Radio Frequency Hardware Engineer (Staff Up To Principal)

QUALCOMM, Inc.; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 155,000 - 233,000; Full time

Job summary

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. is seeking a Staff/Sr Staff/Principal RF Hardware Engineer to define RF system and hardware architecture for advanced wireless platforms, including 5G Advanced and 6G.

You will lead cross-functional teams across RF, antenna, and software domains from concept to prototype, ensuring robust performance and scalable solutions. The role demands deep expertise in RF hardware, RF system design, and cross-domain integration, with responsibilities spanning architecture

Qualifications

• Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Electrical & Computer Engineering, Applied Physics, or a related field and 8+ years of relevant industry experience
• Ph.D. Degree in Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics, or a related discipline and 5+ years of industry or post-doctoral experience

Responsibilities

• Define and lead RF system architecture for advanced wireless platforms and next-generation products.
• Drive partitioning and tradeoff analysis across RF hardware, RFIC, antenna, modem, algorithms, and software domains.
• Establish RF performance requirements and translate system objectives into optimized hardware architectures.
• Lead architecture evaluations for emerging technologies and influence product roadmaps.
• Drive design reviews, technical risk assessments, and architecture decisions.
• Provide technical direction during product definition, development, integration, verification, optimization, and commercialization.
• Influence engineering best practices, methodologies, and design processes.
• Lead design, integration, optimization, and validation of complex RF subsystems including: Power amplifiers, Low-noise amplifiers, RF front-end modules, Filters and duplexers, Phased arrays, Mixers and synthesizers.
• Drive cross-functional optimization involving: Performance, Cost, Power, Thermal management, Reliability.
• Develop and validate advanced RF system models and simulation environments.
• Analyze nonlinear system behavior and cascaded impairments.
• Drive system tradeoff studies involving: EVM, ACLR, Spectral efficiency.
• Lead waveform-to-hardware co-optimization efforts.
• Lead RF bring-up, debugging, characterization, and system validation activities.
• Develop advanced methodologies for performance verification and root-cause analysis.
• Drive correlation between simulation, prototype, and production hardware.
• Identify and develop new RF technologies and system concepts.
• Contribute to patent generation and intellectual property strategy.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and competitive solutions.
• Support new research initiatives and proof-of-concept demonstrations.
• Contribute to wireless standards development and technical proposals.
• Support industry collaborations, customer engagements, technical publications, and conference presentations.
• Influence future wireless system requirements and architectures.

Skills

RF system design

Architecture leadership

Cross-domain integration

Wireless communications

Antenna systems

Technical coordination

Education

Master's degree in Electrical Engineering

PhD in Electrical Engineering

Job description

Company:

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

Job Area:

Engineering Group, Engineering Group > Cellular Technologies

General Summary:

The Staff/Sr Staff/Principal RF Hardware Engineer serves as a technical leader responsible for defining RF system and hardware architecture, technology strategy, and execution across advanced wireless platforms. The role requires expertise spanning RF hardware, RF system design, wireless communications, signal processing, antenna systems, and cross-domain integration.

This position leads the development of complex RF solutions from concept through full prototype, drives critical architectural decisions, and resolves highly challenging system-level issues involving RF, antenna, modem, software, algorithm, and hardware interactions.

This position also works with multidisciplinary teams across engineering organizations and serves as a technical coordinator and subject matter expert, helping shape future wireless technologies including 5G Advanced and 6G.

Minimum Qualifications

• Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Electrical & Computer Engineering, Applied Physics, or a related field and 8+ years of relevant industry experience
• Ph.D. Degree in Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics, or a related discipline and 5+ years of industry or post-doctoral experience

Duties and Responsibilities

RF System and Hardware Architecture

• Define and lead RF system architecture for advanced wireless platforms and next-generation products.
• Drive partitioning and tradeoff analysis across RF hardware, RFIC, antenna, modem, algorithms, and software domains.
• Establish RF performance requirements and translate system objectives into optimized hardware architectures.
• Lead architecture evaluations for emerging technologies and influence product roadmaps.

Technical Leadership

• Drive design reviews, technical risk assessments, and architecture decisions.
• Provide technical direction during product definition, development, integration, verification, optimization, and commercialization.
• Influence engineering best practices, methodologies, and design processes.

RF Hardware Design and Integration

• Lead design, integration, optimization, and validation of complex RF subsystems including:
  • Power amplifiers (PA)
  • Low-noise amplifiers (LNA)
  • RF front-end modules (FEM)
  • Filters and duplexers
  • Phased arrays
  • Mixers and synthesizers
• Drive cross-functional optimization involving:
  • Performance
  • Cost
  • Power
  • Thermal management
  • Reliability

System Analysis and Modeling

• Develop and validate advanced RF system models and simulation environments.
• Analyze nonlinear system behavior and cascaded impairments.
• Drive system tradeoff studies involving:
  • EVM
  • ACLR
  • Spectral efficiency
• Lead waveform-to-hardware co-optimization efforts.

Validation and Characterization

• Lead RF bring-up, debugging, characterization, and system validation activities.
• Develop advanced methodologies for performance verification and root-cause analysis.
• Drive correlation between simulation, prototype, and production hardware.

Innovation and Technology Development

• Identify and develop new RF technologies and system concepts.
• Contribute to patent generation and intellectual property strategy.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and competitive solutions.
• Support new research initiatives and proof-of-concept demonstrations.

Standards and Industry Engagement

• Contribute to wireless standards development and technical proposals.
• Support industry collaborations, customer engagements, technical publications, and conference presentations.
• Influence future wireless system requirements and architectures.

Mininum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or related field and 4+ years of Electrical Engineering, Hardware Engineering, Systems Engineering, or related work experience.
• Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or related field and 3+ years of Electrical Engineering, Hardware Engineering, Systems Engineering, or related work experience.
• PhD in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or related field and 2+ years of Electrical Engineering, Hardware Engineering, Systems Engineering, or related work experience.

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Pay range and Other Compensation & Benefits:

$155,400.00 - $233,200.00

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.