Sr. Human Factors Engineer

Primary Function of Position:

As part of product development groups at Intuitive, the Sr. Human Factors Engineer works closely with UX team interaction designers, visual designers and industrial designers, clinical engineers, system and software engineers, technical product managers, and other important functional teams. The Sr. Human Factors Engineer is a key contributor to inform and guide development of new products, and ensure that those products are feasible, viable, and desirable.

As member of new and sustaining product-development project teams, the Sr Human Factors Engineer leads as a key stakeholder within a creative and structured process to conduct user research, analyze and characterize use-related risks, and conduct usability testing of products prior to launch. They have primary responsibility for evaluating product designs with end-user test participants, creating usability risk analyses, and conducting final usability validation studies and reports. The Sr. Human Factors Engineer also works closely with the regulatory, quality and design controls groups to create the usability engineering documentation required for submission to medical device regulatory agencies.

This particular role of Sr. Human Factors Engineer would be assigned to the Future Forward Business Unit, but would potentially work with any of five related yet distinct business units that are focused on specific product platforms and/or services within Intuitive. The Sr. Human Factors Engineer would report to the Human Factors Manager of Future Forward. Brief description of each business unit is as follows. 

Digital Business Unit: Work within the HF team on the Digital products and Services platform focuses on User Experience with software and web based products that are integrated with all the Intuitive products.

ION System Business Unit: The HF team within the ION Platform supports development of an emerging and developing product for systems, software and instruments with specialized users in the pulmonary/ endoluminal treatment modalities.

Da Vinci Multiport RAS Business Unit: HF teams in the Multiport group support a wide array of multi-generational products and services touching all aspects of the product portfolio including the robotic systems, instruments and accessories, focused on the user interface, workflow and safety.

Da Vinci Single Port RAS Business Unit: The HF team in the Da Vinci SP platform work in similar ways as the Multiport team, supporting new and sustaining product development on a growing and emerging product platform exploring and expanding into new RAS treatment areas.

Future Forward Business Unit: The HF team in Future Forward supports Intuitive's ongoing investment in transformational clinical technologies on a ten-year horizon.

Roles and Responsibilities:

Research: 

• Plan, collect and synthesize detailed insights on how users interact with Intuitive products through various techniques including interviews, simulations, direct observations, task analyses, and persona development.
• Support project-based and advanced longitudinal-research regarding cognitive/behavioral and ergonomic human factors topics.

Design: 

• Contribute to workflow and user interface designs, and negotiate design recommendations to mitigate use errors and improve usability. 
• Develop usability requirements driving user interface design, training and labeling.
• Assist creation and revision of user-interface requirements documents.
• Advocate strongly and consistently for the clinical caregiver experience for safety and usability, with understanding of the nuance and balance of user/customer needs and business needs.

Test: 

• Design, execute, and report on usability (human factors) evaluations and tests at various stages of product development from early prototypes to formal External Standards-mandated validation testing in US and OUS market environments.
• Interface and associate with end-user customers in multiple international markets to gather design insights in a highly professional manner, during complex workflow-oriented usability testing and user research activities.

Analyze: 

• Write and revise highly accurate, clear, and concise usability engineering documents in a timely manner for multiple projects. (i.e. task analysis, usability risk analysis, external complaints summaries, use specifications, test reports/root cause analyses).
• Compile, organize and assess results of field observations and research, surveys, and usability testing into transferable data formats.
• Synthesize complex information into internal communications and presentations for product teams and broader organization leadership audiences.
• Prepare and review documentation for submission to regulatory agencies and notified bodies, including supporting the response to questions for additional justification and rationale.

Sustain and Improve: 

• Analyze complaints from on-market products, update usability risk assessment, and escalate usability-related issues as necessary.
• Keep current of MDR regulations and best practices for medical device human factors (e.g. IEC 62366, AAMI HE75, FDA Applying Human Factors and Usability Engineering to Medical Devices) and advise management regarding potential improvements to internal processes and regulatory issues related to usability engineering.

Collaborate:

• Lead the efforts required to create and update usability risk analyses for Intuitive Surgical products.
• Represent the Human Factors function on core teams for large projects.
• Coordinate human factors efforts across projects involving several sub-systems.
• Manage usability-engineering activities within development projects and provide schedules and status to technical product managers and engineering project managers.
• Mentor junior human factors engineers (e.g. interns and team colleagues), and others in organization in usability engineering methods and best practices, as well as Intuitive product development processes.