Director of Engineering – Automotive Platform SW

Job Title

Principal/Director Level Project Engineer for Automotive Software Platform Team

Seeking highly skilled and motivated Principal/Director level Project Engineer for Automotive Software Platform team. In this role, you will be responsible for overseeing and coordinating the entire lifecycle of automotive software projects from concept to production. This includes analyzing project requirements, preparing schedules, coordinating team tasks, and ensuring that projects meet quality standards and are completed on time. In this highly visible role, you will interface directly with the T1s/OEM's engineering executives and Qualcomm's senior technical and business leadership.

You will:

• Develop a deep understanding of the OEM's roadmap, vehicle and backend architecture, requirements, and constraints
• Lead and coordinate all technical aspects of business acquisition, delivery execution, and post-SOP maintenance
• Represent the "voice of the customer" in internal forums, escalating needs and driving alignment across Qualcomm engineering, product management, program management, and sales

Technical Leadership:

• Act as the chief technical counterpart to the OEM's engineering leadership for ADAS related programs.
• Serve as the main technical point of contact covering SoC, platform software, tools, and system integration topics.
• Lead and manage automotive software engineering projects from conception to completion.
• Build and maintain strong, trusted relationships with the customer's engineering executives, architects, and program leads.
• Anticipate customer needs and translate them into Qualcomm platform requirements, features, and solutions.
• Lead the technical work streams for RFIs/RFQs and advanced engagement discussions with the OEM.
• Define technical solution proposals based on Qualcomm's product portfolio, including SoCs, BSP, Platform Software and reference platforms.

Program Execution & Delivery:

• Provide overarching technical leadership for all active programs with the OEM, across all phases (concept, development, validation, SOP, and maintenance).
• Coordinate and synchronize Qualcomm internal engineering teams (HW, SW, systems, safety, security, tools, test) to meet customer milestones.
• Drive resolution of critical technical issues, ensuring timely escalation and clear communication to both customer and Qualcomm management.
• Support design reviews, technical workshops, joint debugging sessions, and on-site integration activities as needed.
• Identify, analyze, and mitigate project risks and issues.
• Prepare, schedule, coordinate, and monitor the assigned engineering projects.
• Manage external customer deliverables/expectations/escalations

Voice of the Customer & Internal Alignment:

• Represent the customer's priorities, constraints, and pain points in internal reviews, roadmap discussions, and management meetings.
• Provide structured feedback to product management and engineering on gaps, competitive pressure, and future requirements.
• Ensure internal stakeholders understand customer commitments, program risk, and required trade-offs.

Technical Thought Leadership & Mentoring:

• Act as a technical role model with hands-on, detail-oriented, and able to deep-dive into complex system issues when required.
• Guide and mentor cross-functional Qualcomm teams working on the customer, helping them prioritize and solve problems effectively.

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field and 8+ years of Software Engineering or related work experience. OR Master's degree in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field and 7+ years of Software Engineering or related work experience. OR PhD in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field and 6+ years of Software Engineering or related work experience.

• 4+ years of work experience with Programming Language such as C, C++, Java, Python, etc.

• Extensive experience in software engineering, including project management and leadership roles.
• Strong background in automotive systems engineering with focus on:
• Compute platform architecture…