Customer Engineering Lead - Firmware / BIOS / UEFI

Qualcomm; Santa Clara (CA); On-site; USD 172,400 - 258,600; Full time

Job summary

Qualcomm is seeking a Sr Staff ARM Server Firmware Management Customer Engineer to drive success across hyperscale servers with deep firmware expertise and leadership. You will coordinate multi‑team debugging, mentor customer engineers, and act as final escalation on mission‑critical deliverables.

The role requires extensive experience in UEFI/BIOS, BMC/Manageability, ARM Trusted Firmware, and platform RAS, with strong customer engagement and architectural influence on datacenter roadmap.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field with 6+ years of Software Applications Engineering or related experience.
• Master’s degree in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field with 5+ years of Software Applications Engineering or related experience.
• PhD in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field with 4+ years of Software Applications Engineering or related experience.
• 3+ years of experience with programming languages such as C, C++, Java, Python, etc.
• 3+ years of experience with debugging techniques.

Responsibilities

• Own complex escalations: boot blockers, firmware regressions, PCIe/CXL/RAS faults, DDR PHY training, secure boot and attestation failures, host‑BMC sync issues.
• Lead cross‑functional war rooms with silicon, firmware, BIOS, BMC, validation, and security stakeholders to deliver rapid containment and durable fixes.
• Engage hyperscalers and OEM/ODMs on bring‑up; lead code/design reviews for UEFI drivers, TFA components, and BMC services; deliver diagnostics and telemetry guidance.

Skills

Programming languages

Firmware debugging

Customer facing

Escalation management

Education

Bachelor's degree

Master's degree

PhD

Tools

UEFI/EDK2

ARM Trusted Firmware

Redfish

IPMI/KCS

PLDM/MCTP

Job description

General Summary

The Sr Staff ARM Server Firmware Management Customer Engineer is a senior technical authority responsible for driving the success of ARM based, hyperscale class server platforms across hyperscalers, OEMs/ODMs, cloud providers, and strategic enterprise partners.

This role combines deep platform firmware expertise, server architecture insight, and customer‑facing leadership to accelerate adoption, solve the industry’s most complex system‑level issues, and influence long‑term product direction across Qualcomm’s datacenter roadmap.

As a Sr Staff engineer, you will operate with broad technical latitude across UEFI/BIOS, BMC/Manageability (Redfish/IPMI/PLDM/MCTP/KCS), ARM Trusted Firmware, silicon initialization, platform RAS, and system‑level telemetry, leading multi‑team debug and integration efforts, mentoring customer engineering teams, and serving as the final escalation point for mission‑critical deliverables.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field and 6+ years of Software Applications Engineering, Software Development experience, or related work experience.
• Master’s degree in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field and 5+ years of Software Applications Engineering, Software Development experience, or related work experience.
• PhD in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field and 4+ years of Software Applications Engineering, Software Development experience, or related work experience.
• 3+ years of experience with programming languages such as C, C++, Java, Python, etc.
• 3+ years of experience with debugging techniques.

