Staff Engineer, Embedded Sensor Systems & Physical AI

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General Summary:

We are seeking a Staff Engineer, Embedded Sensor Systems & Physical AI to develop next-generation sensing technologies for Robotics, XR, mobile, & IEIoT,I applications.

This is a hands-on sensor systems engineering role at the intersection of sensor hardware, embedded electronics, firmware, signal processing, characterization, and system integration. The ideal candidate can take a sensing concept from early evaluation through prototype development, characterization, embedded integration, and system demonstration.

You will work with technologies such as tactile, force, pressure, proximity, motion, environmental, and multimodal sensing, integrating sensors with embedded compute platforms and intelligent perception/control systems.

You will collaborate across robotics, XR, AI/ML, silicon, embedded software, and systems teams on applications including dexterous manipulation, tactile perception, force control, HMI, multimodal perception, and contextual awareness.

We value technical depth, hands-on experimentation, system thinking, and the ability to turn emerging sensor technologies into robust working prototypes.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the architecture, development, and validation of advanced sensor systems for robotics, XR, mobile, IoT, and Physical AI applications.
• Design and build embedded sensing platforms for sensor bring-up, data acquisition, real-time processing, characterization, control, and system validation.
• Develop sensor characterization and calibration methodologies, including automated test infrastructure and performance metrics for noise, sensitivity, accuracy, latency, bandwidth, power, reliability, drift, and robustness. Create or partner for hardware prototypes and evaluation systems, including sensor boards, embedded platforms, sensor fixtures, test setups, and data collection infrastructure.
• Develop and debug hardware, firmware, and low-level software spanning sensors, analog/digital interfaces, MCUs/SoCs/DSPs/FPGAs, communication interfaces, and embedded processing.
• Architect and evaluate multimodal sensing and sensor-fusion solutions combining modalities such as tactile, force, proximity, motion, vision, audio, and environmental sensing.
• Collaborate with robotics, controls, AI/ML, silicon, software, and systems teams to integrate sensing with perception, actuation, manipulation, HMI, and intelligent interaction.
• Provide technical leadership for emerging sensing technologies, working with internal teams, suppliers, research partners, and universities to evaluate technologies, build prototypes, define roadmaps, and generate IP.

Minimum Qualifications:

OR

Master's degree in Science, Engineering, or related field and 3+ years of ASIC design, verification, validation, integration, or related work experience.

OR

PhD in Science, Engineering, or related field and 2+ years of ASIC design, verification, validation, integration, or related work experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Demonstrated hands-on experience developing sensor systems, embedded hardware, or sensor-based platforms.
• Strong understanding of sensor signal chains, characterization, calibration, noise, data acquisition, and system integration.
• Experience developing embedded firmware/software using C/C++ and/or Python, and integrating sensors with MCU, SoC, DSP, FPGA, or similar platforms.
• Hands-on experience designing and debugging PCBs, sensor modules, embedded platforms, laboratory instrumentation, and system-level prototypes.
• Demonstrated ability to solve open-ended engineering problems and drive solutions across hardware, firmware, software, algorithms, and systems teams.

• Ability to work effectively on open-ended technical problems, define requirements, make trade-offs, and drive solutions across hardware, software, firmware, and systems teams.
• Strong communication skills and ability to collaborate across multidisciplinary engineering organizations.

Experience in one or more of the following areas is preferred. Candidates willing to expand horizon are preferred.

• Experience developing HMI and advanced sensing systems for touch, gesture, proximity, wearables, XR, smart devices, robotic interfaces, or ambient/contextual sensing applications.
• Experience with one or more sensor technologies, such as tactile, capacitive, resistive, piezoelectric/piezoresistive, optical, magnetic, ultrasonic, MEMS, force/torque, pressure, proximity, inertial, or multimodal sensing.
• Experience with robotics and Physical AI applications, including robotic manipulation, dexterous hands, grasping, tactile perception, slip/contact detection, force control, impedance/compliance control, humanoid robots, or robotic end effectors.
• Experience developing sensor characterization, calibration, and automated test systems, including data acquisition, laboratory instrumentation, Python-based automation, MATLAB, Jupyter, or similar tools.
• Experience with sensor fusion, signal processing, or embedded intelligence, including multimodal sensor fusion, event detection, anomaly detection, TinyML, Edge AI, or embedded inference.
• Experience integrating sensing with embedded compute platforms, including ARM or RISC-V MCUs, DSPs, FPGAs, embedded Linux, RTOS, or heterogeneous SoCs.
• Experience with sensor ASICs, analog/mixed-signal ICs, MEMS devices, custom silicon, sensor interfaces, sensor packaging, or hardware-software co-design.
• Familiarity with robotics software and simulation environments, such as ROS 2, Isaac Sim, MuJoCo, MoveIt, MATLAB/Simulink, or similar platforms.
• Experience working across sensor hardware, firmware, signal processing, controls, robotics, and AI/ML teams to develop and integrate complete sensing solutions.

· Demonstrated technical leadership and innovation through product contributions, system architecture ownership, prototypes, technology demonstrations, patents, publications, or invention disclosures.

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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.