Director, Yield Architecture & Engineering

Qualcomm; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 216,400 - 324,600; Full time

Job summary

Qualcomm is seeking a Director for its Yield Management team in San Diego, California. This role emphasizes leadership in Design for Yield and requires deep expertise in ASIC design, along with a focus on automation and AI. The ideal candidate will possess 8+ years of relevant experience and the ability to lead high-performing teams.

The pay range for this role is between $216,400 to $324,600 and includes the opportunity to impact significant engineering processes. Qualcomm promotes an equal opportunity work environment.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of ASIC design, verification, validation, or related experience.
• Experience in semiconductor design and hardware engineering.
• Strong leadership skills and ability to manage high-performing teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead Design for Yield strategy across teams.
• Develop automation and AI-driven yield management solutions.
• Foster a people-first culture within the engineering team.

Skills

People leadership

Yield analysis

Automation

AI implementation

Collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree in Science or Engineering

Master's degree in Science or Engineering

PhD in Science or Engineering

Job description

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

Engineering Group, Engineering Group > ASICS Engineering

General Summary

We are seeking a strategic, technically deep, and people-centered leader to serve as Director on the Yield Management team. This role will build on the strong foundation already in place by advancing Design for Yield (DFY) in the architecture definition process, expanding the use of automation and AI across yield analysis and debug workflows, and supporting a high-performing organization grounded in strong people leadership.

Key Responsibilities

• Design for Yield Leadership: Guide a proactive Design for Yield strategy by partnering with architecture, design, product, and test teams to embed yield resiliency into product definition and implementation. Establish design principles, feedback mechanisms, and decision frameworks that strengthen defect tolerance, redundancy, diagnosability, and manufacturability across complex silicon programs.
• Automation, AI, and Yield Systems: Lead the continued evolution of yield analysis, debug, and management from fragmented manual workflows toward scalable, data-driven systems. Build and deploy automation frameworks, analytics platforms, and AI-enabled solutions that accelerate root-cause analysis, improve signal detection, reduce turnaround time, and increase engineering productivity.
• People-First Team Leadership: Lead, coach, and develop the yield analysis, debug, and management team with a people-first mindset. Create a culture of trust, inclusion, accountability, and technical excellence across distributed teams. Set clear goals, invest in career growth, remove organizational friction, and ensure the team has the structure, support, and clarity needed to succeed.
• Operational Excellence and Continuous Improvement: Establish disciplined operating mechanisms for yield management, including standardized workflows, metric-driven reviews, and continuous improvement practices. Apply sound engineering judgment and scalable processes to improve execution quality, increase visibility to risks and opportunities, and sustain long-term organizational effectiveness.
• Cross-Functional Influence: Build strong partnerships across design, product, manufacturing, test, data, and executive leadership teams to align yield priorities with business goals. Influence decisions through technical credibility, clear communication, and collaborative problem solving in a fast-moving, cross-functional environment.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Science, Engineering, or related field and 8+ years of ASIC design, verification, validation, integration, or related work experience.
• Master's degree in Science, Engineering, or related field and 7+ years of ASIC design, verification, validation, integration, or related work experience.
• PhD in Science, Engineering, or related field and 6+ years of ASIC design, verification, validation, integration, or related work experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field.
• 10+ years of experience in semiconductor design, product engineering, hardware engineering, yield analysis, or post-silicon debug, including substantial experience driving yield improvements across complex silicon products.
• 5+ years of experience in technical leadership or people management, with a demonstrated record of building respected, high‑performing engineering teams, developing leaders, and driving meaningful organizational impact across functions or sites.
• People Leadership Excellence: Strong track record of leading with empathy, clarity, and accountability, with the ability to grow talent, navigate change, and build healthy team culture in high‑performance engineering environments.
• Automation and AI Depth: Proven experience building or scaling automation, analytics, or AI‑driven workflows for engineering productivity, debug efficiency, or decision support in semiconductor or adjacent technical domains.
• Design for Yield and Systems Mindset: Demonstrated ability to influence architecture and engineering decisions with a strong understanding of Design for Yield, manufacturability, debug, and system‑level tradeoffs.
• Community Builder: Demonstrated ability to bring stability, clarity, and deep collaboration to complex or evolving team environments.

Pay range and Other Compensation & Benefits

$216,400.00 - $324,600.00

Qualcomm is an equal opportunity employer. If you are an individual with a disability and need an accommodation during the application/hiring process, rest assured that Qualcomm is committed to providing an accessible process. You may e‑mail disability‑[e-mail] or call Qualcomm's toll‑free number found here. Upon request, Qualcomm will provide reasonable accommodations to support individuals with disabilities to be able participate in the hiring process. Qualcomm is also committed to making our workplace accessible for individuals with disabilities. (Keep in mind that this email address is used to provide reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities. We will not respond here to requests for updates on applications or resume inquiries).

EEO Employer: 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.

If you would like more information about this role, please contact Qualcomm Careers.