• Collaborate with regulatory, reimbursement, health economics, product, and commercial strategy partners to shape indication strategy and development pathways.
• Engage KOLs, clinicians, entrepreneurs, academic innovators, and external partners to validate concepts and inform investment decisions.
• Communicate findings to senior stakeholders through clear written recommendations, executive presentations, and data-driven opportunity narratives.

Qualifications

• MD or DO required; active clinical practice is valued but not required for candidates with substantial innovation, venture, startup, business development, Biodesign, or corporate strategy experience.
• Must demonstrate at least one of the following experience profiles: (1) meaningful hands-on clinical practice or procedural care experience plus exposure to innovation, venture, startups, business development, Biodesign, or product development; or (2) strong venture, startup, business development, Biodesign, corporate strategy, or product strategy experience plus sufficient clinical fluency to evaluate medical needs and care pathways.
• Ability to identify unmet clinical needs and convert observations into structured hypotheses, need statements, development plans, or investment theses.
• Experience conducting clinician, patient, or stakeholder interviews and synthesizing voice-of-customer input into actionable product or strategy recommendations.
• Comfort operating in ambiguous, early-stage environments where the path forward is uncertain and evidence must be built iteratively.
• Strong cross-functional influence skills and ability to collaborate with engineering, clinical, regulatory, reimbursement, product, and business stakeholders.
• Ability to evaluate clinical workflows, procedure economics, adoption barriers, competitive dynamics, and strategic implications for new technology platforms.
• Clear executive communication skills, including crisp written synthesis, structured presentations, and the ability to explain complex clinical concepts to non-clinical audiences.
• Curiosity, ownership mindset, and enthusiasm for building new technologies that can transform care delivery and improve patient outcomes.
• Biodesign or equivalent needs-based innovation training preferred; experience in venture, startups, business development, product strategy, or corporate strategy strongly preferred.

Education and Training

• MD or DO required.
• Surgical, interventional, or other clinically relevant specialty training preferred, but not required if the candidate demonstrates strong innovation, venture, startup, business development, Biodesign, or corporate strategy experience.
• Clinical practice experience, residency/fellowship training, or comparable patient-care exposure preferred for candidates coming from a primarily clinical background.
• Candidates with fewer years of clinical training or limited active practice experience may be considered if they bring substantial experience in early-stage innovation, venture-backed companies, medical technology strategy, product development, business development, or Biodesign.
• Biodesign, MBA, MPH, MS, fellowship, or other formal training in innovation, product development, health economics, or business strategy is a plus.