Lead Firmware Engineer

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

This role is restricted to US persons (i.e., US citizens, permanent residents, and other protected individuals under the Immigration and Naturalization Act, 8 USC 1324b(a)(3)) due to access to export-controlled technology. Boston Engineering will require proof of status prior to employment.

This is a hands-on Lead Firmware Engineer
. While the title includes "software," the work is primarily embedded and firmware-focused: RTOS-based systems, hardware bring-up, driver development, board-level debugging, and close collaboration with electrical and mechanical teams. Some upper-stack or tooling work exists, but the core responsibility is commanding and controlling hardware.

The Lead Firmware Engineer owns embedded software at both the tactical and strategic levels, ensuring that systems are architected correctly, risks are identified early, and the broader team is unblocked when challenges arise. This role sets technical direction, streamlines and documents software processes, establishes best practices, and raises the embedded engineering bar across projects.

• 40%:
  Technical hands of keyboard
• 15%:
  Integration, manufacturing, production support
• 15%:
  Mentoring, code/design reviews, process improvement

Requirements and Preferences

• Proven ability in:
  • Leading the design, development, and optimization of embedded and firmware systems for robotics, autonomous, or maritime platforms
  • Streamlining and documenting software processes to accelerate projects and ensure repeatability, while maintaining high-quality standards
  • Architecting and implementing firmware tightly integrated with custom hardware, sensors, and control systems
  • Writing and reviewing RTOS-based firmware (FreeRTOS, ROS2, Zephyr), including task design, synchronization, memory management, and timing analysis
  • Reviewing schematics and PCB layouts to identify firmware impacts, integration risks, and potential design issues early in the development cycle
  • Debugging complex system issues using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, protocol analyzers, and other bench tools, and determining root cause across software, firmware, and hardware
  • Building and maintaining benchtop development setups ("roadkills") to enable early firmware development prior to final hardware availability
  • Ensuring firmware meets real-time performance, reliability, and mission-critical requirements
  • Leading technical design reviews, architecture discussions, and roadmap planning with a focus on system-level risk and feasibility
  • Clearly communicating technical concepts, tradeoffs, risks, and status to both engineering and non-engineering stakeholders
  • Anticipating and addressing technical bottlenecks that span firmware, hardware, and system integration

Experience working in challenging, hands-on, and customer-driven engineering environments

• Closely collaborating withelectrical, mechanical, systems, and product teams
• Demonstrating proficiency in standard embedded development tools, git version control, build systems, and debugging environments
• Strong organizational skills and clear written and verbal communications
• Ability to obtain and maintain a security clearance

Successful candidates must have demonstrated success and capability in the following:

• Acting as the technical escalation point when…