Staff Engineer – CPUSS Firmware Development

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

Job summary

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. is seeking a hands-on Staff Firmware Engineer to design, develop, integrate, and debug low-level firmware for ARM-based CPU subsystems in advanced SoCs.

You will work with CPU/SoC architects, hardware designers, and verification teams to translate hardware specs into robust embedded firmware for boot, initialization, power management, and DVFS. This individual contributor role requires strong embedded C skills, deep hardware–software interaction understanding, and the

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 5–10 years of embedded firmware or related industry experience.
• Strong hands-on programming experience in embedded C.
• Experience developing low-level or bare-metal firmware that directly controls hardware.
• Strong understanding of ARM-based processor/SoC architecture and related concepts.
• Experience with register-level programming, masks, timeouts, and error handling.
• Ability to debug complex hardware–firmware interaction issues and drive root cause.
• Experience participating in design reviews and performing detailed firmware code reviews.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, technical communication, and cross-functional collaboration skills.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, integrate, and maintain low-level CPUSS firmware using embedded C.
• Develop firmware for CPU subsystem functions such as boot/init, low-power management, DVFS, and thermal controls.
• Translate hardware architecture specs into reliable firmware sequences, registers, interfaces, and error-recovery mechanisms.
• Perform register-level programming of CPU subsystem and SoC hardware, handling memory-mapped registers, interrupts, sequencing, and state transitions.
• Contribute to firmware architecture decisions with emphasis on modularity, maintainability, and reuse across SoC products.
• Develop firmware and engage in debugging across pre-silicon and post-silicon platforms including RTL simulation, emulation, FPGA, and production silicon.
• Correlate firmware execution with hardware behavior using debuggers, traces, register dumps, and waveform analysis.
• Own firmware features through development lifecycle from requirements to silicon support.
• Participate in firmware design reviews, code reviews, and hardware specification reviews.

Skills

Embedded C

ARM architecture

Firmware debugging

Code reviews

Git

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree in Electrical/Computer Engineering/CS

Master's degree in Electrical/Computer Engineering/CS

PhD in Electrical/Computer Engineering/CS

Tools

JTAG

Emulation

FPGA

Job description

Company: Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

Job Area: Engineering Group, Engineering Group > CPU Engineering

General Summary

We are seeking a hands‑on Staff Firmware Engineer to design, develop, integrate, and debug low‑level firmware for ARM‑based CPU subsystems in advanced System‑on‑Chip products.

In this role, you will work closely with CPU and SoC architects, hardware designers, design‑verification engineers, system software teams, emulation teams, and post‑silicon validation teams. You will translate hardware and microarchitecture specifications into robust embedded firmware for CPU subsystem boot, initialization, power management, Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS), low‑power operation, recovery, and related control functions.

This is an individual‑contributor position for an engineer who combines strong embedded C development skills with a deep understanding of hardware–software interaction. The successful candidate will remain actively involved in firmware implementation and debugging while providing technical direction, reviewing designs and code, mentoring engineers, and driving complex issues to closure.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, implement, integrate, and maintain low‑level CPUSS firmware using embedded C.
• Develop firmware for CPU subsystem functions such as:
  • CPU, core, and cluster boot and initialization
  • Low‑power management
  • DVFS and voltage/frequency control
  • Limits and thermal‑management support
  • Fault handling, recovery, crash reset, and diagnostic flows
• Translate hardware architecture and programming specifications into reliable firmware sequences, register definitions, interfaces, state handling, timeout behavior, diagnostics, and error‑recovery mechanisms.
• Perform register‑level programming of CPU subsystem and SoC hardware, including safe handling of memory‑mapped registers, interrupts, handshakes, sequencing dependencies, and hardware state transitions.
• Contribute to firmware architecture and detailed design decisions, with emphasis on modularity, maintainability, reuse, and support for multiple SoC products or derivative configurations.
• Develop firmware and engage in debugs across pre‑silicon and post‑silicon platforms, including RTL simulation, emulation, FPGA or prototype platforms, and production silicon.
• Correlate firmware execution with hardware behavior using debuggers, logs, traces, register dumps, waveform analysis, and other platform‑specific debug methods.
• Own firmware features through the complete development lifecycle—from requirements and design through implementation, review, validation, integration, release, and silicon support.
• Participate actively in firmware design reviews, code reviews, hardware specification reviews, bring‑up planning, and technical issue reviews.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
• Approximately 5–10 years of relevant industry experience in embedded firmware, low‑level software, SoC firmware, processor firmware, device drivers, or a closely related area.
• Strong hands‑on programming experience in embedded C.
• Experience developing low‑level or bare‑metal firmware that directly controls hardware.
• Strong understanding of ARM‑based processor or SoC architecture and relevant concepts such as:
  • Processor startup and boot flows
  • Exception and interrupt handling
  • Memory‑mapped I/O
  • Clocks and resets
  • Caches and memory systems
  • Hardware sequencing and synchronization
  • Interconnects and peripheral interfaces
• Experience converting hardware specifications into firmware designs and implementations.
• Experience with register‑level programming, including masks, fields, read/write side effects, polling, timeouts, ordering requirements, and error handling.
• Demonstrated ability to debug complex hardware–firmware interaction issues and drive them to root cause.
• Ability to independently own technically complex firmware features from definition through validation and delivery.
• Experience participating in design reviews and performing detailed firmware code reviews.
• Strong analytical, problem‑solving, technical communication, and cross‑functional collaboration skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with CPU subsystem firmware, processor‑control firmware, platform firmware, or power‑management firmware.
• Experience with DVFS, voltage management, clock control, power‑state sequencing, power gating, thermal or limits management, or related CPU power‑management functions.
• Experience developing boot, initialization, low‑power, recovery, crash‑reset, or diagnostic firmware.
• Working knowledge of ARM assembly and processor startup code.
• Familiarity with ARM exception levels, interrupt architecture, cache behavior, coherency, memory barriers, and multicore‑system concepts.
• Experience debugging firmware using JTAG or platform debuggers, trace data, register dumps, waveform viewers, and hardware logs.
• Experience supporting a common firmware codebase across multiple SoC products, hardware revisions, or derivative programs.
• Experience with Git or similar version‑control systems, build systems, and structured firmware release practices.

Minimum Qualifications

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