Principal / Director – Robotics System Architecture Lead

Qualcomm•San Diego, CA

3d•$242,300 - $363,500•Onsite

About The Position

Qualcomm Robotics is seeking a Principal or Senior Director-level Robotics System Architecture Lead to define and own the end-to-end system architecture for next-generation robotic platforms. This role is responsible for shaping the technical direction of Qualcomm’s robotics solutions across silicon, firmware, operating systems, middleware, AI, and cloud integration. The ideal candidate is a recognized technical leader with deep robotics systems experience, strong architectural judgment, and the ability to influence cross-functional teams and long-term platform roadmaps.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field and 8+ years of Systems Engineering or related work experience.
Master's degree in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field and 7+ years of Systems Engineering or related work experience.
PhD in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field and 6+ years of Systems Engineering or related work experience.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree or PhD in a relevant technical field.
15+ years of experience in robotics, autonomous systems, embedded platforms, or large-scale software systems.
Proven experience owning system-level architecture across hardware and software boundaries.
Strong understanding of robotics fundamentals: perception, sensor fusion, estimation, planning, and control.
Experience working with heterogeneous compute platforms and performance- or real-time-critical systems.
Demonstrated ability to drive alignment and influence decisions across cross-functional engineering teams.
Experience shipping commercial or industrial robotic products at scale.
Hands-on experience with ROS 2, DDS, real-time Linux, MCU-based systems, and AI inference runtimes.
Familiarity with cloud-connected robotics, fleet management, or edge-to-cloud architectures.
Prior experience influencing platform or silicon roadmaps.

Responsibilities

Own end-to-end robotics system architecture spanning hardware, firmware, OS, middleware, AI runtimes, and cloud/fleet integration.
Define architectural principles for real-time behavior, performance, safety isolation, determinism, and scalability across heterogeneous compute (CPU/GPU/DSP/NPU/MCU).
Lead architectural decisions across perception, localization, navigation, planning, manipulation, and control stacks.
Define multi-sensor architecture (cameras, IMU, lidar/radar, depth) including timing/synchronization, calibration, bandwidth, and compute/power trade-offs for robust perception and state estimation.
Architect time synchronization and deterministic sensor data paths (e.g., hardware timestamping, clock discipline, PTP/IEEE 1588 where applicable) to enable precise multi-sensor fusion and real-time decision making.
Guide signal processing and sensor pipeline design (ISP, filtering, denoising, feature extraction, sensor fusion inputs), partnering with silicon and algorithm teams to meet accuracy, latency, and reliability targets.
Drive integration of ROS 2 / DDS-based middleware and Qualcomm AI technologies into a cohesive, production-grade robotics platform.
Partner with silicon, software, AI, and product teams to ensure alignment between software architecture and SoC capabilities, influencing future platform requirements as needed.
Establish system-level strategies for reliability, diagnostics, functional safety patterns, and validation.
Support customer and partner engagements by translating requirements into scalable reference architectures and platform solutions.
Review and guide complex cross-team design efforts; serve as the technical escalation point for system-level issues.
Provide technical leadership and mentorship across multiple teams and geographies.
Help define hiring standards, technical expectations, and architecture review processes.
Influence multi-year robotics platform strategy and investment priorities.