Modem Software Engineer

Qualcomm•San Diego, CA

6d•$109,400 - $164,200

About The Position

The MMODE team develops protocol software that enables intelligent system selection and mobility across terrestrial and satellite wireless networks. MMODE software determines how devices discover, select, acquire, and transition between available connectivity options while balancing user experience, network performance, power efficiency, and operator requirements. Engineers work on technologies including 5G NR, LTE, NTN, Multi-SIM, emergency services, and next-generation connectivity solutions, collaborating closely with systems, modem firmware, and test teams to deliver innovative wireless features. As a Modem Software Engineer, you will design, develop, and optimize real-time embedded software for Qualcomm's modem subsystem (MPSS). You will work close to the metal — writing performant, resource-constrained C/C++ that runs on DSP and Arm cores across cellular protocol layers, device drivers, and RTOS-level components. Beyond traditional embedded development, this role is explicitly AI-native. You are expected to leverage, build, and improve AI-assisted development workflows — using code-generation agents, LLM-based code review, automated test synthesis, log/crash triage assistants, and retrieval-augmented tooling over our codebase — to dramatically accelerate delivery, quality, and debugging in a highly complex firmware environment.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or related field.

Responsibilities

Design, implement, and optimize real-time embedded modem software across protocol layers, drivers, and platform services, meeting strict latency, memory, and power constraints.
Apply rigorous data-structure and algorithm design to build efficient, scalable firmware components.
Own end-to-end feature delivery: requirements, architecture, implementation, unit/integration testing, on-target bring-up, and maintenance.
Pioneer AI-native development practices within the team — integrate AI coding agents into daily workflows, establish agent rules and prompt patterns, and measurably reduce development and debug cycle time.
Build and maintain AI-assisted tooling for code review, static analysis, test synthesis, and automated crash/log triage over the modem codebase.
Debug and root-cause complex, multi-layer issues on target hardware, increasingly leveraging AI-assisted analysis of logs, traces, and RAM dumps.
Collaborate cross-functionally with systems, hardware, test, and integration teams to deliver production-quality modem firmware.
Contribute to code reviews, design reviews, and continuous improvement of engineering standards — including standards for the responsible and effective use of AI in the SDLC.
Mentor peers on both embedded fundamentals and AI-native engineering techniques.