Director, Technical Operations

Company Description

At Intuitive, we are united behind our mission: we believe that minimally invasive care is life-enhancing care. Through ingenuity and intelligent technology, we expand the potential of physicians to heal without constraints.

As a pioneer and market leader in robotic-assisted surgery, we strive to foster an inclusive and diverse team, committed to making a difference. For more than 25 years, we have worked with hospitals and care teams around the world to help solve some of healthcare's hardest challenges and advance what is possible.

Intuitive has been built by the efforts of great people from diverse backgrounds. We believe great ideas can come from anywhere. We strive to foster an inclusive culture built around diversity of thought and mutual respect. We lead with inclusion and empower our team members to do their best work as their most authentic selves.

Passionate people who want to make a difference drive our culture. Our team members are grounded in integrity, have a strong capacity to learn, the energy to get things done, and bring diverse, real world experiences to help us think in new ways. We actively invest in our team members to support their long-term growth so they can continue to advance our mission and achieve their highest potential.

Join a team committed to taking big leaps forward for a global community of healthcare professionals and their patients. Together, let's advance the world of minimally invasive care.

Job Description

Primary Function of Position
At Intuitive, our product data are the lifeblood of our business. They power the insights we surface to our various customers, our product development process, our service and quality systems, and our internal decision-making. We are seeking an experienced Technical Operations Leader to drive and oversee the end-to-end management of digital product infrastructure and operations. This role focuses on the technical operations that support the stability, scalability, and performance of our digital products and database administration. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in infrastructure operations, data services support, database administration, datacenter management, networking, monitoring, incident response, and support services. This role is pivotal to ensuring operational excellence and providing a seamless digital product experience for users.

Essential Job Duties

Strategic Leadership

• Define the vision, strategy, and roadmap for technical operations, networking, and data services support to ensure the reliability, scalability, and performance of digital products.
• Collaborate with business and technology leaders to align infrastructure and operational initiatives with company objectives.
• Foster a culture of operational excellence, proactive problem-solving, and continuous improvement across teams.

Team Management

• Build, mentor, and lead a high-performing team of infrastructure engineers, database administrators, and technical support professionals.
• Establish best practices in infrastructure management, monitoring, automation, and operational support to enhance system performance and reliability.
• Develop training and career growth opportunities to ensure the team stays ahead of industry trends and technologies.

Infrastructure & Operations Management

• Oversee the operations and maintenance of scalable, secure, and highly available infrastructure to support digital products.
• Ensure system uptime, resilience, and disaster recovery readiness, including cloud and on-premises environments.
• Strengthen operational monitoring, observability, and incident response to proactively identify and address system performance issues.
• Manage optimization of networking, backup and recovery, and data center operations for efficiency and reliability.

Data Services & Database Administration

• Oversee data services technical support and database administration to ensure availability, security, and performance across critical business systems.
• Ensure operations of cloud-based and on-premises infrastructure platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, NoSQL solutions) meet operational needs.
• Ensure data accessibility, consistency, and integrity, partnering with stakeholders on best practices for data-driven decision-making.

Governance, Security & Compliance

• Implement and enforce infrastructure and data governance policies to ensure security, compliance, and operational resilience.
• Ensure alignment with industry regulations and best practices (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA, ISO 27001, HITRUST).
• Collaborate with security teams to identify and mitigate vulnerabilities in infrastructure and data environments.

Innovation & Continuous Improvement

• Stay ahead of emerging trends in infrastructure automation, AIOps, and cloud technologies to drive operational efficiency.
• Identify opportunities to enhance performance, reduce costs, and automate processes across infrastructure and operations.
• Drive innovation in observability, AI/ML-driven monitoring, and predictive analytics to improve system reliability.

Collaboration & Stakeholder Engagement

• Partner with Product, Engineering, Security, Data Analytics, and IT teams to align infrastructure and operational capabilities with business needs.
• Act as a thought leader in technical operations, advocating for best practices and fostering collaboration across teams.
• Communicate key operational metrics, risks, and opportunities to senior leadership, ensuring transparency and alignment.

Qualifications

Required Skills and Experience 

• Minimum Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field (Master’s preferred).
• 10+ years of experience in technical operations, infrastructure management, or a similar role, with at least 5 years in a leadership capacity.
• 5 or more years of leading teams of 10 or more within this area of discipline
• Strong expertise in digital infrastructure, data services, and database administration, service desk, and networking.
• Proven experience in incident response, monitoring, and observability tools (e.g., Datadog, Splunk, New Relic).
• Solid understanding of networking, datacenter management, system backup/recovery, and database technologies (e.g., MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, or NoSQL solutions).
• Familiarity with ITIL frameworks and operational best practices.
• Strong leadership and communication skills, with the ability to collaborate across cross-functional teams.
• Experience managing budgets, vendors, and contracts.
• Background in digital product environments and customer-facing applications.

Required Education and Training 

• Minimum Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Data Science, or a related field (Master’s preferred).

Preferred Skills and Experience 

• Certifications such as AWS Solutions Architect, Azure Administrator, ITIL Practitioner, or technical infrastructure/database-related certifications.
• Experience in DevOps practices, automation, and CI/CD pipelines, and MLOps.

Additional Information

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

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.

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 salary ranges are listed.