Camera ISP System Architecture Engineer, up to Staff

Company:

Job Area:

General Summary:

As a leading technology innovator, Qualcomm pushes the boundaries of what's possible to enable next-generation experiences and drives digital transformation to help create a smarter, connected future for all. As a Qualcomm Camera Engineer you will work on ideas that touch our daily life - creating everlasting connected memories and assist in building innovative devices through human and computer vision technologies in the Mobile, Automotive, XR, IoT & Compute space. You will have limitless opportunities to learn, grow and lead the world of Imaging.

Job Function

Architect and develop advanced Image Signal Processing (ISP) hardware pipelines for high-performance, low-power semiconductor products, enabling industry-leading image quality across IoT, mobile, camera-centric devices, and embedded platforms.

Qualcomm advances Industrial and Embedded IoT innovation, enabling next-generation experiences and a smarter, seamlessly connected world.

We are seeking an experienced ISP Design Engineer to architect and develop high-performance, low-power ISP hardware pipelines. You will define microarchitectures, build performance and accuracy models, implement datapaths, optimize PPA, and validate ISP functions across mobile, IoT, camera-centric, and embedded products.

You will collaborate with imaging algorithm, system architecture, RTL, physical design, firmware, and verification teams to deliver advanced camera and computer vision capabilities.

This role requires a solid understanding of imaging algorithms and ASIC design to translate image-quality requirements into efficient, production-ready ISP architectures.

Responsibilities

1. Architect, design, and optimize ISP ASIC hardware modules for conventional and AI-based imaging algorithms.

2. Translate imaging and image-quality requirements into efficient microarchitectures and datapaths, balancing image quality, throughput, latency, bandwidth, power, and area.

3. Partner with imaging and AI algorithm teams to translate algorithms into hardware-efficient architectures and define implementation constraints and trade-offs.

4. Develop C/C++ or SystemC models for architecture exploration, functional validation, performance analysis, and RTL or silicon correlation.

5. Participate in architecture and RTL design reviews, identify implementation risks, and provide actionable recommendations.

6. Collaborate with verification, physical design, firmware, and system teams to achieve functional, performance, and PPA targets throughout the silicon development lifecycle.

7. Support silicon bring-up, debugging, tuning, and correlation against pre-silicon models and image-quality targets.

8. Be available for business travel across APAC and China.

Minimum Qualifications

1. Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field.

2. Solid understanding of image signal processing fundamentals, including ISP pipelines, noise reduction, HDR, color processing, image enhancement, and image-quality evaluation.

3. Hands-on ASIC/RTL design and implementation experience with strong knowledge of Verilog/System Verilog, microarchitecture, and data path design.

4. Proficiency in C/C++ for modeling, simulation, validation, and performance analysis.

5. Understanding of conventional and AI-based imaging algorithms, including their dataflow, computational complexity, numerical precision, and hardware implementation considerations.

6. Knowledge of SoC architecture, memory hierarchy, bandwidth analysis, and low-power design techniques.

7. Ability to review architecture and RTL designs, identify technical risks, and evaluate image quality, performance, bandwidth, power, and area trade-offs.

8. Strong problem-solving and communication skills, with the ability to drive technical discussions across algorithm, hardware, software, and system teams.

Preferred Qualifications

1. Hands-on experience in ISP, computational photography, computer vision, or AI imaging system development.

2. Experience taking an imaging hardware design from architecture definition and RTL implementation through verification and silicon bring-up.

3. Familiarity with camera systems, sensor pipelines, 3A (AWB/AEC/AF), and image-quality tuning.

4. Familiarity with SystemC, Python, or FPGA development flows.

5. Familiarity with PyTorch or TensorFlow and AI model optimization techniques, including quantization, PTQ/QAT, and fixed-point conversion.

6. Product development experience in mobile, edge AI, automotive, surveillance, or camera-centric applications.

Keywords

ISP Architecture, Image Processing, Computational Photography, ASIC, RTL, Verilog, System Verilog, Microarchitecture, Datapath Design, C/C++, System C, PPA, Image Quality Evaluation, AI Imaging, FPGA

Minimum Qualifications:

OR

Master's degree in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or related field and 1+ year of Software Engineering, Hardware Engineering, Systems Engineering, or related work experience.

OR

PhD in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, 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 [email protected] or call Qualcomm's toll-free number found here. Upon request, Qualcomm will provide reasonable accommodations to support individuals with disabilities to be able participate in the hiring process. Qualcomm is also committed to making our workplace accessible for individuals with disabilities. (Keep in mind that this email address is used to provide reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities. We will not respond here to requests for updates on applications or resume inquiries).

Qualcomm expects its employees to abide by all applicable policies and procedures, including but not limited to security and other requirements regarding protection of Company confidential information and other confidential and/or proprietary information, to the extent those requirements are permissible under applicable law.

To all Staffing and Recruiting Agencies:Our Careers Site is only for individuals seeking a job at Qualcomm. Staffing and recruiting agencies and individuals being represented by an agency are not authorized to use this site or to submit profiles, applications or resumes, and any such submissions will be considered unsolicited. Qualcomm does not accept unsolicited resumes or applications from agencies. Please do not forward resumes to our jobs alias, Qualcomm employees or any other company location. Qualcomm is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes/applications.

If you would like more information about this role, please contact Qualcomm Careers.