Principal Engineer Jobs in Massachusetts
Principal Engineer jobs in Massachusetts are in high demand, with the state ranking among the most active markets in the country for senior technical leadership roles concentrated in software systems, hardware design, and defense engineering at every level from staff engineer to distinguished principal. The greatest density of openings is in Boston, Cambridge, and the Route 128 corridor, where established employers like Raytheon Technologies, MathWorks, and Analog Devices consistently hire principal engineers across software architecture, embedded systems, and signal processing. Find a role that fits below and apply directly.
Find Principal Engineer JobsOverview
Open roles209+
Top employerRaytheon
Top cityBoston, MA
Cities hiring42
Work type46% On-site
Top industryTechnology
Showing 4 of 209+ Principal Engineer jobs
Principal Data Engineer - QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey
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Added 1d ago
McKinsey & Company
Principal Data Engineer - QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey
Boston, Massachusetts
Added 1d ago
K
Principal Embedded Software Engineer
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K
Added 1d ago
K&k Global Talents
Principal Embedded Software Engineer
Boston, Massachusetts
Added 1d ago
Senior Principal Antenna Microwave Engineer
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Added 1d ago
Raytheon
Senior Principal Antenna Microwave Engineer
Tewksbury, Massachusetts
Added 1d ago
Senior Principal Mechanical Engineer
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Added 1d ago
Raytheon
Senior Principal Mechanical Engineer
Marlborough, Massachusetts
Added 1d ago
Added 1d ago
Principal Data Engineer - QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey
McKinsey & Company·Boston, Massachusetts
Job functions:
Experience equivalent to degree accepted
Job Description
Job ID: 114506
- Boston
- Chicago
- New York City
- San Francisco
- Seattle
- Washington DC
Do you want to do work that matters, alongside supportive leaders who will help you grow faster than you ever thought possible? Are you a creative problem-solver who is energized by challenges? You’ve come to the right place.
YOUR IMPACT
You will lead technical teams, architect data platforms, and build scalable pipelines while mentoring colleagues and collaborating with clients at all levels.
You’ll tackle impactful challenges, contribute to R&D, and grow as a leader by working with diverse experts on cutting-edge AI projects across industries.
You will lead multiple technical teams and own the technology stack for enterprise data and AI platforms. You’ll design and build robust, scalable, and reproducible data pipelines for machine learning while ensuring information security standards are upheld. Additionally, you’ll mentor junior colleagues, contribute to R&D projects, and drive innovation within the QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey Data Engineering community.
Your work will address real-world challenges across industries. Partnering with QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey and QuantumBlack Labs teams, you’ll help create innovative machine learning systems that accelerate AI adoption and solve business problems at speed and scale, enabling clients to achieve meaningful and lasting impact.
You will be based in one of our North America offices as part of our global Data Engineering community. You’ll work in cross-functional Agile teams alongside Data Scientists, Machine Learning Engineers, and industry experts to deliver advanced analytics solutions. Collaborating with clients from data owners to C-level executives, you’ll help architect impactful solutions that solve complex business problems and drive value.
You will be in an exceptional environment to grow as a technologist and leader. You’ll develop expertise at the intersection of technology and business by tackling diverse challenges. Surrounded by inspiring, multidisciplinary teams, you’ll gain a holistic understanding of AI while collaborating with some of the best design, technical, and business talent in the world.
YOUR GROWTH
Driving lasting impact and building long-term capabilities with our clients is not easy work. You are the kind of person who thrives in a high performance/high reward culture - doing hard things, picking yourself up when you stumble, and having the resilience to try another way forward.
In return for your drive, determination, and curiosity, we'll provide the resources, mentorship, and opportunities you need to become a stronger leader faster than you ever thought possible. Your colleagues—at all levels—will invest deeply in your development, just as much as they invest in delivering exceptional results for clients. Every day, you'll receive apprenticeship, coaching, and exposure that will accelerate your growth in ways you won’t find anywhere else.
