Sr. Staff Hardware Design Engineer, AI Accelerators

Qualcomm • San Diego, CA

2d • $169,800 - $254,600

About The Position

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.’s Cloud System Hardware and Validation Engineering team develops rack-level AI inference solutions for next-generation liquid-cooled data centers. The Sr. Staff Hardware Design Engineer designs and develops motherboards, add-in cards, and modules for Qualcomm AI SoCs and SiPs, and supports rack-level integration of cards, servers, and networking switches. The role works with cross-functional teams and ODM/JDM partners to take projects from concept through production, validation, and deployment.

The engineer contributes to system, card, and rack architectures; leads schematic and PCB design activities; resolves technical issues; supports hardware bring-up and debugging; and provides technical oversight of manufacturing and rack deployments. The position also involves customer-specific requirements, technical training for ODMs, coordination across development sites, and travel to development and customer locations as needed.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical/Electronics Engineering, Engineering, or a related field and 6+ years of Hardware Engineering or related work experience; OR a master’s degree in one of these fields and 5+ years; OR a PhD in one of these fields and 4+ years.
• Experience in system-, card-, and rack-level development, including architecture, design, validation, and deployment of enterprise-class hardware platforms.
• Proven rack-level system-integration experience, including chassis, backplane, cabling, airflow, and thermal management across multiple cards or modules.
• Familiarity with rack-scale power delivery, including PDUs, VRMs, PMICs, and power budgeting across multiple boards.
• Experience with rack-level diagnostics and bring-up, including interconnect debugging, signal integrity across long traces and cables, and system-level validation.
• Understanding of rack-level mechanical constraints, EMI shielding, and data-center deployment standards.
• Experience collaborating with ODMs/OEMs on rack-level design and manufacturing, including review of mechanical drawings, thermal simulations, and compliance testing.
• Deep knowledge of PCIe cards, motherboards, daughtercards, and backplane signal and power delivery.
• Expertise in chassis design, airflow optimization, and thermal management.
• Solid understanding of system software operation from bootloader through OS and application layers.
• Experience qualifying PMICs, voltage regulators, clock buffers, flash memory, and connectors for complex card and rack-level designs.
• Hands-on experience with dense, high-layer-count PCB designs (8–20+ layers).
• Skill in PCIe add-in card/module design and debugging high-performance x86 and ARM systems.
• Familiarity with JTAG tools for bring-up and debug.
• Experience with networking switches and high-speed Ethernet interfaces.
• Knowledge of high-speed serial I/O (6–10+ Gbps), PCIe Gen5/6, LPDDR4x/5x, DDR4/5, and 200/400/800 GbE.
• Experience with long PCB/cable topologies (0.35–1.5 meters), signal integrity, and compliance with current standards.
• Ability to debug at packet/protocol level across link, transport, transaction, and command layers.
• Experience with LPDDR4x memory technologies, DIMM layout, and validation.
• Expertise in clock distribution, power distribution, SMBus, PMBus, SPI, PWM/Tach, and BMC integration.
• Proficiency with schematic-capture and PCB-layout tools such as Cadence Allegro and Mentor Expedition.
• Experience with circuit-simulation tools such as SPICE and signal/power-integrity analysis.
• Skill using lab equipment including oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, JTAG, SMBus, and serial debuggers.
• Strong collaboration with ODMs on joint designs, schematic/layout reviews, and compliance with Qualcomm design guidelines.
• Good understanding of the x86 firmware/software stack and firmware architecture.
• Experience with BMC hardware/software integration and management.
• Familiarity with regulatory, environmental, and compliance testing for rack-level systems.

Nice To Haves

• Master’s degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field.
• 10+ years of hardware engineering/systems development experience or related work experience.
• 4+ years of experience with circuit design, such as digital, analog, or RF.
• 4+ years of experience using schematic-capture and circuit-simulation software.
• 4+ years of experience with hardware design and measurement instruments such as oscilloscopes, spectrum analyzers, and debug tools.

Responsibilities

• Lead schematic design, PCB layouts, design reviews, component selection, mechanical and thermal designs, and test-plan development.
• Co-develop functional specifications for systems, cards, subsystems, and rack-level architectures.
• Collaborate with internal teams and ODMs to develop and support customer-specific hardware and system requirements.
• Facilitate consensus on technical trade-offs at hardware, software, and chip-design levels.
• Support architecture and card designs involving accelerator SoCs, memory, I/O, power delivery, electrical and mechanical integration, and PCB definition and design.
• Participate in the design and development of rack-level inference solutions, aligning them with customer requirements and system-level performance goals.
• Resolve architecture and design issues across system, card, and rack levels.
• Assist with hardware-system, card, and rack-configuration bring-up and debugging.
• Provide technical oversight of factory and manufacturing processes to ensure quality and consistency across rack-level deployments.
• Contribute to Statements of Work and ODM product requirements, and drive technical milestones and deliverables.
• Coordinate across Qualcomm development sites and ODM/JDM partners in Taiwan and internationally.
• Travel to development and customer sites as needed to support rack-level solution deployment and validation.
• Influence and communicate technical recommendations across disciplines and geographic locations.
• Coordinate and deliver technical training for ODMs, focusing on rack-level system integration and deployment.

Benefits

• Competitive annual discretionary bonus program.
• Opportunity for annual RSU grants (employees on sales-incentive plans are not eligible for the annual bonus).
• Competitive benefits package designed to support success at work, at home, and at play.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior