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.

Position Summary

The Vice President of Global Talent Management is a forward-thinking, strategic enterprise leader responsible for shaping and executing a forward-looking talent strategy that enables Intuitive’s growth, organizational agility and leadership excellence worldwide. This leader will be a partner to executive leadership, and HR leadership, aligning global talent strategy with business objectives to drive a high-performance culture in a rapidly growing and transforming global business.

Based in Sunnyvale, CA, this person leads the design and execution of enterprise-wide talent initiatives, including leadership development, succession planning and workforce planning and design across all our global markets. This leader partners with business leaders, HR leaders, and cross-functional teams, leading with purpose to enable the business to scale and grow.

With a strong leadership background in managing global, distributed teams, this leader fosters a culture of collaboration, continuous improvement and operational excellence.

Your customers: our leaders, our employees, HR, and key functional stakeholders.

Our HR Purpose: In partnership with our people, we aim to cultivate a healthy, high-performing, and scalable culture—one that empowers our global teams to thrive and stay focused on what matters most: putting patients first.

This is a rare opportunity to shape how a global, mission-driven MedTech company develops its most important asset: its people. As VP of Global Talent Management, you will build and lead the function that accelerates Intuitive's growth by attracting, developing, and retaining exceptional talent — worldwide.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

You will own the integrated Talent Management function that enables our employee performance and development with the business. Core accountabilities include:

• Partner with the business and HR leaders to align on a global talent strategy spanning performance management, succession planning, talent reviews, and L&D alignment
• Lead development of talent infrastructure: workforce planning and design, competency models, career paths, assessment tools, onboarding and year-one assimilation programs
• Practicing “co-creation” practices and leading with a “product development mindset” - Build and continuously improve talent programs that support the business strategies, deepen the talent pipeline, raise employee engagement, and support Intuitive's rapid global expansion
• Ensure talent systems, technologies, and processes are in place to execute reliably and cost-effectively across geographies. Keeping an eye on the employee experience – meeting them in the flow of work.
• Champion belonging, equity, diversity and inclusion through development programs and talent practice
• Maintain compliance with fiduciary and legal talent requirements applicable to a publicly traded company and US government contractor
• Partner with HR business partners and leaders creating global career paths, and pipeline development for talent
• Partnering with the HR business partners in driving organizational health metrics: employee engagement, bench strength, diversity representation, retention, and compliance
• Serve as an external thought leader — bringing best practices, market intelligence, and innovation into Intuitive's talent practices

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE

Experience & Education

• BS/BA in Industrial-Organizational Psychology, Organizational Development, HR Management, or related field; MBA or advanced degree in Sciences or Engineering is a plus
• Proven experience building and leading a global Talent Management Center of Excellence — setting strategy, governance, and operating model
• Deep expertise across the full talent lifecycle: talent acquisition, performance management, L&D, succession planning, workforce planning, D&I, org design, change management, and culture
• Track record of delivering enterprise-wide programs on time and at scale across a complex global matrix

Leadership & Interpersonal Capabilities

• Strategic mindset — able to anticipate talent trends, connect the dots from macro to micro, and build scalable initiatives
• Executional rigor — you close things; you drive programs from concept through measurement
• High emotional intelligence — skilled at building consensus, influencing without authority, and navigating organizational dynamics
• Exceptional collaboration and communication skills; natural relationship builder across functions, levels, and geographies
• Analytical and consulting strengths — you use data to make the case and track impact

WHO YOU ARE

You lead with both head and heart. You are as comfortable framing a multi-year talent strategy for the CHRO. You bring credibility earned through deep expertise, trust earned through integrity, and momentum earned through results.

You thrive in fast-moving, high-stakes environments and see complexity as opportunity. Most importantly, you believe — as we do — that developing great people is one of the highest-leverage things an organization can do.

Intuitive Surgical, Inc. is an Equal Employment Opportunity / Affirmative Action employer.

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.

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.

This position may be filled at a different job level than listed here depending on
business need and/or on the selected candidate’s experience, knowledge and skills.
Compensation will be based primarily on the job level at which the role is filled and the
candidate’s qualifications, consistent with applicable law.

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 compensation ranges are listed.