When you join us, you will have:
- Continuous learning: Our learning and apprenticeship culture, backed by structured programs, is all about helping you grow while creating an environment where feedback is clear, actionable, and focused on your development. The real magic happens when you take the input from others to heart and embrace the fast-paced learning experience, owning your journey.
- A voice that matters: From day one, we value your ideas and contributions. You’ll make a tangible impact by offering innovative ideas and practical solutions, all while upholding our unwavering commitment to ethics and integrity. We not only encourage diverse perspectives, but they are critical in driving us toward the best possible outcomes.
- Global community: With colleagues across 65+ countries and over 100 different nationalities, our firm’s diversity fuels creativity and helps us come up with the best solutions for our clients. Plus, you’ll have the opportunity to learn from exceptional colleagues with diverse backgrounds and experiences.
- World-class benefits: On top of a competitive salary (based on your location, experience, and skills), we provide a comprehensive benefits package to enable holistic well-being for you and your family.
YOUR QUALIFICATIONS AND SKILLS
- Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or equivalent experience
- 10+ years relevant professional experience
- Ability to scope projects, define workstreams, and translate roadmaps into sprint goals, milestones, and deliverables within agile and iterative team environments
- Proven experience architecting and building enterprise data and AI platforms as well as scalable data pipelines for advanced analytics use cases operating in production
- Passion for and track record of effectively leading and mentoring more junior colleagues
- Expertise in implementing software engineering best practices to drive enterprise-wide improvement, including DevOps, DataOps, and MLOps
- Strong software engineering and data engineering expertise, including distributed computing frameworks (e.g., Spark, Dask), cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP), containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), analytics libraries (e.g., pandas, NumPy, matplotlib), and modern data platforms and orchestration tools such as Databricks, Airflow, SQL, PySpark, Kedro, and RAPIDS
- Ability to write clean, maintainable, scalable, and robust code in object-oriented languages such as Python, Scala, or Java, and experience supporting the development of junior engineers through collaborative code reviews
- Extensive commercial client-facing or senior stakeholder management experience
- Exceptional time management to meet your responsibilities in a complex and largely autonomous work environment
- Willingness to travel
- Strong communication skills with the ability to adjust your style to suit different perspectives and seniority levels
Please review the additional requirements regarding essential job functions of McKinsey colleagues.
Our unwavering commitment to integrity drives everything we do, guiding us to always act in the best interests of our clients, our people, and the communities we serve.
McKinsey & Company
Principal Data Engineer - QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey
Boston, Massachusetts
Added 1d ago
Job functions:
Experience equivalent to degree accepted
Job Description
Job ID: 114506
- Boston
- Chicago
- New York City
- San Francisco
- Seattle
- Washington DC
Do you want to do work that matters, alongside supportive leaders who will help you grow faster than you ever thought possible? Are you a creative problem-solver who is energized by challenges? You’ve come to the right place.
YOUR IMPACT
You will lead technical teams, architect data platforms, and build scalable pipelines while mentoring colleagues and collaborating with clients at all levels.
You’ll tackle impactful challenges, contribute to R&D, and grow as a leader by working with diverse experts on cutting-edge AI projects across industries.
You will lead multiple technical teams and own the technology stack for enterprise data and AI platforms. You’ll design and build robust, scalable, and reproducible data pipelines for machine learning while ensuring information security standards are upheld. Additionally, you’ll mentor junior colleagues, contribute to R&D projects, and drive innovation within the QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey Data Engineering community.
Your work will address real-world challenges across industries. Partnering with QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey and QuantumBlack Labs teams, you’ll help create innovative machine learning systems that accelerate AI adoption and solve business problems at speed and scale, enabling clients to achieve meaningful and lasting impact.
You will be based in one of our North America offices as part of our global Data Engineering community. You’ll work in cross-functional Agile teams alongside Data Scientists, Machine Learning Engineers, and industry experts to deliver advanced analytics solutions. Collaborating with clients from data owners to C-level executives, you’ll help architect impactful solutions that solve complex business problems and drive value.
