Senior Embedded Linux Software Engineer — OS & Device Platform

It started with a simple idea: what if surgery could be less invasive and recovery less painful? Nearly 30 years later, that question still fuels everything we do at Intuitive. As a global leader in robotic-assisted surgery and minimally invasive care, our technologies—like the da Vinci surgical system and Ion—have transformed how care is delivered for millions of patients worldwide. We’re a team of engineers, clinicians, and innovators united by one purpose: to make surgery smarter, safer, and more human.

About the role

The Senior Embedded Linux / Yocto Software Engineer will join the platform team for a robotic-assisted bronchoscopy navigation and biopsy planning software product, reporting to the software development manager. This role owns the Linux operating system and platform-layer software for the procedure planning laptop, a medical image-processing system running a custom Yocto-based Linux distribution. The engineer will work closely with application software, security, field service, systems engineering, and hardware teams to maintain and evolve a reliable, secure, and serviceable medical device platform.

Responsibilities

• Own and maintain a custom Yocto/OpenEmbedded-based Linux distribution for a medical device platform, including layer authoring, BitBake recipes, image configuration, SDK/toolchain support, and OS version upgrades.
• Bring up and qualify new commercial laptop hardware platforms, including Linux driver configuration, BIOS/firmware settings, secure boot enrollment, storage/display/peripheral validation, and platform compatibility testing.
• Maintain and harden the secure boot chain across multiple hardware platforms, including UEFI Secure Boot, GRUB2, TPM 2.0, bootloader signing, key management, and BIOS interactions.
• Sustain and enhance field software update and service upgrade workflows, including package validation, update orchestration support, partition management, rollback mechanisms, BIOS firmware upgrade flows, and error recovery.
• Debug and resolve platform-level issues such as boot failures, unexpected reboots, TPM lockouts, login screen freezes, USB/HID issues, storage issues, display/GPU issues, and software update failures.
• Implement and maintain platform-layer services, utilities, scripts, and APIs used by application teams, field service, manufacturing, and system diagnostics.
• Perform OS-level security hardening and vulnerability remediation, including CVE fixes, user/account hardening, permissions, kernel/module configuration, endpoint security integration, and required documentation.
• Produce and maintain engineering design documents, software change analysis artifacts, test evidence, and technical documentation in accordance with medical device quality procedures.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with application software, security, field service, systems engineering, hardware, manufacturing, and quality teams.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree with 6+ years of industry experience, or Master’s degree with 4+ years of industry experience, in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related engineering discipline.
• 4+ years of embedded Linux software engineering, with direct OS-layer development experience.
• Hands-on experience building, customizing, debugging, and maintaining Linux-based product platforms.
• Deep expertise in Yocto Project / OpenEmbedded: layer authoring (meta-*), Bitbake recipes, image manifests, and SDK toolchain configuration.
• Proficiency in Bash shell scripting and at least one system-level language (C or C++ preferred) for platform daemons, service utilities, and installer scripts.
• Experience designing and implementing field software update mechanisms: package validation, partition management, rollback, and error recovery.
• Practical knowledge of Linux system security hardening: file permissions, user/group privilege controls, credential management, kernel module configuration, and security scanning tools.
• Experience managing hardware lifecycle transitions, including end-of-life risk mitigation, replacement platform qualification, and software compatibility maintenance across hardware generations.
• Hardware bring-up experience on x86 laptop or embedded platforms: driver configuration, peripheral debugging (USB, HID/trackpad, display adapters, storage).
• Familiarity with D-Bus IPC, systemd service management, and Linux log infrastructure.
• Proficiency with Git, Jira, Bitbucket/GitHub, and Jenkins (or equivalent CI/CD toolchain).

Skills

• Preferred: Deep experience with UEFI Secure Boot, GRUB2 signing, TPM 2.0, PCR policy binding, BIOS firmware interaction, or secure key-management workflows.
• Preferred: Experience with OTA, field update, or service update frameworks for Linux-based medical, industrial, robotics, automotive, aerospace, or regulated devices.
• Preferred: Experience with commercial laptop BIOS tools, firmware upgrade automation, hardware lifecycle management, or replacement-platform qualification.
• Preferred: Experience integrating NVIDIA drivers, CUDA components, GPU/display stacks, or accelerated compute packages into Yocto-based Linux systems.
• Preferred: Experience with Qt5/Qt-based Linux GUI application environments.
• Preferred: Experience with D-Bus IPC, systemd service design, platform daemons, diagnostics utilities, or hardware abstraction services.
• Preferred: Knowledge of Linux disk and partition management, including boot partitions, recovery partitions, encryption, and block-device troubleshooting.
• Preferred: Familiarity with Linux networking configuration, wireless networking, firewall management, and endpoint security agents.
• Preferred: Background in regulated product development, medical device software lifecycle, IEC 62304, FDA software guidance, or equivalent safety/quality processes.

Pay

Base Salary Range Region 1: $188,600 - $271,400

Base Salary Range Region 2: $160,300 - $230,700

Schedule

Shift: Day

Workplace Type

Onsite - This job is fully onsite.