Manager Services Technical Writing

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 

Services Technical Publications provides the foundation for every procedure performed on Intuitive’s advanced medical devices by the global Field Service team. As part of the Services leadership group, the Manager of Services Technical Publications is responsible for the timely development, delivery, and maintenance of high-quality Field Service documentation. 

This leader manages and develops a team of technical writers to produce accurate, well structured, and compliant content that meets project timelines without requiring daily oversight. The role also serves as a subject matter expert, driving both content and process improvements from design through implementation and iteration. As a player-coach, the manager will guide the transformation of the technical writing function into a streamlined, scalable operation that effectively blends manual processes with advanced system capabilities to improve quality and throughput while limiting resource growth. 

This is an on-campus position with both office and laboratory work environments.

Essential Job Duties 

• Lead and mentor technical writers by providing coaching, feedback, and guidance on best practices to drive improved performance and professional growth. 

• Establish and maintain accurate resource and demand planning to build aggressive but realistic delivery targets that support Intuitive’s innovation and continuous improvement goals.

• Establish and manage dashboards, workflows, and platforms (e.g. IXIA CCMS, Confluence, Jira, Smartsheet, Tableau, etc.), partnering with shared services as needed, to monitor and report progress against clearly articulated goals, maintaining high visibility with project teams.

• Proactively identify potential risks to goal attainment, develop and deploy effective mitigation plans to avoid downstream disruption to project plans

• Enhances design and structure of stylesheets, re-use strategy, and process for authoring and updating service procedures.

• Works cross-functionally, both upstream and downstream, to identify and help drive process improvement for adjacent dependencies in the end-to-end process. Key partners include Product Support Engineering, Software Development, Software Testing, Product Management, and Product Management.

• Build and maintain proficiency in industry best practices to ensure the technical writers are fully leveraging advanced application or AI-based tooling capabilities for authoring, reviewing, and releasing content.

• Work directly with architects and consultants to ensure document structure is optimized for service users and automation processes.  

• Guide technical writer definition and structure for new content for Field Service documentation (service procedures and technical bulletins).

• To maintain technical and process relevance, and augment resource plans as needed, regularly contribute directly to content creation by planning, writing, editing, and maintaining service procedures and illustrations for medical device systems.

• Conduct validation and verification of technical documentation.

• Complete documentation control steps to release final documentation. This includes Change Orders in the documentation control system.

• Train and adhere to policies, procedures, and quality documents.

• Use skills as an experienced technical communication professional with understanding of industry best practices and company objectives to resolve complex issues in creative and effective ways.

Required Skills and Experience 

• Bachelor's degree in engineering sciences, professional writing or equivalent preferred. 

• 8+ years of technical writing experience, with 3+ years in a management role in a hardware, software, or engineering environment, including generating and managing the delivery of documentation for various technical audiences. 

• Strong writing and grammar skills in areas of content development by using minimalist, topic-based writing style. Analytical ability to swiftly grasp and effectively communicate complex scientific and engineering concepts for intended audiences. 

• Strong organizational and project-management skills with ability to manage deliverables for multiple projects under tight deadlines, set priorities, and manage time effectively. 

• Demonstrated experience with establishing content governance and strategy

• Strong coaching and leadership skills with an innate desire to solve hard problems and drive continuous improvement (personally, for the team, and for processes and tools). 

• Strong understanding of mechanical concepts and complex mechanical devices. 

• Ability to quickly grasp new concepts, learn new products, and adapt to/lead through change. 

• Previous experience with medical devices and a regulated environment preferred. 

• Experience with current versions of standard authoring tools, including Adobe Acrobat and InDesign; and Microsoft Excel and Word. 

• Experience with DITA XML authoring tools. IXIA experience highly desired. 

• Experience with component content management systems (CCMSs) required. 

• Experience with Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, or equivalent desirable. 

• Professional references and writing examples expected. 

Required Education and Training 

• Minimum Bachelor’s degree in a related field required

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, 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 base compensation ranges are listed.