Staff Engineer Jobs in Boston, MA
Staff Engineer jobs in Boston are concentrated in the Seaport, Kendall Square, and Back Bay, driven by demand from biotech, enterprise software, and financial services firms. Employers actively hiring right now include Whoop, Lightmatter, and ACTIV. See the openings below and apply to the ones that match your experience.
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Role responsibilities:
- Develop a variety of algorithms on planning for autonomous driving, including but not limited to search-based methods, sampling-based methods, optimization-based methods, linear-temporal logic, and decision making under uncertainty.
- Integrate and evaluate combinations of motion planning and prediction algorithms
- Design and build robust and scalable codebase that enables rapid exploration and evaluation of different motion planning approaches and algorithms.
- Interface with perception and prediction components upstream and trajectory optimization and tracking & control components downstream
- Participate in code reviews and mentoring sessions with senior team members
- Develop a culture of product focused engineering, research, and development
What we're looking for:
- Bachelor's required, Masters or PhD degree preferred in Robotics, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field
- Proven impact and expertise in the robotics / autonomous vehicle field.
- 2+ years of research experience in robotics / motion planning
- 2+ years of C++ software development
- Past experience taking projects from problem formulation through implementation and deployment
- Thirst for knowledge and continuous innovation
Motional is a driverless technology company making autonomous vehicles a safe, reliable, and accessible reality. We're driven by something more.
Our journey is always people first.
We aren't just developing driverless cars; we're creating safer roadways, more equitable transportation options, and making our communities better places to live, work, and connect. Our team is made up of engineers, researchers, innovators, dreamers and doers, who are creating a technology with the potential to transform the way we move.
Higher purpose, greater impact.
We're creating first-of-its-kind technology that will transform transportation. To do so successfully, we must design for everyone in our cities and on our roads. We believe in building a great place to work through a progressive, global culture that is diverse, inclusive, and ensures people feel valued at every level of the organization. Diversity helps us to see the world differently; it's not only good for our business, it's the right thing to do.
Scale up, not starting up.
Our team is behind some of the industry's largest leaps forward, including the first fully-autonomous cross-country drive in the U.S, the launch of the world's first robotaxi pilot, and operation of the world's longest-standing public robotaxi fleet. We're driven to scale; we're moving towards commercialization of our technology, and we need team members who are ready to embrace change and challenges.
Formed as a joint venture between Hyundai Motor Group and Aptiv, Motional is fundamentally changing how people move through their lives. Headquartered in Boston, Motional has operations in the U.S and Asia. For more information, visit www.Motional.com and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube.
Motional AD Inc. is an EOE. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. To comply with Federal Law, we participate in E-Verify. All newly-hired employees are queried through this electronic system established by the DHS and the SSA to verify their identity and employment eligibility.
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Find Staff Engineer JobsStaff Engineer Job Market in Boston
Who's Hiring
- Whoop21

- Lightmatter13

- ACTIV8
- Anduril8

- Merlin Labs8M
Top Industries Hiring
- Technology & Software13
- Electronics & Hardware8
- Manufacturing4
Staff Engineer Jobs in Boston: Frequently Asked Questions
How do I get a staff engineer job in Boston?
Your strongest path into Boston's staff engineer market runs through the Seaport's deep-tech and fintech companies, the biotech clusters anchored around Kendall Square and the Longwood Medical Area, and the financial services firms concentrated in Back Bay. Candidates who stand out here typically show experience leading cross-functional technical initiatives and have worked in regulated or high-scale environments. Networking through local engineering meetups and university-affiliated research hubs also opens doors that applications alone often don't.
Which companies hire staff engineers in Boston?
Companies currently hiring staff engineers in Boston include Whoop, Lightmatter, and ACTIV, per current listings on Migrate Mate as of September 2026. Boston's hiring pool pulls heavily from life sciences platforms, enterprise SaaS companies, and major financial institutions that maintain engineering offices in the city's core districts.
Are there remote staff engineer jobs in Boston?
Yes, though availability depends on the role: staff engineers doing platform, backend, or data infrastructure work tend to have more remote flexibility than those embedded in hardware, lab systems, or on-site regulated environments. About 61% of staff engineer openings tied to Boston are remote or hybrid as of September 2026, reflecting broader tech industry norms. Cloud infrastructure and distributed systems roles within Boston's fintech and enterprise software sector are among the most remote-friendly locally.
How can I get a staff engineer job in Boston with little or no experience?
The most realistic entry path in Boston is through a senior software engineer role at a mid-size startup or a technology division within one of the city's large financial or life sciences employers, then building toward staff-level scope from within. Boston's dense startup ecosystem in the Seaport and Kendall Square frequently hires ambitious senior engineers and promotes quickly when someone demonstrates ownership of complex systems. Targeting companies with active engineering blogs or open-source contributions also signals the kind of environment that grows staff engineers organically.
Which industries hire the most staff engineers in Boston?
Most staff engineer openings in Boston sit in Technology & Software, Electronics & Hardware, and Manufacturing, per current listings on Migrate Mate as of September 2026. Boston's concentration of venture-backed biotech, established financial services firms, and enterprise software companies creates sustained demand for senior-level engineering talent across all three sectors throughout the year.
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