Principal Software Engineer, AI Software Automotive Lead

Qualcomm; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 201,000 - 301,000; Full time

Job summary

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. is seeking a Principal Engineer within Qualcomm AI Software to lead the design, development, and deployment of advanced AI software powering automotive platforms across digital cockpit, IVI, ADAS, autonomous driving, and vision systems.

You will be the technical lead interfacing with the Automotive Business Unit, customers, and engineering teams to translate requirements into roadmaps, drive architecture, and ensure production-ready solutions.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s/Master’s/PhD with 8+/7+/6+ years in HW/SW/Systems engineering.
• Expert level in C/C++ and embedded software.
• Experience leading large technical initiatives across teams.

Responsibilities

• Interface with Automotive BU and customers.
• Translate requirements into technical roadmaps and architecture proposals.
• Lead design, integration, and delivery of AI software features for Qualcomm Automotive platforms.
• Drive architectural decisions across products and releases.
• Mentor engineers and stay current with AI/ML advances.

Skills

C/C++ software development

Software architecture

Distributed systems

Leadership

Python

Git

AI/ML frameworks

Edge AI

Education

Bachelor's degree, Computer Science/Engineering/IS

Master's degree, Computer Science/Engineering/IS

PhD, Computer Science/Engineering/IS

Tools

QNN

SNPE

Genie

QAIRT

Git-based source control

Job description

Company:

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

Job Area:

Engineering Group, Engineering Group > Machine Learning Engineering

General Summary:

As a leading technology innovator, Qualcomm pushes the boundaries of what's possible to enable next-generation intelligent automotive experiences. As a Principal Engineer within Qualcomm AI Software, you will drive the design, development, and deployment of advanced AI software technologies powering automotive platforms across digital cockpit, in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), ADAS, autonomous driving, computer vision, voice AI, and generative AI applications.

In this position, you will serve as a technical leader and primary interface between the AI Software organization and the Automotive Business Unit. You will work closely with automotive customers, internal engineering organizations, and product teams to define requirements, drive architectural decisions, and enable successful deployment of Qualcomm AI technologies into production automotive programs.

You will combine deep technical expertise with strong program leadership skills. Your responsibilities will include representing Qualcomm in customer engagements, translating automotive requirements into AI software roadmap priorities, coordinating feature delivery across multiple engineering teams, and leading the development of robust AI solutions that meet automotive performance, reliability, safety, and quality requirements.

You will have the opportunity to influence the direction of Qualcomm's AI software stack, lead strategically important initiatives, mentor senior engineers, and drive the adoption of next-generation AI technologies across the automotive ecosystem.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the primary AI Software technical lead interfacing with the Automotive Business Unit, automotive OEMs, Tier-1 suppliers, and strategic customers.
• Represent Qualcomm in customer discussions, technical deep dives, architecture reviews, and issue resolution efforts related to AI software technologies and automotive deployments.
• Lead or coordinate the design, development, integration, and delivery of AI software features required for Qualcomm Automotive platforms and products.
• Translate customer requirements and market needs into technical requirements, architecture proposals, feature roadmaps, and engineering execution plans.
• Contribute to enhancements across the Qualcomm AI Stack, including model preparation, optimization, runtime, inference, tooling, and developer workflows to support automotive use cases.
• Identify and resolve limitations within the AI software stack and collaborate across teams to deliver scalable, production-ready solutions.
• Lead cross-functional efforts involving AI Software, Automotive Engineering, Program Management, Product Management, Systems Engineering, and Platform Software teams.
• Provide technical leadership for deployment of advanced AI workloads on Automotive platform environments including:
• • Computer vision
  • Perception systems
  • Driver monitoring
  • Voice assistants
  • Large language models (LLMs)
  • Multimodal AI applications
  • Generative AI services
• Drive architectural decisions affecting multiple products, software releases, and automotive customer programs.
• Participate in strategic planning and long-term roadmap development for AI software technologies within Qualcomm Automotive solutions.
• Ensure solutions satisfy automotive requirements related to performance, reliability, maintainability, security, and safety.
• Mentor engineers across the organization and provide technical guidance for complex architecture, optimization, debugging, and customer deployment challenges.
• Stay current with advances in artificial intelligence, machine learning, automotive systems, and industry standards to continuously improve Qualcomm's AI software offerings.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or related field and 8+ 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 7+ years of Hardware Engineering, Software Engineering, Systems Engineering, or related work experience.
• PhD in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or related field and 6+ years of Hardware Engineering, Software Engineering, Systems Engineering, or related work experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• 15+ years of industry experience in software engineering, embedded systems, AI/ML software, or automotive software development.
• Expert-level proficiency in C/C++ software development.
• Strong software architecture and design skills, including distributed systems, embedded software, performance optimization, debugging, testing, and software lifecycle management.
• Demonstrated experience leading large technical initiatives spanning multiple teams and organizations.
• Experience interfacing directly with customers and translating customer requirements into engineering deliverables.
• Strong understanding of embedded and systems software development environments.
• Excellent communication, presentation, and technical leadership skills.
• Ability to influence technical direction and build consensus across multiple organizations.
• Ability to make technical and business decisions in ambiguous environments with incomplete information.
• Experience in automotive software platforms, including QNX, Android Automotive, Linux, or AUTOSAR-based environments.
• Experience delivering software for automotive production programs with OEMs or Tier-1 suppliers.
• Familiarity with automotive safety and quality standards, including:
• • ISO 26262
  • ASPICE
  • Automotive cybersecurity standards (ISO/SAE 21434)
  • Functional safety development processes
• Experience with AI/ML frameworks such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, ONNX, JAX, or equivalent.
• Experience with deployment and optimization of:
• • CNNs
  • Transformers
  • Vision-language models
  • Large language models (LLMs)
  • Multimodal models
• Experience with edge AI inference acceleration and heterogeneous compute architectures, including CPUs, GPUs, NPUs, DSPs, and AI accelerators.
• Experience with Qualcomm AI technologies, including QAIRT, QNN, SNPE, Genie, and related AI software components.
• Experience debugging complex issues spanning application software, middleware, operating systems, drivers, compilers, and hardware platforms.
• Experience with model optimization techniques, including quantization, compression, pruning, compilation, and runtime optimization.
• Experience leading globally distributed engineering teams and cross-functional programs.
• Experience with Agile software development methodologies and Git-based source control management.
• Software development experience in Python.
• AI-native and agentic software development proficiency.

Equal Opportunity Employer Statement

Qualcomm is an equal opportunity employer.

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Pay range and Other Compensation & Benefits

$200,800.00 - $301,200.00

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.

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