Wireless Software Engineer

Qualcomm•Santa Clara, CA

2d•$154,600 - $232,000

About The Position

The Modem Systems Software team builds the low-level firmware and protocol software that powers cellular connectivity across billions of devices worldwide — spanning smartphones, automotive, IoT, fixed wireless access, and next-generation 5G/6G platforms. We are re-imagining how modem software is designed, built, verified, and maintained in an AI-native paradigm, where large language models, agentic tooling, and machine-assisted engineering are first-class parts of the development lifecycle. 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 and 2+ years of Software Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related work experience.
Master's degree in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or related field and 1+ year of Software Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related work experience.
PhD 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.