Physician Future Forward Incubator

Intuitive • Sunnyvale, CA

4d • $186,800 - $316,200 • Onsite

About The Position

The Physician, Corporate Strategy is an MD physician innovator embedded within Intuitive’s Future Forward Incubator, a cross-functional innovation group that identifies, evaluates, and develops new clinical opportunities and technology platforms. The role translates clinical insight and early-market understanding into growth opportunities by identifying unmet clinical needs, assessing strategic fit, and shaping technology concepts from initial hypotheses through early de-risking.

The successful candidate will bring either substantial clinical practice experience combined with exposure to innovation, venture, startups, business development, Biodesign, or product development; or an MD background paired with deep experience in those areas and sufficient clinical fluency to assess patient care, procedure workflows, and clinician needs. The physician will work with engineering, clinical, product, regulatory, reimbursement, and strategy partners to decide which opportunities should advance and how to frame them clinically and commercially.

The position is full-time and fully onsite in Sunnyvale, California, with travel to clinical sites, customer locations, or conferences, including internationally, of up to 25%. Compensation varies by region: the stated target range is $219,800–$316,200 for Region 1 and $186,800–$268,800 for Region 2. Compensation depends on job level and candidate qualifications.

Requirements

• MD or DO required.
• Demonstrated experience in at least one of these profiles: meaningful hands-on clinical practice or procedural care experience plus exposure to innovation, venture, startups, business development, Biodesign, or product development; or strong venture, startup, business development, Biodesign, corporate strategy, or product strategy experience plus sufficient clinical fluency to evaluate medical needs and care pathways.
• Ability to identify unmet clinical needs and convert observations into structured hypotheses, need statements, development plans, or investment theses.
• Experience conducting clinician, patient, or stakeholder interviews and synthesizing voice-of-customer input into actionable product or strategy recommendations.
• Comfort operating in ambiguous, early-stage environments where direction is uncertain and evidence is built iteratively.
• Strong cross-functional influence and collaboration skills with engineering, clinical, regulatory, reimbursement, product, and business stakeholders.
• Ability to evaluate clinical workflows, procedure economics, adoption barriers, competitive dynamics, and strategic implications for new technology platforms.
• Clear executive communication skills, including written synthesis, structured presentations, and explaining complex clinical concepts to non-clinical audiences.
• Curiosity, an ownership mindset, and enthusiasm for building technologies intended to transform care delivery and improve patient outcomes.
• Ability to work full-time onsite in Sunnyvale, California, and travel up to 25%, including internationally.
• Ability to meet hospital credentialing and compliance requirements for clinical site access.

Nice To Haves

• Biodesign or equivalent needs-based innovation training.
• Experience in venture, startups, business development, product strategy, or corporate strategy.
• Surgical or interventional specialty training.
• Clinical practice experience, residency or fellowship training, or comparable patient-care exposure for candidates from a primarily clinical background.
• Formal training such as Biodesign, an MBA, MPH, MS, fellowship, or other education in innovation, product development, health economics, or business strategy.

Responsibilities

• Identify, frame, and prioritize unmet clinical needs through clinical immersion, literature review, market sensing, and voice-of-customer input.
• Translate physician and patient insights into need statements, opportunity hypotheses, clinical workflows, requirements, and early de-risking plans.
• Evaluate early-stage opportunities for clinical importance, feasibility, strategic fit, adoption barriers, competitive landscape, and potential business impact.
• Partner with engineering and design teams to define clinical use cases, procedural workflows, performance goals, and prototype feedback loops for new platforms.
• Lead or support early clinical de-risking activities, including preclinical studies, simulated use, workflow validation, and early feasibility planning where appropriate.
• Develop assessments of emerging technologies, startups, venture-backed innovation, adjacent markets, and external partnership opportunities.
• Collaborate with regulatory, reimbursement, health economics, product, and commercial strategy partners to shape indication strategy and development pathways.
• Engage KOLs, clinicians, entrepreneurs, academic innovators, and external partners to validate concepts and inform investment decisions.
• Communicate findings to senior stakeholders through written recommendations, executive presentations, and data-driven opportunity narratives.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree