Senior Staff Engineer - Technical Standards – Wired Data Center - Qualcomm - remote, Germany

Company:

Qualcomm Germany GmbHJob Area:

Engineering Group, Engineering Group  Technical Standards Engineering General

Summary:

As a senior Technical Standards contributor and participant, you will work closely with internal and external partners to improve and evolve industry technical standards while representing Qualcomm as a delegate in standardization forums and industry organizations. Your responsibility will include understanding data center industry landscapes and competitors' strength and weaknesses, collaborating with internal partners to identify existing and emerging standards for Qualcomm to focus on, help review and guide internal product requirements and specifications for conformance with the standards, and working with attorneys to file patents that protect the novel IP aspects of any inventions.

The primary focus for this role is wired connectivity infrastructure involving high-speed optical and electrical Ser Des standards for core data center infrastructure. This includes the implications of solving problems across photonics, packaging, materials science, and system architecture.

Technical Focus Areas Direct experience with IEEE 802.3 and OIF. Aware of related developments in other data center interconnect standards ecosystems including OCI MSA, OCP, UEC, and UALink.

Deep understanding of 200G, 400G and forward-looking 800G/1.6T Ethernet rate evolution, including PAM4/PAM6 modulation, FEC, equalization, channel loss, BER targets and link-budget tradeoffs.

Knowledge of scale-up, scale-out and scale-across data center fabrics, including electrical copper reach limits, active electrical cables, linear pluggable optics, co-packaged optics, near-packaged optics, and optical module architectures.

Strong ecosystem credibility with data center silicon, optics, connector, cable, module, switch, NIC and hyperscaler stakeholders.

Ability to assess competitive technology directions, identify standards gaps, and shape specifications to support Qualcomm product and IP roadmap objectives.

Ability to translate hyperscaler, AI accelerator, switch silicon, and optical module requirements into practical Ser Des, PHY, controller and standards engagement priorities.

Ability to check posted technical material for accuracy and prepare internal technical material and analysis.

Ability to establish and play a leading role in a potential future “800G Interest Group” (or similar name) as a means to promote Qualcomm credibility and thought leadership in Data Center connectivity.

Minimum Qualifications (per leveling description)
Master’s degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related field7+ years of experience in system design, validation, or related engineering roles2+ years of experience participating in technical standards bodies or industry organizations

Demonstrated ability to influence across teams and organizations

Effective communication, collaboration, and stakeholder engagement skills

Preferred Qualifications
10+ years of experience in optical, Ser Des and system design, modeling, validation, or test4+ years of active participation in standards organizations (e.g., IEEE, OCP, PCI-SIG or similar)5+ years of work experience in a role requiring interaction with senior leadership5+ years in a technical leadership role

Deep understanding of data center ecosystems, including enterprise, HPC, and hyperscale environments

Authored or co-authored contributions in IEEE, OCP or similar

Has implemented or influenced deployable OCP-compliant platforms

Experience designing and developing Ser Des across full lifecycle (architecture, design, implementation, verification, validation, through manufacturing and silicon qualification)
Knowledge of global data center market dynamics and competitive landscape

Background in technical leadership roles with demonstrated impact

Familiarity with Qualcomm technologies and semiconductor platforms (preferred)
Established network within industry, standards bodies, or academia (preferred)
Excellent written, presentation, and interpersonal communication skills

Willingness to travel as required

Keywords:

Optical, Ser Des, Server, Systems, Semiconductor, Standards, Infrastructure,…