Staff Software Engineer - Qualcomm Advanced Robotics Team

Qualcomm•Santa Clara, CA

11d

About The Position

Qualcomm Advanced Robotics Team is building the AI-first stack and platform for the next generation of general-purpose robots, including AMRs, cobots, and emerging humanoids. They are pairing heterogeneous compute (CPU/GPU/DSP/NPU) with a full Robotics SDK and developer tooling for manipulation, perception, navigation, and fleet workflows. The team is leveraging their success in automated driving product portfolios, advanced AI end-to-end development and tools, and safety architecture to accelerate growth in this emerging market. As a Software Engineer, you will be a senior technical developer for Qualcomm’s robotics software platform. Your responsibilities will include defining the end-to-end architecture, raising the engineering bar across core middleware and services (ROS 2/DDS), and leading cross-functional teams to deliver production-grade SDKs and reference solutions for customers. You will combine deep systems expertise with hands-on leadership across perception/SLAM, planning & control, real-time Linux/MCU, and on-device AI, shipping robust software on Qualcomm robotics SoCs.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field and 4+ years of Software Engineering or related work experience.
Master's degree in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field and 3+ years of Software Engineering or related work experience.
PhD in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field and 2+ years of Software Engineering or related work experience.
2+ years of work experience with Programming Language such as C, C++, Java, Python, etc.

Nice To Haves

5+ years in software engineering, with 4+ years building robotics platforms, Ubuntu, ROS2 or complex real‑time distributed systems; proven record shipping SDKs or core runtimes.
Expert in C++ (modern) and Python with production experience in ROS 2 and DDS (QoS, discovery, message design, and tracing).
Depth in: Physical AI embedded and virtual platforms, SLAM/visual‑inertial odometry, dense/stereo depth, semantic mapping, planning & controls, or manipulation—with demonstrable system‑level integration on embedded platforms.
Strong background in Linux for robotics, real‑time considerations, and MCU/RTOS interactions (time sync, safety islands, bootloaders, field firmware management).
Performance engineering on heterogeneous SoCs (CPU/GPU/NPU/DSP) and camera/ISP stacks; hands‑on profiling and optimization.
BS/MS in CS, EE, Robotics, or related field (PhD a plus).
Track record leading large cross‑functional efforts (architecture docs, design reviews, de‑risking, postmortems) that landed in customer products.
Experience delivering developer‑facing SDKs and documentation; familiarity with Qualcomm robotics stacks and ROS 2 package ecosystems.
Demonstrated results in on‑device AI for perception or policy (model optimization, quantization, or pipeline fusion) on edge devices.
Contributions to ROS/ROS 2 or relevant open‑source robotics projects; publications/patents in SLAM, perception, manipulation, or real‑time systems.

Responsibilities

Develop the software architecture for the Qualcomm Robotics platform interfaces, runtime, QoS, and safety envelopes across Linux + MCU subsystems.
Drive DDS/ROS 2 patterns for reliable, real-time data flow on heterogeneous compute, and system mapping and optimization to Qualcomm Robotics platform.
Develop the platform roadmap and technical design reviews across perception (VIO/VSLAM, DFS), mapping, semantic scene understanding, navigation, manipulation, and SDK components.
Ensure high performance and low power on our SoCs.
Drive real-world validation using sim-in-the-loop and HIL.
Establish metrics for robustness, determinism, and regression across camera/IMU/LiDAR stacks and whole-robot scenarios.
Optimize for heterogeneous compute (CPU/GPU/DSP/NPU) and camera pipeline/ISP.
Guide teams on concurrency, memory/power budgets, and accelerator utilization for on-device AI.
Champion safety & reliability practices and interfaces compatible with relevant standards (e.g., ISO 26262/IEC 61508 alignment where applicable).
Design for field diagnostics, observability, and OTA update paths.
Mentor and grow senior engineers across core platform, perception, controls, and SDK setting crisp technical direction, code quality bars, and review culture.
Engage customers & partners as the senior technical face of the platform clarify requirements, guide integrations, and translate learnings into the roadmap.
Set the technical bar for platform correctness, determinism, and developer experience.
Coach senior ICs and tech leads, building a strong review culture and CI/CD discipline for robotics.
Partner with product and silicon teams to align software roadmaps with SoC capabilities and customer needs.
Leverages advanced Software knowledge and experience to design, develop, create, modify, and validate critical embedded and cloud edge software, applications, and/or specialized utility programs.
Analyzes user needs, software requirements, and time and cost constraints to design and customize sophisticated software for optimal operational efficiency.
Designs and implements software sub-systems for complex, large-scale products and systems.
Leads design, coding, and testing efforts to ensure that projects are completed to specifications and schedules.
Performs highly complex code reviews and regression tests as well as triages and fixes issues to ensure the quality of code.
Collaborates with individuals outside the software function (e.g., Hardware, Systems, and Test engineers) to increase leverage and design solutions that work with other components of a specific project.
Writes detailed technical documentation for highly complex Software projects; reviews technical documentation for junior engineers.