Principal Software Engineer – Mobile Software Architecture

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General Summary:

The Mobile Software Architecture team is responsible for defining and delivering end-to-end system features across Qualcomm Mobile platforms. These features span multiple IPs, SoCs, Android layers, and OEM customizations, and are foundational to Mobile product differentiation, scalability, and commercialization.

We are seeking an experienced Director of Mobile Software Architecture focused on Snapdragon Mobile Handset products. As a senior member of the team working on Mobile Handset software architecture and software system design, you will have the opportunity to analyze requirements and architect/develop high level designs for new Use-cases and features. You will drive technical initiatives to evolve Snapdragon Mobile software, helping to drive performance and power enhancements into the SW and HW stacks and SW tools of state-of-the-art machine learning solutions on Snapdragon Mobile platform. You will work closely with development leads, software and hardware architects, project engineers, product managers, customer engineers, OEMs and external partners. This role combines technical depth, organizational leadership, OEM engagement, and execution accountability for some of the most complex system initiatives in Mobile.

Key Responsibilities

Technical & Architectural Leadership

• Own the end-to-end architecture of one or more critical Mobile system features, from concept through commercialization.
• Define system-level architecture across multiple IPs and software layers, including CPU, NPU, DSP, memory, virtualization, security, kernel, and Android frameworks.
• Develop architecture for complex features and experiences built around AI for Snapdragon Mobile products; recommend architecture enhancements.
• Drive architectural clarity for cross-SoC and cross-product scalability.
• Represent Mobile system architecture in technical forums, architecture reviews, and executive discussions.
• Independently research and work cross-functionally to define requirements. Hands on prototype development.
• Serve as a technical expert in developing and commercializing solutions; participate in design reviews and recommend improvements to ensure alignment with business goals and customer needs.
• Influence and negotiate with external partners to gain buy-in for ideas and align on project and subsystem implementation plans and milestones to ensure the needs of all stakeholders are met.
• Act as a technical expert on AI and Mobile industry trends, competitors' products, and advances in various engineering fields; share expertise within and/or across teams.
• Leverages technical expertise to identify trends and define future solutions by contributing to discussions on the short - and long-term strategic direction of the product/technology roadmaps.

Organizational Leadership

• Set technical direction and unblock complex cross-team architectural issues.
• Mentor senior architects and ensure consistent architecture quality, documentation, and execution discipline.
• Grow the team strategically to build critical mass of system HW/SW expertise.

Cross-Functional Execution

• Partner closely with HW, kernel, Android, CoreTech, and subsystem SW teams to drive alignment on requirements and design.
• Work with Product Management (PDM) to prioritize system features based on OEM and business needs.
• Drive Feature Requirement (FR) definition, review, and acceptance across all participating organizations.
• Maintain execution accountability to meet schedule, quality, and commercialization commitments.

OEM and External Engagement

• Engage directly with OEMs to understand system-level requirements, usage models, and constraints.
• Represent Qualcomm’s system architecture strategy in OEM and partner discussions.
• Drive close collaboration with Google Android and Next-Gen platform teams for features that require deep upstream alignment.
• Support OEM integration and commercial launch readiness.

Required Qualifications

• Extensive experience in system-level software architecture for mobile, embedded, or large-scale platform software.
• Deep expertise in Android OS, Linux kernel, and system software stacks.
• Proven track record leading complex, cross-IP, cross-organization system features.
• Experience working directly with OEMs and external partners on system-level requirements.
• Strong technical communication skills, including executive-level architecture reviews.
• Demonstrated ability to lead senior technical talent while remaining hands-on.

Minimum Qualifications:

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.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with virtualization technologies (pKVM, hypervisors, secure VMs).
• Background in AI/ML system software, NPU/DSP integration, or runtime/model management.
• Experience with mobile SoC architecture and HW/SW co-design.
• Prior leadership of architecture or platform teams in a large engineering organization.
• Experience in architecting, designing, and implementing SW framework for complex heterogenous or multi-processor system.
• Good Understanding of complete AI Software stack and familiarity with AI hardware acceleration technologies
• Experience with performance optimization of AI application on Windows using processor specific optimization tools/libraries/primitives on GPU, NPU
• Experience in modeling AI networks and workloads to extract performance and power estimates, and converting that into optimization
• Strong background in algorithm development, performance analysis using profiling tools, and algorithmic modification methods for performance improvement
• Knowledge of state of the art in AI for one or more of the domains such as Computer Vision, Audio, Generative AI
• Knowledge of Mobile platforms, Android framework, Embedded system implementations
• Strong software engineering principles
• Proficiency in programming languages such as Python, C++
• Excellent communication skills to articulate complex technical concepts to non-technical and technical stakeholders.
• Strong leadership abilities to motivate and guide development teams.
• Detail-oriented with strong problem-solving, analytical, and debugging skills with the ability to think strategically and drive innovative solutions.
• Demonstrated ability to learn, think and adapt in a fast-changing environment
• Familiarity with software development methodologies, version control systems, and agile project management practices.
• 10+ years of experience in High Performance Computing System Engineering or Software with 5+ years in AI system optimization
• Master’s or PhD in Computer Science or Electrical Engineering

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Pay rangeand Other Compensation & Benefits :

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. Even more importantly, please note that salary is only one component of total compensation at Qualcomm. We also offer a competitive annual discretionary bonus program and opportunity for annual RSU grants (employees on sales-incentive plans are not eligible for our annual bonus). In addition, our highly competitive benefits package is designed to support your success at work, at home, and at play. Your recruiter will be happy to discuss all that Qualcomm has to offer - and you can review more details about our US benefits at this link.

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