AI/ML Engineer Intern

Location: Sunnyvale, CA, us Employment Type: {'id': 'intern', 'label': 'Intern'}

Company Description

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.

Job Description

Primary Function of Position

The Global Access, Value and Economics (GAVE) organization at Intuitive is seeking a highly motivated, hard-working, and professional AI/ML Engineer Intern to join our team for Summer 2027. The AI/ML Engineer Intern will support GAVE’s mission of generating clinical evidence to drive the adoption of robotic-assisted surgery. They will work within the Global Access and Evidence Management Center of Excellence to develop a system to optimize evidence management and synthesis processes. They will design a tool to identify, deduplicate, validate, and ingest new publications related to Intuitive products. They will also work with the team to integrate existing large language model (LLM) pipelines into this solution. The intern will get hands-on experience with software development, data management, machine learning, and systems design thinking. Beyond technical skills, this internship will require effective communication with numerous cross-functional stakeholders.

Essential Job Duties

Design an end-to-end data pipeline to optimize critical evidence management, synthesis, and generation processes.

Implement and automate publication search and deduplication strategies.

Assist in integrating additional large language model (LLM) workflows into this system.

Collaborate with cross-functional stakeholders to develop the solution.

Present and interpret findings to a broad range of teams across the organization.

Qualifications

Required Skills and Experience

Self-motivated individual with a strong interest in data science and machine learning.

Proven ability to collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams and address the needs of multiple stakeholders.

Excellent mix of communication and technical skills to engage effectively across all audiences.

Self-driven problem solver who can work with minimal supervision.

Strong desire to learn and grow in the field of data science and machine learning.

Proficiency with Python programming language.

Strong understanding of relational databases and SQL.

Solid grasp of machine learning concepts and algorithms.

Understanding of systems thinking and system design principles.

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.

Internship will be remote/hybrid with opportunity for on-site meetings at a minimum of 3 times during the course of the internship.

Required Education and Training

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

Working Conditions

None

Preferred Skills and Experience

Experience with LLM APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Azure OpenAI, or similar), including prompt engineering and structured outputs.

Experience with Agentic AI workflows.

Experience with building ETL/data ingestion pipelines for Snowflake.

Experience with NLP techniques such as vector embeddings and semantic similarity.

Familiarity with R is a plus.

Experience with scikit-learn is a plus.

Familiarity with statistical methods, systematic literature reviews, and meta-analysis is a plus.

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

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 co