Staff Software Engineer, Core AI Software (Mobile BU Focus) _ Onsite

Qualcomm•San Diego, CA

1d•Onsite

About The Position

As a leading technology innovator, Qualcomm pushes the boundaries of what’s possible to enable next‑generation experiences and drive digital transformation, creating a smarter, connected future for all. As a Staff Software Engineer in the AI Software (AISW) team, you will play a critical role in delivering AI software capabilities that directly enable successful OEM and customer launches within the Mobile Business Unit (BU). In this role, you will lead the design and development of core features in the Qualcomm AI Stack, including Qualcomm AI Runtime (QAIRT) and Generative AI Inference Extensions (Genie). You will contribute to efficient execution of advanced deep neural networks (DNNs), large language models (LLMs), and modern AI architectures on Snapdragon platforms. A key aspect of this position is a strong customer‑first mindset, ensuring AI software solutions meet the highest standards of quality, usability, performance, and reliability for mobile customers. You will be responsible for supporting AI software that optimizes runtime efficiency, latency, power consumption, and stability of AI applications running machine‑learning workloads on Qualcomm’s low‑power AI accelerators, with a strong emphasis on real‑world mobile product readiness and customer satisfaction.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field.
5+ years of professional software development experience.
Strong proficiency in C/C++ software development.
Experience developing software in Linux environments.
Solid grounding in data structures, algorithms, software design principles, debugging, and testing.
Strong verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to work effectively across teams and with customer‑facing stakeholders.

Nice To Haves

Master's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or Electrical Engineering.
Experience building embedded and systems‑level software for mobile or edge platforms.
Familiarity with generative AI model architectures (e.g., LLMs) and inference pipelines.
Understanding of hardware acceleration and deployment of AI inference on edge devices.
Experience across platforms such as Linux, Android, and/or Windows.
Knowledge of low‑level OS–hardware interactions.
Experience with CMake‑based build environments.
Prior experience using or integrating Qualcomm AI Stack products (e.g., QNN, Genie).
Experience with agile development practices and git‑based source control.
Ability to collaborate effectively within a globally distributed, cross‑functional team while balancing multiple priorities driven by customer and product milestones.

Responsibilities

Lead development of software for Qualcomm AI Stack SDKs (QAIRT, Genie) to enable execution of state‑of‑the‑art generative and traditional AI models on Snapdragon mobile platforms.
Design and implement core AI runtime framework components for inference on resource‑constrained mobile systems operating under strict power, memory, and performance constraints.
Work closely with Mobile BU Points‑of‑Contact (PoCs) responsible for OEM engagement and product launches to deliver features, bug fixes, and optimizations required for customer success.
Demonstrate a strong focus and obsession toward customer satisfaction, ensuring issues impacting customer experience are prioritized, addressed with urgency, and resolved with high quality.
Proactively improve internal and customer workflows related to AI tools, SDKs, documentation, and processes to enhance ease of use, debuggability, and overall developer experience.
Collaborate with cross‑functional teams including Mobile BU, product leads, systems, validation, performance, and customer engineering teams to ensure end‑to‑end readiness for commercial launches.
Validate, analyze, and optimize software performance, accuracy, and robustness through detailed testing of mobile AI use cases.
Debug complex system issues, perform root‑cause analysis, and drive fixes across software‑hardware boundaries to ensure high reliability in customer environments.
Lead feature development and influence technical direction to enable customers and partners to effectively deploy AI solutions on Qualcomm platforms.
Participate actively in design and code reviews, setting high standards for code quality, maintainability, and scalability.
Mentor junior engineers and contribute to a culture of technical excellence, ownership, and continuous improvement within the AI Software organization.
Work independently with minimal supervision; technical decisions will impact both your immediate area and broader cross‑team deliverables.