Head of Software and Controls

Company: Capstan Medical
Location: Santa Cruz
Posted on: June 2, 2025

Job Description:

Capstan Medical: Creating a new standard for minimally invasive structural heart treatmentWho we are:
At Capstan Medical, we're driven by an unwavering commitment to transforming the treatment of heart valve disease. By merging surgical robotics with catheter-based technology and next generation implants, we've pioneered a patient-optimized approach to repair and replace heart valves.Our innovative technology offers a significantly less invasive alternative to traditional open-heart surgery while ensuring precise and reliable placement of the heart valve implant. With these advancements, we may be able to provide patients with a solution to their heart valve disease while significantly reducing recovery time and minimizing the risk of complications. With a dedicated team of heart valve device experts and robotics engineers, we are fully committed to developing a comprehensive and transformative solution that will positively impact the lives of individuals affected by this condition.Capstan Medical is uniquely positioned in Santa Cruz. This gives us access to the amazing technical talent of the Bay Area, but in an environment that we feel is conducive to doing our best creative work. Our office is adjacent to large tracts of open space with bicycle trails straight from the office doors offering access to the hills and beaches of Wilder Ranch State Park for road/mountain bicycle riding, hiking, and surfing.Come join us and become part of a team revolutionizing heart valve treatment!The Opportunity:
We are looking for someone to lead and grow our team of Software and Controls Engineers. This team is responsible for a broad swath of our Product, ranging from firmware, algorithms, data, user interface, security, and safety.You will Lead a multi-disciplinary team of Software and Controls Engineers, who are collectively responsible for:

• Developing a scalable compute and software architecture. Our compute and software platform needs to be safe, performant, and scalable. And do that while supporting rapid innovation and development in a regulated environment.
• Making our catheters a delight to control. From the clinician inputs through the catheter pose and to robot motor commands, we are building a system where every detail is meticulously addressed, and the result is a delightful experience for our clinicians.
• Providing a well-considered user-facing UI that is used in high-pressure medical procedures. Our software and controls team is collaborating with our Clinical Development Engineering team, thought leaders from around the company, and external consultants where appropriate to ensure that the team is understanding the user needs and developing great solutions to address them.
• Building a data strategy. We gather all sorts of data: robot telemetry, video, medical imaging, case notes, etc. As we scale this data will be a superpower, so it's critical that we're being thoughtful about how we gather, store, and utilize it. And we must do that while observing regulations around patient confidentiality.
• Security is a critical piece of the foundation for our software, both in protecting our real-time systems from nefarious actors and protecting confidential patient data.You in particular will be responsible for:
  • Delivering the right product on time. You will be responsible for negotiating the scope, resources, and timeline needed for the team to meet the top-level company goals and then leading the team in executing against this from requirements through verification.
  • Identifying needs and growing the team. We have a small, mighty team, but we all acknowledge that it needs to grow. The ideal candidate will identify the optimal areas to focus on that growth and successfully recruit talented engineers to join us, elevate the talent of the engineers we have, and balance that with leveraging and managing external consultants.
  • Building relationships with leaders across the company. You can't be successful without having strong alignment across the Clinical, HW, Delivery System, Implant, Quality and Manufacturing teams on what the right product is and how to integrate and test everything at the right points along the way.
  • Bringing a deep technical expertise to guide and compliment the team's capabilities. Our leaders at Capstan strive to empower individuals on the team to have ownership spanning requirements to design verification for their work. Our leaders leverage their own deep technical experience to be the glue that makes sure each piece meets our high technical standards as well as fill in as needed any gaps in architecture and implementation.
  • Ensuring we have productive, efficient, and happy developers. You will make sure we're following best practices, using appropriate tools, and appropriately investing in infrastructure along the way.What you'll need:
    • BS or MS in Computer Science or related discipline, or equivalent work experience.
    • Minimum of 10 years of relevant experience in software development with time spent in leadership roles leading teams in shipping products.
    • Experience with real time safety-critical systems and developing products for tightly regulated environments.
    • Excitement to work in a fast-paced, ambiguous environment, excellent communication skills, broad curiosity about parts of our product outside of software.Ways to stand out from the crowd:
      • Experience developing modern user interfaces for complex electromechanical systems.
      • Experience with computer vision, 3D registration, Machine Learning, or related fields.
      • Experience shipping product following an IEC 62304 process for medical device software development and the FDA's cybersecurity guidelines.
      • We offer a fun, fast-paced, collaborative environment where you will be working on transformational technologies in the cardiac healthcare space.
      • We offer outstanding benefits with medical, dental, and vision covered at 100% for you and your family, as well as flex time off.
      • We thrive in our work-hard, play-hard environment. Bring your bike or running shoes if you'd like or just be ready to enjoy a fun office outing. We enjoy time inside the office and out!We are an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, and disability, or other legally protected status.
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Keywords: Capstan Medical, Berkeley , Head of Software and Controls, IT / Software / Systems , Santa Cruz, California