Senior Research Engineer, Machine Learning Systems

Company:

Qualcomm Canada ULC

Engineering Group, Engineering Group >
Machine Learning Engineering

General

Summary:

As a member of Low Power AI solution team, you will play a critical role at deploying AI models on Qualcomm's low power AI accelerator. The position focuses on mapping high level machine learning operators to low level hardware instructions, involving various optimization techniques: graph transformation, scheduling, memory planning, individual operator implementation, quantization, etc. Your expertise at machine learning is expected to enhance inference efficiency and accuracy of different models on Qualcomm's hardware architecture.

New Position.

Key Responsibilities

• Explore and prototype novel or emerging ML model architectures optimized for on-device, low-power inference, including vision, audio, and multimodal workloads.
• Drive model–hardware co-design by aligning architectural choices, operators, dataflows, and memory behavior with Qualcomm’s low-power AI accelerators.
• Design, evaluate, and refine quantization, mixed-precision, sparsity, and compression techniques, with careful analysis of accuracy–performance–power trade-offs.
• Develop and optimize computational graphs, including operator fusion, scheduling strategies, and memory-aware execution.
• Conduct rigorous performance and accuracy investigations using profiling tools, hardware counters, and targeted experiments.
• Collaborate closely with compiler, runtime, and hardware teams to convert exploratory prototypes into production-viable execution paths.
• Influence future accelerator features, compiler capabilities, and deployment strategies through technical insights and experimental results.

Required

Skills & Experience:

• Strong track record in machine learning research or advanced applied ML development, with demonstrated focus on inference efficiency.
• Deep understanding of ML model architecture, operator behavior, and inference-time performance characteristics.
• Hands‑on experience with quantization and reduced‑precision inference (e.g., INT8/INT4, FP8/FP4, mixed precision, PTQ/QAT).
• Proven ability to prototype, analyze, and iterate on ideas under strict compute, memory, and power constraints.
• Proficiency in Python and C/C++, with comfort working across modeling, systems, and low‑level execution layers.
• Strong background in computer architecture and hardware‑aware optimization, particularly for AI accelerators.
• Ability to reason about computational graphs, tensor layouts, and memory movement at a detailed level.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field, and 1+ year of experience in Hardware Engineering, Software Engineering, Systems Engineering, or a related area;
  OR PhD in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field
• Experience targeting or co‑designing for custom accelerators, NPUs, DSPs, or GPUs.
• Familiarity with compiler‑assisted ML optimization, graph transformations, or operator scheduling.
• Experience with multimodal or sensor‑driven models.
  
  Evidence of technical leadership, such as driving complex investigations, publishing, patenting, or shaping internal technical direction.
• Comfort operating in ambiguous, research‑heavy problem spaces with minimal upfront specification.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or related field and 2+ years of Hardware Engineering, Software Engineering, Systems Engineering, or related work experience.
• Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or related field and 1+ year of Hardware Engineering, Software Engineering, Systems Engineering, or related work experience.
• PhD in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or related field.

Applicants:

Qualcomm is an equal opportunity employer. If you are an individual with a disability and need an accommodation during the application/hiring process, rest assured that Qualcomm is committed to providing an accessible process. You may e‑mail disability‑ or call Qualcomm's toll‑free number found here. Upon request, Qualcomm will provide reasonable accommodations to support…