Senior Lead Engineer
Qualcomm · Posted Oct 23
Semiconductor, 5G wireless technology, mobile platform, and AI computing solutions
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About the role
Qualcomm's Engineering Group > Software Engineering develops embedded software and firmware for advanced SoC platforms. The team works on real-time embedded software, processor architectures, board bring-up, and system-level debugging across hardware, systems, architecture, and validation teams. This role contributes to low-level firmware, RTOS-based software components, platform bring-up, peripheral interfaces, and debugging for Qualcomm products.
What you will do
- The role of a Staff Software Engineer will be to contribute to Qualcomm’s embedded software and firmware development for advanced SoC platforms. We are looking for a highly motivated professional who is adaptable, technically strong, a quick learner, and capable of driving design, development, debugging, and validation of real-time embedded software.
- The candidate will work on low-level firmware, RTOS-based software components, platform bring-up, peripheral interfaces, hardware/software interaction, and system-level debugging. The role involves working in a fast-paced development environment and contributing to high-quality software solutions for Qualcomm products.
- The candidate is expected to demonstrate strong technical ownership, analytical capability, and the ability to work closely with cross-functional teams across hardware, systems, architecture, validation, and customer engineering.
Skills used in this role
What the employer is looking for
- Strong understanding of ARM & RISC-V architecture, SoC interconnects
- Extensive embedded software development experience with strong knowledge of C/C++.
- Knowledge of RTOS-based environments is required, including:
- Task scheduling
- Interrupt handling
- Timers
- Synchronization primitives
- Memory management
- Inter-task communication
- Exposure to working with Zephyr RTOS is highly desired.
- Hands-on experience in embedded firmware development, board bring-up, driver development, and debugging on SoC / microcontroller-based platforms.
- Strong understanding of embedded software concepts such as:
- Boot flow
- Interrupts and exceptions
- Memory maps
- Cache / MPU / MMU basics
- Peripheral register programming
- Low-power and performance-sensitive software design
- Experience with debugging tools and lab equipment such as:
- Logic analyzer
- Oscilloscope
- JTAG interfaces
- Lauterbach / Trace32
- J-Link
- Experience with scripting and automation using Python for log analysis, test automation, debugging utilities, and workflow optimization.
- Solid understanding of common embedded interfaces and protocols - I2C/SPI/UART
- Experience working on FPGA-based emulation platforms, pre-silicon environments, or post-silicon bring-up is a plus.
- Ability to debug complex hardware/software interaction issues across firmware, drivers, RTOS, and platform layers.
- Excellent troubleshooting and analytical skills that can be applied to resolve complex system-level issues.
- Experience optimizing AI workloads for embedded and power-constrained platforms.
- Strong communication skills and ability to collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams.
- Experience with embedded AI inference and NPU acceleration.
- Ability to mentor junior engineers and provide technical guidance on embedded software design, implementation, and debugging.
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field and 2+ years of Software Engineering or related work experience. OR Master's degree in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field and 1+ year of Software Engineering or related work experience. OR PhD in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field.
- 2+ years of academic or work experience with Programming Language such as C, C++, Java, Python, etc.
Preferred qualifications
- Bachelor’s/Master’s degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field.
- 9+ years of experience in embedded software / firmware development.
- Strong experience with RTOS-based environments is required, preference on Zephyr.
- Expertise in display technology and conversant with display concepts like frame composition and transfer, framebuffer, color formats, font rendering, GPU understanding, is required. Working experience on Vector Graphics, and UI frameworks such as PELE, LVGL.
- Experience in technical leadership & mentoring.
- Understanding of CPU, DSP, GPU, and NPU heterogeneous compute architectures.
- Strong programming experience in C and C++.
- Scripting and automation experience using Python is highly desired.
- Experience working on embedded platforms based on ARM and/or RISC-V architectures.
- Exposure to GenAI-assisted engineering workflows for software development, debugging, code review, documentation, automation, and productivity improvement is desirable.
Benefits and support
- Compensation and benefits are detailed in the job posting
About Qualcomm
Qualcomm is a global leader in the development and commercialization of foundational technologies for the wireless industry, including mobile processors, 5G, and on-device artificial intelligence. The company designs and markets digital communications products, semiconductor solutions, and system software used globally across smartphones, automotive solutions, IoT devices, and computing systems. Through extensive R&D and intellectual property licensing, Qualcomm powers a highly interconnected and smarter world.
- Industry
- Semiconductors
- Company size
- 50000+ employees
- Founded
- 1985
- Location
- San Diego, California, USA
- Funding stage
- Public Company
Funding
Public Company · $53M raised
- 2018-11-01Grant
Leadership
President and Chief Executive Officer
Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer
James H. Thompson
Chief Technology Officer
Chief Marketing Officer
Ann Chaplin
General Counsel and Corporate Secretary
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