CPU Software Architecture Sr. Staff Engineer

Company: Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
Job Area: Engineering Group, Engineering Group >
Software Engineering General

Summary:

Qualcomm's software CPU (aka application processor) architecture group develops long-term software roadmaps for a horizon of three to five years. It is responsible for defining architecture specifications, developing prototypes, and engaging with software and hardware partners worldwide to influence product development. It acts as an operational execution team enabling commercialization of the most up-to-date CPUs integrated into Snapdragon chipsets for markets such as Handsets, IoT devices, Automotive, Compute/Laptops, XR, etc.

The team is currently looking for an experienced CPU software engineer who can contribute to design and development of low‑level firmware for CPU bootstrapping, power control, and related domains. The candidate will be engaged in designing firmware for boot, debug, idle and active CPU power management, evaluating CPU software/hardware design trade‑offs, coordinating debugging of critical software issues that arise from high‑performance CPU microarchitecture (e.g., prefetching, speculation, memory ordering), defining short and long‑term software architecture roadmaps in accordance with ARM's architecture ISA evolution, and representing the CPU software teams in engagements with ARM/RISC‑V architects and third‑party software partners (e.g., Google, MSFT, RISE).

Because contributions of the CPU software organization affect a broad range of products, the role provides exposure to multiple technology domains related to system‑on‑chip development. To benefit fully, the candidate must demonstrate motivation to influence product roadmaps and contribute to Qualcomm's most innovative products.

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field and 6+ years of software engineering or related work experience.
• Master's degree in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field and 5+ years of software engineering or related work experience.
• PhD in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field and 4+ years of software engineering or related work experience.
• 3+ years of work experience with programming languages such as C, C++, Java, Python, etc.

• 15+ years of experience in the embedded domain to design, develop and support software solutions on multi‑core CPUs with strong C/C++ programming skills.
• Very deep expertise in computer architecture, especially in more than one of the following areas—memory consistency, coherency, memory management, virtualization, security/sandboxing, superscalar architectures.
• Good understanding of system‑wide bottlenecks that may influence CPU performance and throughput.
• Very good exposure to ARM or RISC‑V architectures.
• Embedded platforms experience including low‑level drivers and firmware, kernel, and user‑space components.
• Design and development of software for heterogeneous compute platforms consisting of ARM or RISC‑V CPUs and specialized hardware accelerators in embedded SoC systems.
• Usage of J‑TAG or ICE debuggers; experience in real‑time software development for embedded products.
• Hands‑on experience of driver development on any RTOS.
• Detailed understanding of some SoC hardware blocks—clocks, PLLs, GPIO, interrupt controllers (GIC, PLIC), peripherals (SPI/I2C/PCIe/CAN/Ethernet/USB/UFS).
• Motivated self‑starter with excellent verbal and written communication skills, demonstrated ability to work with engineers, partners, and customers across different geographies.
• Demonstrated experience working with senior management in a corporate environment.
• Experience in business process streamlining and transformation that includes a disciplined approach to digitized services enabling.
• Hands‑on technical lead who is not hesitant to dig into details to get first‑hand knowledge of issues and actively steer team success.

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The above pay scale reflects the broad, minimum to maximum, pay scale for this job code for the location for which it has been posted. Salary is only one component…