Principal Robotics Engineer - R&D

Boston Engineering Corporation•Waltham, MA

1d•Onsite

About The Position

Boston Engineering is seeking a Principal Robotics Engineer to provide hands-on technical leadership and systems engineering ownership for robotic inspection systems. The primary focus is the Surface Mobility Platform (SMP), with secondary support for micro underwater remotely operated vehicles (mROV). The position is based in Waltham, Massachusetts, and will translate customer needs into integrated, verified systems while leading the transition from prototypes to commercial production. The engineer will guide mechanical, electrical, controls, and software engineers through architecture and interface decisions, integration, demonstrations, and field troubleshooting. The secondary mROV work includes agreed architecture, reusable capabilities, and targeted integration. This office-based role includes minimal travel and reports to the VP, Research and Development. It is restricted to US persons because of access to export-controlled technology; proof of status is required before employment. Relocation is not available. Boston Engineering describes its work as developing real-world technologies for commercial and government clients across robotics, autonomous systems, medical devices, digital solutions, defense technologies, and industrial automation. The role combines technical leadership with hands-on design, prototyping, analysis, and testing, and includes mentoring engineers and contributing to engineering practices, proposals, customer demonstrations, and intellectual property activities.

Requirements

At least 10 years of relevant engineering experience, including at least 5 years in robotics.
Demonstrated delivery or integration of mobile robotic or comparably complex robotic systems, including hands-on integration and troubleshooting.
Depth in a relevant engineering discipline and sufficient breadth to lead tradeoffs across hardware, software, controls, embedded computing, and sensing.
Experience owning systems engineering work, including requirements development and allocation, architecture, interface management, technical trade studies, and verification planning, using traceability and experimental evidence.
Demonstrated technical contribution to the transition of robotic or complex electromechanical prototypes to commercial production.
Hands-on proficiency in CAD design and assembly modeling, with the ability to interpret engineering drawings and mechanical constraints and resolve electromechanical interfaces.
Ability to lead multidisciplinary technical work, communicate risk, and document interfaces and engineering decisions.
Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Robotics, Mechatronics, Computer Engineering, or a closely related discipline, or equivalent relevant practical experience.
Must be a US person (US citizen, permanent resident, or other protected individual under the Immigration and Naturalization Act); proof of status is required before employment.

Nice To Haves

SolidWorks experience is preferred.
Experience with inspection robotics, crawler or surface-adhering platforms, challenging industrial environments, and field support relevant to SMP.
Underwater or marine robotics experience for secondary mROV work.
Supplier qualification, design for manufacturability and assembly, production documentation, and pilot builds.
Experience with localization, mapping, path planning, closed-loop control, ROS, ROS 2, or comparable middleware.
A master’s degree in a relevant discipline.

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.
Participate hands-on in development and integration, resolve difficult technical problems, and lead root-cause investigations.
Lead trade studies and cross-disciplinary design decisions with functional leads and program leadership within established 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, 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.
Support production readiness with manufacturing, quality, and supply-chain teams by addressing 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.