You will be in an exceptional environment to grow as a technologist and leader. You’ll develop expertise at the intersection of technology and business by tackling diverse challenges. Surrounded by inspiring, multidisciplinary teams, you’ll gain a holistic understanding of AI while collaborating with some of the best design, technical, and business talent in the world.
YOUR GROWTH
Driving lasting impact and building long-term capabilities with our clients is not easy work. You are the kind of person who thrives in a high performance/high reward culture - doing hard things, picking yourself up when you stumble, and having the resilience to try another way forward.
In return for your drive, determination, and curiosity, we'll provide the resources, mentorship, and opportunities you need to become a stronger leader faster than you ever thought possible. Your colleagues—at all levels—will invest deeply in your development, just as much as they invest in delivering exceptional results for clients. Every day, you'll receive apprenticeship, coaching, and exposure that will accelerate your growth in ways you won’t find anywhere else.
When you join us, you will have:
- Continuous learning: Our learning and apprenticeship culture, backed by structured programs, is all about helping you grow while creating an environment where feedback is clear, actionable, and focused on your development. The real magic happens when you take the input from others to heart and embrace the fast-paced learning experience, owning your journey.
- A voice that matters: From day one, we value your ideas and contributions. You’ll make a tangible impact by offering innovative ideas and practical solutions, all while upholding our unwavering commitment to ethics and integrity. We not only encourage diverse perspectives, but they are critical in driving us toward the best possible outcomes.
- Global community: With colleagues across 65+ countries and over 100 different nationalities, our firm’s diversity fuels creativity and helps us come up with the best solutions for our clients. Plus, you’ll have the opportunity to learn from exceptional colleagues with diverse backgrounds and experiences.
- World-class benefits: On top of a competitive salary (based on your location, experience, and skills), we provide a comprehensive benefits package to enable holistic well-being for you and your family.
YOUR QUALIFICATIONS AND SKILLS
- Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or equivalent experience
- 10+ years relevant professional experience
- Ability to scope projects, define workstreams, and translate roadmaps into sprint goals, milestones, and deliverables within agile and iterative team environments
- Proven experience architecting and building enterprise data and AI platforms as well as scalable data pipelines for advanced analytics use cases operating in production
- Passion for and track record of effectively leading and mentoring more junior colleagues
- Expertise in implementing software engineering best practices to drive enterprise-wide improvement, including DevOps, DataOps, and MLOps
- Strong software engineering and data engineering expertise, including distributed computing frameworks (e.g., Spark, Dask), cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP), containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), analytics libraries (e.g., pandas, NumPy, matplotlib), and modern data platforms and orchestration tools such as Databricks, Airflow, SQL, PySpark, Kedro, and RAPIDS
- Ability to write clean, maintainable, scalable, and robust code in object-oriented languages such as Python, Scala, or Java, and experience supporting the development of junior engineers through collaborative code reviews
- Extensive commercial client-facing or senior stakeholder management experience
- Exceptional time management to meet your responsibilities in a complex and largely autonomous work environment
- Willingness to travel
- Strong communication skills with the ability to adjust your style to suit different perspectives and seniority levels
Please review the additional requirements regarding essential job functions of McKinsey colleagues.
Our unwavering commitment to integrity drives everything we do, guiding us to always act in the best interests of our clients, our people, and the communities we serve.
See All 209+ Principal Engineer Jobs in Massachusetts
Find roles in Massachusetts that match your experience and apply in just a few clicks.
Find Principal Engineer JobsPrincipal Engineer Jobs by City in Massachusetts
Where Massachusetts roles are concentrated, by current openings.
