Freelance Computer Programmer Jobs in California

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. Every day, our work helps care teams perform with greater precision and patients recover faster, improving outcomes around the world.

The problems we solve demand creativity, rigor, and collaboration. The work is challenging, but deeply meaningful—because every improvement we make has the potential to change a life.

If you’re ready to contribute to something bigger than yourself and help transform the future of healthcare, you’ll find your purpose here.

Interaction Design is a key role at Intuitive, spanning multiple technical disciplines to craft user-friendly experiences for complex medical devices. We bring human-centered design to healthcare innovation and to the development of safe, effective, and confidence-inspiring robotic interfaces.

As a Senior Interaction Designer on the da Vinci team, you will drive design work and product innovation for da Vinci’s multiport and single port systems. You will be involved in all stages of product development from early concepting to final design and implementation, collaborating closely with other designers, Human Factors, engineers, product managers, and clinical experts.

This full-time on-site position is based in our Sunnyvale, CA office.

What You'll Bring

• You are a human-centered designer motivated by the opportunity to improve the life of patients and tackle novel challenges in healthcare
• You thrive in highly technical domains, enjoying abstract and often unfamiliar design problems
• You are comfortable designing for intelligent and semi-autonomous systems, with an understanding of how interfaces communicate system intent, state, confidence, limitations, and next actions to support safe and effective human oversight.
• You are methodical and drive design decisions through insights and iteration
• You value design craftsmanship, recognize quality, and expect high standards
• You believe in collaboration, knowing that success hinges on working closely with other designers and cross-functional partners
• You are emotionally intelligent and have excellent listening, communication and analytical skills that help you to adapt in a dynamic, cross-functional environment

What You’ll Do

• Design world-class physical and digital interfaces, upholding superior design standards and methods to deliver product experiences that push the frontier of human-computer interaction.
• Define the behavior of interactive and intelligent systems, driven by evidence and deep problem understanding. Design macro and micro interactions that communicate system capabilities, state, intent, confidence, and limitations, enabling users to effectively understand, supervise, and collaborate with increasingly sophisticated system behaviors while exploring, prototyping, and iterating through solutions to systematically narrow the solution space.
• Deliver design solutions that are desirable, feasible and viable, proposing and articulating clear and compelling design solutions with sound rationales. You will take part in evolving the product’s design language to produce beautiful and functional interfaces.
• Contribute to design documentation and testing, writing clear, comprehensive and detailed user interface specifications for others to build and test against. Consider potential safety and usability risks together with our Human Factors Engineers and design necessary mitigations.

Required Skills and Experience

• 5+ years of product design or related field experience (in-house, agency, or freelance work)
• Expertise in physical or embedded interaction design (beyond web or mobile app interfaces)
• Proficiency in current design tools and software applications

Required Education and Training

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Interaction Design, Human-Computer Interaction, Human Factors, or equivalent

Preferred Skills and Experience

• Demonstrated expertise across the full design lifecycle, from concept generation and experience definition to detailed interaction design, visual design, motion design, prototyping, and final implementation.
• Experience designing for 3D, spatial, or AR/VR interactions.
• Demonstrated systems thinking and experience designing scalable interaction frameworks across products, workflows, and user journeys.
• Experience designing for complex, intelligent, or highly automated systems where users interact with, supervise, or direct sophisticated system behaviors.
• Ability to design clear system feedback, controls, and interaction models that help users understand system state, intent, capabilities, and limitations.
• Ability to articulate design rationale clearly to leadership and cross-functional stakeholders.
• Demonstrated success bringing products with complex user interactions to market.

Due to the nature of our business and the role, please note that Intuitive and/or your customer(s) may require that you show current proof of vaccination against certain diseases including COVID-19.  Details can vary by role.

Intuitive is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We provide equal employment opportunities to all qualified applicants and employees, and prohibit discrimination and harassment of any type, without regard to race, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, color, age, religion, protected veteran or disability status, genetic information or any other status protected under federal, state, or local applicable laws.

Mandatory Notices

U.S. Export Controls Disclaimer:  In accordance with the U.S. Export Administration Regulations (15 CFR §743.13(b)), some roles at Intuitive Surgical may be subject to U.S. export controls for prospective employees who are nationals from countries currently on embargo or sanctions status.

Certain information you provide as part of the application will be used for purposes of determining whether Intuitive Surgical will need to (i) obtain an export license from the U.S. Government on your behalf (note: the government’s licensing process can take 3 to 6+ months) or (ii) implement a Technology Control Plan (“TCP”) (note: typically adds 2 weeks to the hiring process).  

For any Intuitive role subject to export controls, final offers are contingent upon obtaining an approved export license and/or an executed TCP prior to the prospective employee’s start date, which may or may not be flexible, and within a timeframe that does not unreasonably impede the hiring need. If applicable, candidates will be notified and instructed on any requirements for these purposes. 

We will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records in accordance with fair chance laws.

Preference will be given to qualified candidates who do not reside, or plan to reside, in Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, or Tennessee.

This position may be filled at a different job level than listed here depending on
business need and/or on the selected candidate’s experience, knowledge and skills.
Compensation will be based primarily on the job level at which the role is filled and the
candidate’s qualifications, consistent with applicable law.

We provide market-competitive compensation packages, inclusive of base pay, incentives, benefits, and equity. It would not be typical for someone to be hired at the top end of range for the role, as actual pay will be determined based on several factors, including experience, skills, and qualifications. The target compensation ranges are listed.

Base Salary Range Region 1:$184,500 - $265,500
Base Salary Range Region 2: $156,800 - $225,700
Shift: Day
Workplace Type: Set Schedule - This job will be onsite weekly, the percentage of onsite work will be defined by the leader.