Staff Engineer – LLVM​/Ripple Compiler

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

Engineering Group >
Machine Learning Engineering

Qualcomm is seeking a highly skilled Staff Engineer to drive development of LLVM‑Ripple, its compiler toolchain, and the supporting ecosystem that enables highly‑parallel application development on Snapdragon platforms. In this role, you will design, develop, optimize, and maintain compiler components, parallel runtimes, and developer‑facing features that significantly improve the programming experience for massively parallel applications targeting heterogeneous compute architectures.

• Lead design and development of LLVM‑Ripple compiler components, including front‑end extensions, middle‑end optimizations, back‑end code generation, and tooling support.
• Architect and implement improvements to parallel runtimes, including scheduling, memory models, synchronization, and heterogeneous workloads targeting Snapdragon processors.
• Define and evolve programming abstractions to improve developer experience for highly parallel and heterogeneous applications.
• Collaborate with hardware architecture teams to model and expose new parallel features, SIMD/SIMT execution models, and accelerator capabilities through compiler and runtime interfaces.
• Drive performance analysis, benchmarking, and optimization across the full Ripple ecosystem: compiler, runtime, libraries, and application workloads.
• Deliver high‑quality, maintainable code and documentation; contribute upstream to LLVM and Ripple where appropriate.
• Provide technical mentorship, code reviews, and guidance to junior engineers.
• Work cross‑functionally with internal customers to enable new use cases, improve toolchain reliability, and enhance developer workflows.

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or related field and 8+ years of software engineering experience OR Master’s degree in the same fields and 6+ years of experience OR PhD and 3+ years of experience.
• Strong experience with LLVM development, including IR transformations, back‑end targets, code generation, or compiler toolchain design.
• Expertise in parallel programming models, such as:
  • CUDA
  • OpenCL
  • OpenMP
  • SIMD/SIMT programming
  • GPU programming models or heterogeneous compute frameworks
• Proficiency with C/C++ and modern compiler engineering practices.
• Experience with runtime systems, concurrency, or parallel execution models.
• Strong debugging, performance analysis, and optimization skills.

• Experience contributing to upstream LLVM or similar large open‑source compiler projects.

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or related field and 4+ 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 3+ years of Hardware Engineering, Software Engineering, Systems Engineering, or related work experience.
• PhD in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or related field and 2+ years of Hardware Engineering, Software Engineering, Systems Engineering, or related work experience.

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. Please email disability‑ for reasonable accommodations.

Pay range: $ – $. Competitive annual discretionary bonus program and RSU grants available. Benefits include comprehensive health, vision, dental, and other standard corporate benefits.