Lead Firmware Engineer
Boston Engineering Corporation4 hours ago
Waltham, MA, USAStaff+
Base Salary
$150k - $175k/yr
Responsibilities
- Lead the design, development, optimization, and architecture of embedded and firmware systems for robotics, autonomous, maritime, and related platforms.
- Write and review RTOS-based firmware, including task design, synchronization, memory management, timing analysis, device drivers, and communication stacks.
- Integrate firmware with custom hardware, sensors, control systems, schematics, and PCB layouts.
- Perform hardware bring-up, board-level debugging, system integration, testing, and root-cause analysis using bench tools.
- Act as the technical escalation point for embedded and system-level issues and unblock engineering teams.
- Set technical direction, lead design reviews and roadmap planning, and manage system-level risks and feasibility.
- Build and maintain benchtop development setups to enable firmware development before final hardware is available.
- Mentor engineers on firmware architecture, debugging, design practices, and maintainable software development.
- Streamline and document software processes, configuration management, repeatable workflows, and development best practices.
- Collaborate with electrical, mechanical, systems, product, R&D, manufacturing, production, and customer-facing teams.
- Support software requirements, specifications, design documentation, proposal development, feasibility studies, and early technical concepts.
- Ensure firmware meets real-time performance, reliability, safety, and mission-critical requirements.
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field is required; a master's degree is preferred.
- At least 7 years of embedded or firmware development experience, including at least 3 years in a senior or technical lead role.
- Fluency in C and C++ for embedded systems and Python for tooling and testing.
- Hands-on experience with RTOS environments such as FreeRTOS, ROS2, or Zephyr.
- Experience developing software for embedded targets such as STM32, ARM-based MCUs or SoCs, x86, PIC32, or similar platforms.
- Experience with I2C, SPI, UART, Ethernet, GPIO, and other low-level hardware interfaces.
- Experience with standard embedded development tools, Git version control, build systems, debugging environments, and CI/CD pipelines.
- Experience debugging networking stacks and board-level communication issues is a strong plus.
- Ability to author and review software requirements, specifications, and design documentation and lead effective design reviews.
- Ability to obtain and maintain a security clearance.
- Experience with maritime systems, robotics, uncrewed systems, military platforms, navigation, localization, sensor fusion, or autonomy is preferred or advantageous.
- Familiarity with cloud or server-based data offload and analysis, ISO 9001, CMMI, quality management systems, safety-critical software practices, and embedded DevOps workflows is desirable.
- Strong communication, organization, technical problem-solving, and cross-functional collaboration skills.
- Experience with machine learning, computer vision, or AI applied to embedded or robotic systems is a bonus.
Benefits
- Full-time, office-based role in Waltham, Massachusetts.
- Minimal travel is required, and relocation is not available at this time.
- Health insurance, 401(k) match, and paid time off are provided.
- The base salary range is $150,000 to $175,000 annually.
About Boston Engineering Corporation
Boston Engineering Corporation provides product design and engineering consulting, taking hardware and software products from concept through connected, production-ready systems for defense, medical device, robotics, and commercial clients. Founded in 1995 and headquartered in Waltham, MA, the privately held firm is certified to ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 13485:2016. Engagements span embedded software, electromechanical systems, and UUV/robotics programs, including early prototyping, system integration, and transfer to manufacturing.