LLVM/Ripple Compiler Engineer

Qualcomm; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 141,000 - 211,000; Full time

Job summary

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. in California seeks a Staff Engineer to drive LLVM‑Ripple development, its compiler toolchain, and the ecosystem that enables massively parallel application development on Snapdragon platforms.

You will design, develop, optimize, and maintain compiler components, parallel runtimes, and developer‑facing features, collaborating with architecture teams and application engineers to evolve Ripple and achieve performance portability across heterogeneous compute.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or related field with 8+ years of software engineering experience.
• Master’s degree with 6+ years, or PhD with 3+ years.
• Strong experience with LLVM development (IR transformations, back‑end, code generation) and compiler toolchain design.
• Expertise in parallel programming models (CUDA, OpenCL, OpenMP, SIMD/SIMT).
• Proficiency in C/C++ and modern compiler engineering practices.
• Experience with runtime systems, concurrency, or parallel execution models.

Responsibilities

• Lead design and development of LLVM‑Ripple compiler components, including front‑end extensions, middle‑end optimizations, back‑end code generation, and tooling support.
• Architect and implement improvements to parallel runtimes, including scheduling, memory models, synchronization, and heterogeneous workloads targeting Snapdragon processors.
• Define and evolve programming abstractions to improve developer experience for highly parallel and heterogeneous applications.
• Collaborate with hardware architecture teams to model and expose new parallel features, SIMD/SIMT execution models, and accelerator capabilities through compiler and runtime interfaces.
• Drive performance analysis, benchmarking, and optimization across the full Ripple ecosystem: compiler, runtime, libraries, and application workloads.
• Deliver high‑quality, maintainable code and documentation; contribute upstream to LLVM and Ripple where appropriate.

Skills

LLVM/Compiler

C/C++

Parallel programming

Performance analysis

Debugging

Mentorship

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science/Engineering/EE

Master's degree in Computer Science/Engineering/IS

PhD in Computer Science/Engineering

Tools

LLVM Toolchain

Runtime systems (concurrency)

Job description

Company:

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

Job Area:

Engineering Group, Engineering Group > Machine Learning Engineering

General Summary:

Qualcomm is seeking a highly skilled Staff Engineer to drive development of LLVM‑Ripple, its compiler toolchain, and the supporting ecosystem that enables highly‑parallel application development on Snapdragon platforms. In this role, you will design, develop, optimize, and maintain compiler components, parallel runtimes, and developer‑facing features that significantly improve the programming experience for massively parallel applications targeting heterogeneous compute architectures.

You will work closely with architecture teams, runtime engineers, and application developers to evolve the Ripple programming model, enhance performance portability, and expand compiler and runtime capabilities. This position requires deep expertise in compiler internals, parallel programming models, and performance optimization on modern SoCs.

Responsibilities

• Lead design and development of LLVM‑Ripple compiler components, including front‑end extensions, middle‑end optimizations, back‑end code generation, and tooling support.
• Architect and implement improvements to parallel runtimes, including scheduling, memory models, synchronization, and heterogeneous workloads targeting Snapdragon processors.
• Define and evolve programming abstractions to improve developer experience for highly parallel and heterogeneous applications.
• Collaborate with hardware architecture teams to model and expose new parallel features, SIMD/SIMT execution models, and accelerator capabilities through compiler and runtime interfaces.
• Drive performance analysis, benchmarking, and optimization across the full Ripple ecosystem: compiler, runtime, libraries, and application workloads.
• Deliver high‑quality, maintainable code and documentation; contribute upstream to LLVM and Ripple where appropriate.
• Provide technical mentorship, code reviews, and guidance to junior engineers.
• Work cross‑functionally with internal customers to enable new use cases, improve toolchain reliability, and enhance developer workflows.

Minimum skills

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or related field and 8+ years of software engineering experience ORMaster’s degree in the same fields and 6+ years of experience ORPhD and 3+ years of experience.
• Strong experience with LLVM development, including IR transformations, back‑end targets, code generation, or compiler toolchain design.
• Expertise in parallel programming models, such as:
  • CUDA
  • OpenCL
  • OpenMP
  • SIMD/SIMT programming
  • GPU programming models or heterogeneous compute frameworks
• Proficiency with C/C++ and modern compiler engineering practices.
• Experience with runtime systems, concurrency, or parallel execution models.
• Strong debugging, performance analysis, and optimization skills.

Preferred Skills

• Experience contributing to upstream LLVM or similar large open‑source compiler projects.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or related field and 2+ years of Hardware Engineering, Software Engineering, Systems Engineering, or related work experience.
• Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or related field and 1+ year of Hardware Engineering, Software Engineering, Systems Engineering, or related work experience.
• PhD in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or related field.

Qualcomm is an equal opportunity employer

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 [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.

Qualcomm expects its employees to abide by all applicable policies and procedures, including but not limited to security and other requirements regarding protection of Company confidential information and other confidential and/or proprietary information, to the extent those requirements are permissible under applicable law.

Pay range and Other Compensation & Benefits:

$140,800.00 - $211,200.00

The above pay scale reflects the broad, minimum to maximum, pay scale for this job code for the location for which it has been posted. Even more importantly, please note that salary is only one component of total compensation at Qualcomm. We also offer a competitive annual discretionary bonus program and opportunity for annual RSU grants (employees on sales-incentive plans are not eligible for our annual bonus). In addition, our highly competitive benefits package is designed to support your success at work, at home, and at play. Your recruiter will be happy to discuss all that Qualcomm has to offer – and you can review more details about our US benefits at this link.