Principal Robotics Engineer - R&D

Company Description Boston Engineering is seeking a Principal Robotics Engineer - R&Dto join our team in Waltham, MA!

Boston Engineering is where innovative ideas become real-world technologies. Headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts, we've spent more than 30 years partnering with commercial and government clients to solve complex engineering challenges and bring breakthrough products to market. From advanced robotics and autonomous systems to medical devices, digital solutions, defense technologies, and industrial automation, our teams work on meaningful projects that push the boundaries of what's possible.

Why Join Boston Engineering?

Build products with real-world purpose. Contribute to technologies that address challenging commercial and government needs

Own consequential technical decisions. Shape mechanical concepts and system architecture, guide design tradeoffs, and help clients choose a path forward

Stay close to the work. Combine technical leadership with design, prototyping, analysis, and testing

Keep expanding your expertise. Work across industries alongside mechanical, electrical, software, systems, and manufacturing engineers

Multiply your impact. Mentor engineers, develop future technical leaders, and strengthen engineering practices across the organization

See how Boston Engineering helps clients turn complex ideas into real-world products and technologies Watch:
Boston Engineering – Product Development Services

Job Description Provide hands-on technical leadership and systems engineering ownership for Boston Engineering's robotic inspection systems, with primary focus on Surface Mobility Platform (SMP) and secondary focus on micro underwater remotely operated vehicles (mROV). Based in Waltham, MA this person will translate customer needs into integrated, verified systems and lead the engineering transition from prototypes to commercial production. Guide mechanical, electrical, controls and software engineers through architecture and interface decisions, integration, demonstrations and field troubleshooting.

Secondary mROV work covers agreed architecture, reusable capabilities and targeted integration. Key responsibilities Own systems engineering and the integrated technical plan for assigned SMP efforts, with secondary mROV support. Translate stakeholder needs into requirements, subsystem allocations, system architecture, interfaces, and verification and validation criteria Work hands-on in development and integration, resolving difficult technical problems and leading root-cause investigations. Lead trade studies and cross-disciplinary design decisions with functional leads and program leadership, within agreed technical decision and escalation boundaries

Lead integration of hardware, robotics software and controls across embedded computing, sensing and sensor processing, motion control, inspection payloads, operator interfaces, vehicle-to-operator communications and data capture. Address localization, navigation, mobility or adhesion as applicable

Collaboratively establish architecture baselines and configuration compatibility across mechanical revisions, electronics, firmware and software, and calibration data. Identify shared capabilities while preserving product-specific constraints and interfaces

Lead engineering reviews, integration milestones, verification and validation, failure investigations and regression testing. Maintain traceability from needs and requirements to test evidence, and surface technical, schedule and resource risks early

Lead engineering efforts supporting production readiness with manufacturing, quality and supply-chain teams. Address manufacturability, component and sourcing risks, assembly efficiency, repeatable pilot builds, release and service documentation, reliability, maintainability, calibration and field diagnostics. Provide technical input rather than assume purchasing or manufacturing execution ownership

Evaluate new product concepts and competitive products to inform performance targets, differentiation and technology roadmaps. Support intellectual property development through invention disclosures and technical input to patent activities

Mentor engineers and contribute to proposals, customer demonstrations, field preparation and clear explanations of system capability and limitations Qualifications
10+ years of relevant engineering experience, including at least 5 years in robotics Demonstrated delivery or integration of mobile robotic or comparably complex robotic…