Database Platform Engineering Intern

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.

Primary Function of Position the Database Platform Engineering team is responsible for managing and modernizing the infrastructure that powers our global data services. This role reports to the Manager of Database Engineering and works at the intersection of traditional database management and modern cloud-native platform engineering. The intern will focus on automating database lifecycles, improving high availability, and exploring innovative scaling solutions for our next-generation robotic surgery platforms.

Essential Job Duties 

• Automation & CI/CD: Assist in building and maintaining automated pipelines for database provisioning, securing, access controls and configuration using Liquibase Gitlab.
• Cloud-Native Exploration: Deploy and manage stateful database workloads on Kubernetes using Stateful Sets and Database Operators.
• Platform Modernization: Research and prototype Database features to identify vertical and horizontal scaling benefits, and Blue-Green deployments.
• High Availability & DR: Document and test disaster recovery (DR) playbooks and high availability (HA) configurations for Database solutions.
• Process Improvement: Write scripts in Python or Shell to automate manual database tasks and improve system reliability.
• Collaborative Design: Participate in technical design reviews and collaborate with software and hardware engineers to ensure seamless system integration.

Required Skills and Experience 

University Hiring Program Eligibility Requirements:

• University Enrollment: Must be currently enrolled in and returning to an accredited degree-seeking academic program after the internship.
• Internship Work Period: Must be available to work full-time (approximately 40 hours per week) during a 10–12-week period starting May or June. Specific start dates are shared during the recruiting process.
• Technical Foundations: Strong understanding of relational and non-relational database core concepts (SQL, indexing, ACID properties).
• Programming: Industry experience or academic proficiency in at least one major programming language (Python, Terraform, PowerShell, Bash)

Required Education and Training 

 Current enrollment in a Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or related technical degree-seeking program at the Bachelor’s or Master’s level.

 Doctorate level students will also be considered based on specific relevant experience in distributed systems or database research.

Working Conditions “None”

Preferred Skills and Experience 

• Modern DataBase Stack: Familiarity with Postgress, Sqlserver, Snowflake or MongoDB and their respective scaling/automation tools.
• Orchestration: Hands-on experience or coursework involving Docker and Kubernetes.
• Infrastructure-as-Code: Exposure to automation tools such as Terraform or Ansible.
• Public Cloud: Interest in cloud technologies including AWS, GCP, or Azure.
• Communication: Excellent verbal and written communication skills to document technical work for diverse engineering teams.

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.

We provide market-competitive compensation packages, inclusive of base pay (paid at an hourly rate), benefits, and a housing allowance. 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 relevant skills and experience for this internship, degree-seeking academic program (PhD, Master’s, Bachelor’s, etc), year in school, and location. The hourly rate is prorated against the intern program salaries listed and total program compensation will be based on internship duration.