Woburn
20 jobsTewksbury
16 jobsMarlborough
12 jobsAndover
10 jobsWaltham
6 jobsWilmington
6 jobsHopkinton
5 jobsBurlington
5 jobsHanscom AFB
5 jobsBedford
4 jobsChelmsford
4 jobsLowell
3 jobsBeverly
3 jobsFranklin
3 jobsWestford
3 jobsMansfield
3 jobsBoxborough
3 jobsNatick
2 jobsNewton
2 jobsReading
2 jobsBillerica
2 jobsBraintree
2 jobsPittsfield
2 jobsLynn
1 jobActon
1 jobDevens
1 jobHarvard
1 jobMethuen
1 jobMilford
1 jobNorwood
1 jobBrighton
1 jobMarlboro
1 jobPlymouth
1 jobWestwood
1 jobFramingham
1 jobSomerville
1 jobNorth Andover
1 jobNorth Reading
1 jobNorth Attleboro
1 jobMansfield Center
1 jobPrincipal Engineer Job Market in Massachusetts
A snapshot from current Massachusetts openings, updated as new roles post.
Who's Hiring
- Raytheon41
- Draper13
- Dell Technologies9
- PTC4
- Liberty Mutual Insurance4
Top Industries Hiring
- Technology & Software
- Science & Research
- Electronics & Hardware
What Massachusetts Employers Look For
The qualifications that appear most often in principal engineer jobs across Massachusetts.
- Bachelor's or advanced degree in electrical engineering, computer science, or related technical discipline
- Ten or more years of progressive engineering experience including technical leadership of cross-functional teams
- Demonstrated ownership of system architecture decisions from design through production delivery
- Deep expertise in at least one domain such as embedded systems, distributed software, or RF hardware design
- Experience collaborating with product management and executive stakeholders on technical roadmaps
- Strong written and verbal communication skills for design reviews, RFCs, and engineering documentation
Principal Engineer Jobs in Massachusetts: Frequently Asked Questions
How do you become a principal engineer in Massachusetts?
There is no state-issued license required for most principal engineer roles in Massachusetts. The typical path is a bachelor's or master's degree in computer science, electrical engineering, or a related field, followed by progressive engineering experience culminating in demonstrated technical leadership. Massachusetts employers in defense and aerospace often additionally require eligibility for a federal security clearance, which is a practical credential that significantly expands opportunities with major employers in the state.
Which companies hire principal engineers in Massachusetts?
Employers hiring principal engineers in Massachusetts right now include Raytheon, Draper, and Dell Technologies, based on current listings on Migrate Mate as of November 2026. Massachusetts's deep concentration of defense contractors, biotech firms, and enterprise software companies means principal engineer roles appear across a wider range of industries here than in most other states.
Which Massachusetts cities have the most principal engineer jobs?
Boston, Cambridge, and Woburn account for the largest share of principal engineer openings in Massachusetts. Boston and Cambridge drive volume through their dense clusters of technology companies, research institutions, and biotech firms, while suburban Route 128 corridor cities like Waltham and Lexington are home to major defense and semiconductor employers that maintain large senior engineering headcounts.
Are there remote principal engineer jobs in Massachusetts?
Yes, and more than most fields. About 54% of principal engineer openings tied to Massachusetts are remote or hybrid as of November 2026, reflecting how much of this work involves architecture, code review, and cross-team coordination rather than hands-on lab work. The most fully remote roles tend to be in software-focused companies, while hardware and defense positions generally require on-site presence in Massachusetts facilities.
How can I get hired as a principal engineer in Massachusetts with little or no experience?
The most realistic entry path is through a staff or senior engineer role at a Massachusetts employer that has a defined individual contributor ladder, then building a record of technical scope expansion over time. Large employers like MathWorks and Analog Devices hire new graduates into associate and junior engineer programs that feed their senior pipelines. Candidates who contribute to open-source projects, earn relevant certifications in cloud architecture or embedded systems, or complete a graduate degree at a Massachusetts institution like MIT or Northeastern demonstrate the kind of initiative that accelerates promotion to principal-level roles.
Where can I find and apply to principal engineer jobs in Massachusetts?
You can find and apply to principal engineer jobs in Massachusetts on Migrate Mate, which lists current openings from employers across the state. Search the listings, find roles that fit your experience and target industry, and apply directly to the ones that match.
See All 209+ Principal Engineer Jobs in Massachusetts
Find roles in Massachusetts that match your experience and apply in just a few clicks.
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