Key Responsibilities

1. Ownership of Complex Escalations
   • Act as the ultimate escalation point for boot blockers, firmware regressions, PCIe/CXL link training or RAS faults, DDR PHY training issues, secure boot and attestation failures, and host‑BMC synchronization defects.
   • Perform deep‑dive forensics across crash dumps, firmware traces, silicon trace buffers, CPER records, AER/DPC events, SEL/IPMI logs, Redfish telemetry, PLDM monitoring, and cross‑domain error propagation.
   • Run cross‑functional war rooms with silicon, firmware, BIOS, BMC/Manageability, validation, and security stakeholders to deliver rapid containment and durable fixes.
2. Customer Engagement & Strategic Enablement
   • Serve as the principal technical interface for hyperscalers and OEM/ODMs on UEFI/BIOS and TFA bring‑up; BMC integration; Redfish service design; PLDM based host coordination; MCTP endpoint/transport setup; KCS/SSIF/IPMB host BMC channels; and secure firmware lifecycle.
   • Lead code/design reviews for UEFI drivers, TFA components, and BMC services (PLDM Base/FRU/BIOS Control & Config/Monitoring, Redfish schemas, telemetry streaming).
   • Deliver high‑value collateral: bring‑up guides, error handling/RAS playbooks, debug procedures, Redfish/PLDM modeling guidance, and architecture recommendations.
3. Platform Integration & Cross‑Functional Leadership
   • Lead integration across:
     • UEFI/EDK2 (PEI/DXE), ARM Trusted Firmware (TFA, TFRMM), ACPI/SMBIOS construction.
     • BMC firmware (OpenBMC or equivalent) including Redfish, IPMI, KCS, PLDM over MCTP, MCTP transports (SMBus/I³C/PCIeVDM), SOL/vUART/SoL, sensor & SDR frameworks, FRU data, and BIOS‑BMC attribute sync.
     • PCIe/CXL initialization (LTSSM, link equalization), AER/DPC policy, RCEC interactions; DDR PHY training & margining; runtime services (PSCI/SDEI).
   • Shape the end‑to‑end diagnostics and observability stack: early boot logging, host‑BMC log correlation, Redfish telemetry, fault injection frameworks, JTAG/Trace32 multi‑domain traces, and error persistence strategies.
   • Mentor internal engineers; scale customer engineering capabilities globally.
4. Continuous Improvement & Ecosystem Stewardship
   • Identify systemic gaps in fault detection, error handling, recoverability, and manageability protocol interoperability; drive architectural fixes and process improvements.
   • Contribute to ecosystem alignment on SystemReadySR, SBSA/SBBR, ACPI/SMBIOS evolution, Redfish schema extensions, and PLDM profile usage; advocate for secure update frameworks (UEFI Capsule, Redfish UpdateService, PLDM FW Update).
   • Champion resilience features: ECC policies, patrol scrubbing, memory poison handling (CXL/DDR), graceful degradation, RAS policy tuning, and serviceability KPIs valued by hyperscalers.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or related field.
• 12–17+ years in firmware, bootloader, or system software development for ARM or datacenter server platforms.
• Expert level understanding of:
  • UEFI/EDK2 (PEI/DXE), secure/Measured Boot, TPM event logs, capsule updates, runtime services; host‑BMC coordination and BIOS‑BMC attribute sync.
  • ARMv8/v9 (EL0–EL3), MMU/SMMU/IOMMU, RAS (APEI/CPER/SDEI/SError), SEA/SEI handling, error containment & recovery models.
  • BMC ecosystems: OpenBMC, Redfish, IPMI, KCS host interface, PLDM (Base, FRU, BIOS Control & Configuration, Monitoring & Eventing, Firmware Update), MCTP (endpoints & transports over SMBus/I³C/PCIeVDM), SOL/vUART, SEL/SDR/FRU management.
  • PCIe/CXL (enumeration, LTSSM, equalization) with AER/DPC/ACS/ARI/ECRC, and DDR bring‑up (PHY training, margining, ECC).
  • Deep debugging using JTAG/Trace32, early boot traces, silicon waveforms, CPER/AER event triage, fault injection and telemetry pipelines (Redfish/PLDM/host logs).
• Proven experience leading customer‑facing escalations at hyperscale, conducting architecture reviews, and executing cross‑domain root‑cause investigations to closure.
• Leadership across host firmware, BMC manageability, platform security, and RAS—from design to fleet‑scale sustainment.
• Demonstrated delivery against SystemReadySR, SBSA/SBBR, ACPI/SMBIOS, and Redfish/PLDM conformance; hands‑on with PLDM FWUpdate orchestration and MCTP routing/bridging.
• Expertise in fault detection, error handling, and recovery (e.g., CPER‑driven policies, AER/DPC reactions, memory poison flows for DDR/CXL, graceful isolation/degrade‑continue strategies).
• Ability to influence senior stakeholders, shape long‑range platform strategy, and operate independently in ambiguous, high‑severity, customer‑driven environments.

Pay Range and Other Compensation & Benefits

Salary: $172,400.00 – $258,600.00

In addition to base salary, Qualcomm offers a competitive annual discretionary bonus program and opportunities for annual RSU grants. Employees on sales‑incentive plans are not eligible for the annual bonus.

Benefits include a highly competitive package designed to support success at work, at home, and at play.

EEO Statement

Qualcomm is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other protected classification.