Principal 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.

See how Boston Engineering helps clients turn complex ideas into real-world products and technologies.

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Boston Engineering – Product Development Services

This is a Principal Firmware Engineer role. 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.

This is not a role where you'll simply provide technical direction from the sidelines. You'll be designing, coding, debugging, integrating, and solving difficult problems alongside the engineering team.

The Principal Firmware Engineer owns embedded software at both the tactical and strategic levels, ensuring systems are architected correctly, risks are identified early, and the broader team is unblocked when challenges arise. This role sets technical direction, improves and documents software processes, establishes best practices, and mentor's engineers.

• 40% — Hands-on firmware development and debugging
• 30% — Systems Design
• 15% — Integration, manufacturing and production support
• 15% — Mentoring, code/design reviews, and process improvement

Take a look at how Boston Engineering applies engineering expertise to the development of BIOSwimmer, an autonomous underwater robotic fish.

WATCH:
How Reverse Engineering Propels BIOSwimmer – The Robotic Fish

• Lead the design, development, and optimization of embedded and firmware systems
• Write and review RTOS-based firmware using FreeRTOS, ROS2, Zephyr, or similar
• Architect firmware integrated with custom hardware, sensors, and control systems
• Develop firmware, device drivers, and communication stacks
• Review schematics and PCB layouts to identify firmware impacts and integration risks
• Debug complex software, firmware, and hardware issues using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, protocol analyzers, and other bench tools
• Build and maintain benchtop development setups ("roadkills") for early firmware development
• Lead technical design reviews, architecture discussions, and roadmap planning
• Act as the technical escalation point when embedded or system-level issues block progress
• Mentor engineers on firmware architecture, debugging, and best practices
• Break down ambiguous problems into executable engineering plans
• Support development workflows, integration, manufacturing, and transition to production
• Communicate technical concepts, tradeoffs, risks, and status to engineering and non-engineering stakeholders

• 7+ years of embedded/firmware development experience, including 3+ years in a senior or technical lead role
• BS in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field; MS preferred
• Strong C and C++ experience for embedded systems and Python for tooling/testing
• Hands-on…