Wireless Software Engineer

Qualcomm; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 104,000 - 155,000; Full time

Job summary

Qualcomm is seeking a Modem Software Engineer to design, develop, and optimize real-time embedded software for the MPSS, writing performant C/C++ for DSP and Arm cores across protocol layers, drivers, and RTOS components.

The role emphasizes AI-native engineering, with workflows using AI agents for code generation, review, test synthesis, and log analysis to accelerate delivery while maintaining quality and safety in a complex firmware environment.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or related field.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and optimize real‑time embedded modem software across protocol layers, drivers, and platform services, meeting strict latency, memory, and power constraints.
• Apply rigorous data‑structure and algorithm design to build efficient, scalable firmware components.
• Own end‑to‑end feature delivery: requirements, architecture, implementation, unit/integration testing, on‑target bring‑up, and maintenance.
• Pioneer AI‑native development practices within the team — integrate AI coding agents into daily workflows, establish agent rules and prompt patterns, and measurably reduce development and debug cycle time.
• Build and maintain AI‑assisted tooling for code review, static analysis, test synthesis, and automated crash/log triage over the modem codebase.
• Debug and root‑cause complex, multi‑layer issues on target hardware, increasingly leveraging AI‑assisted analysis of logs, traces, and RAM dumps.
• Collaborate cross‑functionally with systems, hardware, test, and integration teams to deliver production‑quality modem firmware.
• Contribute to code reviews, design reviews, and continuous improvement of engineering standards — including standards for the responsible and effective use of AI in the SDLC.
• Mentor peers on both embedded fundamentals and AI‑native engineering techniques.

Skills

C/C++ (modern)

Embedded systems

RTOS concepts

Performance optimization

AI-native engineering

DSP/Arm architectures

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering/CS/EE

Tools

GitHub Copilot

LLM tooling

JTAG/logic analyzers

Crash/log analysis

Job description

Qualcomm is a company of inventors that unlocked 5G — ushering in an age of rapid acceleration in connectivity and new possibilities that will transform industries, create jobs, and enrich lives. But this is just the beginning. It takes inventive minds with diverse skills, backgrounds, and cultures to transform 5G's potential into world‑changing technologies and products. This is the Invention Age — and this is where you come in.

The Modem Systems Software team builds the low‑level firmware and protocol software that powers cellular connectivity across billions of devices worldwide — spanning smartphones, automotive, IoT, fixed wireless access, and next‑generation 5G/6G platforms. We are re‑imagining how modem software is designed, built, verified, and maintained in an AI‑native paradigm, where large language models, agentic tooling, and machine‑assisted engineering are first‑class parts of the development lifecycle.

As a Modem Software Engineer, you will design, develop, and optimize real‑time embedded software for Qualcomm's modem subsystem (MPSS). You will work close to the metal — writing performant, resource‑constrained C/C++ that runs on DSP and Arm cores across cellular protocol layers, device drivers, and RTOS‑level components.

Beyond traditional embedded development, this role is explicitly AI‑native. You are expected to leverage, build, and improve AI‑assisted development workflows — using code‑generation agents, LLM‑based code review, automated test synthesis, log/crash triage assistants, and retrieval‑augmented tooling over our codebase — to dramatically accelerate delivery, quality, and debugging in a highly complex firmware environment.

Principal Duties and Responsibilities:

• Design, implement, and optimize real‑time embedded modem software across protocol layers, drivers, and platform services, meeting strict latency, memory, and power constraints.
• Apply rigorous data‑structure and algorithm design to build efficient, scalable firmware components.
• Own end‑to‑end feature delivery: requirements, architecture, implementation, unit/integration testing, on‑target bring‑up, and maintenance.
• Pioneer AI‑native development practices within the team — integrate AI coding agents into daily workflows, establish agent rules and prompt patterns, and measurably reduce development and debug cycle time.
• Build and maintain AI‑assisted tooling for code review, static analysis, test synthesis, and automated crash/log triage over the modem codebase.
• Debug and root‑cause complex, multi‑layer issues on target hardware, increasingly leveraging AI‑assisted analysis of logs, traces, and RAM dumps.
• Collaborate cross‑functionally with systems, hardware, test, and integration teams to deliver production‑quality modem firmware.
• Contribute to code reviews, design reviews, and continuous improvement of engineering standards — including standards for the responsible and effective use of AI in the SDLC.
• Mentor peers on both embedded fundamentals and AI‑native engineering techniques.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or related field.

Preferred Qualifications

Core Embedded & Systems Engineering

• Strong command of data structures and algorithms with the ability to reason about time/space complexity in memory‑and‑cycle‑constrained environments.
• Deep understanding of operating systems concepts: scheduling, concurrency, interrupts, memory management, IPC, real‑time constraints, and RTOS internals (e.g., QuRT, ThreadX, FreeRTOS, or similar).
• Proven programming proficiency in modern C/C++ (C++17 and beyond), including performance optimization, cache‑aware design, and lock‑free/thread‑safe patterns.
• Experience with embedded software on DSP and Arm architectures, including familiarity with SIMD/vectorization, DMA, and low‑power design.
• Experience with debugging on target hardware — JTAG, logic analyzers, protocol analyzers, crash‑dump / RAM‑dump analysis, and log parsing.
• Familiarity with device drivers, HAL layers, boot flows, and hardware/software co‑design.

AI‑Native Engineering

• AI‑first mindset: you treat AI tooling as a core engineering multiplier, not an afterthought. You default to designing workflows where an AI agent does the first draft of code, tests, and analysis, and the engineer curates, validates, and hardens.
• Experience using AI coding assistants and agentic tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Cline, Claude/GPT‑based agents) to generate, refactor, and review embedded C/C++ at scale.
• Ability to build and maintain AI‑augmented developer workflows: prompt libraries, agent rules, retrieval‑augmented context over large firmware codebases, and MCP‑style tool integrations.
• Experience applying LLMs to crash triage, log summarization, root‑cause analysis, and automated defect classification in complex embedded systems.
• Interest in AI‑assisted test generation and verification — synthesizing unit/integration tests, fuzzing harnesses, and coverage‑driven test expansion for modem software.
• Comfort evaluating AI output critically: understanding hallucination risks, validating generated code against timing/memory budgets, and enforcing safety and correctness in real‑time firmware.
• Bonus: experience fine‑tuning, prompt‑engineering, or building tooling around code models; familiarity with embedding/vector search over source repositories.

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.

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:

$103,600.00 - $155,400.00 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.