Engineer, Staff_Customer Engineering_Power&Thermal

Company:

Job Area:

General Summary:

JOB OVERVIEW 

This position is part of the Qualcomm Customer Engineering Group, which collaborates closely with partners and customers — from concept through commercialization — across Qualcomm's broad Snapdragon platform portfolio. The team supports all aspects of embedded software including hardware and software architecture, feature prototyping, feature integration, software customization, performance and power optimization, system validation, and complex debugging efforts critical to product launch. 

This is a Staff-level Customer Engineering position focused on Power and Thermal software, system power management, and low-power architecture across a wide range of Qualcomm Snapdragon platforms and operating environments — including Android, Linux (LV/Yocto), QNX, and multi-OS virtualized stacks (e.g., HGY, HQX, and other product families). 

The role provides technical leadership in troubleshooting complex customer issues, defining application-level power and thermal solutions, developing design recommendations, and driving resolution across HLOS, non-HLOS, hypervisor, chipset, and customer engineering teams. Key technical focus areas include Suspend to RAM (S2R), Dynamic Sleep, PCM, thermal management, subsystem power states, and system suspend/resume flows. 

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES 

🔋  Power & Thermal Technical Leadership 

• Lead troubleshooting of complex Power and Thermal software issues across multiple Snapdragon platforms and OS environments (Android, Linux, QNX, and others). 

• Provide technical leadership for customer issues involving: 

• Power management features – S2R, Dynamic Sleep / DSQB, PCM, and other low-power modes 

• Thermal management and TDP workload characterization across product families 

• Device and subsystem power states (AOP, RPMh, LPASS/ADSP, DSPs, NSP) 

• Virtual-machine and hypervisor power interactions in multi-OS automotive and compute platforms 

• Analyse system-wide power management flows across HLOS and non-HLOS components, including Linux, Android, QNX, TrustZone, AOP, DSPs, hypervisor, and platform hardware. 

• Apply strong knowledge of Linux and Android Power Management frameworks to influence customer application design and investigate power management issues. 

• Understand and debug the role of hypervisors in automotive and compute power management, including host/guest interactions, VM lifecycle management, resource ownership, and inter-VM power coordination. 

🏗️  Architecture & Customer Engagement 

• Provide power and thermal design recommendations for customer applications, workloads, and system architectures across Snapdragon platform families. 

• Participate in technical discussions with customers, chipset power teams, thermal systems teams, architecture teams, product managers, and regional CE organizations. 

• Translate customer requirements into clear internal software, system, and architecture requirements. 

• Lead root-cause analysis, issue reproduction, log analysis, system characterization, and corrective action planning. 

• Provide customer-specific software recommendations, patches, workarounds, and implementation guidance. 

• Represent Qualcomm in technical discussions with customers and Tier-1/Tier-2 partners from initial requirements through feature implementation and product launch. 

📊  Characterization & Measurement 

• Perform power and thermal characterization for platform-specific workloads including AI, multimedia, connectivity, and automotive TDP use cases. 

• Analyse performance-versus-power behaviour for customer-specific AI networks and platform workloads, including NSP/DSP and HLOS processing pipelines. 

• Support the development and validation of workload and loading tools, tuning monitoring tools to represent realistic product use cases. 

• Provide accurate power measurement data and technical analysis to chipset power, PPAT, and thermal systems teams. 

• Leverage hardware-level data and SoC registers for power characterization, debug, and APDP generation across target platforms. 

📚  Knowledge Sharing & Mentorship 

• Conduct technical training and workshops for customers, partners, CE teams, and internal engineering organizations. 

• Develop debug guides, architecture documentation, training materials, and reusable technical content on power and thermal topics across OS and platform families. 

• Mentor and guide junior and early-career engineers on Power and Thermal software, system debugging, customer engagement, and technical analysis. 

• Influence architecture and feature improvements by providing feedback based on hands-on customer and platform experience. 

• Scale technical knowledge through creation of reusable diagnostics, debug methodologies, and issue-tracking artifacts applicable across platforms. 

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS 

Education & Experience 

• B.E./B.Tech in Engineering, Computer Science, Electronics, or related field with 8+ years of Software Applications Engineering, Embedded Systems, or related experience. 

• OR M.Tech/M.S. in relevant field with 6+ years of experience. 

• OR Ph.D. in relevant field with 4+ years of experience. 

Required Skills 

• 3+ years of experience in a customer-facing technical role. 

• 3+ years of experience with C, C++, Python, or similar programming languages. 

• 3+ years of experience with embedded software debugging and system-level issue resolution. 

• Strong understanding of Linux or Android Power Management fundamentals. 

• Hands-on experience troubleshooting embedded software across HLOS and non-HLOS components. 

• Experience with at least one embedded/real-time OS: Linux, Android, QNX, or another RTOS. 

• Experience with system suspend, resume, shutdown, wakeup, or low-power features. 

• Experience working with multitasking operating systems and embedded system architecture. 

• Experience analysing logs, traces, performance data, and power or thermal measurement results. 

• Strong written and verbal communication skills. 

• Demonstrated ability to work effectively with customers and cross-functional engineering teams. 

• Demonstrated technical leadership, mentoring, and problem-solving skills. 

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS 

• Staff-level experience leading complex customer issues across multiple engineering organizations. 

• Deep understanding of Linux kernel power management frameworks and system suspend/resume flows. 

• Experience with Qualcomm Snapdragon Power and Thermal software across one or more OS environments: Android, Linux (LV/Yocto), QNX. 

• Experience with low-power features: S2R, DSQB/Dynamic Sleep, PCM, runtime power management, and power-domain control. 

• Experience with non-HLOS power management components: TrustZone, AOP, RPMh, power management firmware, and related system services. 

• Experience with hypervisors and virtualization in automotive or compute embedded systems (e.g., QNX-based MGVM/Flex configurations, Android GVM, multi-OS stacks). 

• Understanding of host and guest OS power coordination and inter-VM communication protocols. 

• Experience with BSP, device drivers, kernel subsystems, and embedded system architecture on Snapdragon SoCs. 

• Experience with power, thermal, and performance characterization of AI, DSP, NSP, or accelerator workloads. 

• Experience with system stability, suspend/resume reliability, reboot, shutdown, and watchdog debugging. 

• Experience with customer requirements analysis and translation into internal technical specifications. 

• Experience creating architecture documentation, debug guides, training materials, and technical workshops. 

• Experience using debugging and hardware analysis tools: 

• JTAG and TRACE32 

• Oscilloscopes and Logic analyzers 

• Kernel tracing and logging tools (ftrace, systrace, perf, etc.) 

• Performance and power monitoring tools (Trepn, SimplePerf, QPT, etc.) 

• Understanding of ARM architecture and embedded SoC hardware: clocks, PLLs, GPIO, interrupts, GIC, power domains, regulators, memory, and subsystem power control. 

• Experience with automotive or compute platforms involving digital cockpit, infotainment, ADAS, AI workloads, or vehicle compute systems. 

• Experience mentoring engineers and influencing cross-functional architecture or software decisions. 

Minimum Qualifications:

Applicants: 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-accomodations@qualcomm.com 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).

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.

To all Staffing and Recruiting Agencies: Our Careers Site is only for individuals seeking a job at Qualcomm. Staffing and recruiting agencies and individuals being represented by an agency are not authorized to use this site or to submit profiles, applications or resumes, and any such submissions will be considered unsolicited. Qualcomm does not accept unsolicited resumes or applications from agencies. Please do not forward resumes to our jobs alias, Qualcomm employees or any other company location. Qualcomm is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes/applications.

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