Principal, Gen AI Transformation - Embedded Software & Engineering Productivity
Qualcomm· enterprise· Semiconductors· Sep 17, 2026 · 1mo ago
San Diego, California, United States of America
In office
Full-time
Principal
$150K–$214K est.
8+ years exp
Job description
Company:
Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
Job Area:
Engineering Group, Engineering Group > Software Engineering
General Summary:
Team SPARK is leading the Generative AI transformation across CPSG, spanning embedded software, platform systems, product enablement, and engineering infrastructure. We are seeking a Principal Engineer to define and scale AI-first engineering practices that improve developer productivity, software quality, delivery velocity, and innovation. This is a high-impact technical leadership role for a hands-on, systems-minded GenAI leader who can translate emerging AI capabilities into secure, measurable, production-grade engineering workflows. You will partner across SPARK, central GenAI platform teams, and engineering teams to shape strategy, build reusable AI assets, and accelerate adoption at organizational scale.
Key Responsibilities
• Define and drive the GenAI transformation roadmap for engineering productivity across CPSG, with clear priorities, adoption plans, and measurable outcomes.
• Lead AI-native and agentic SDLC initiatives across requirements, code understanding, code generation, code review, debugging, test automation, release readiness, and documentation.
• Partner with GenAI platform and engineering teams to build reusable agents, skills, tools, plugins, MCP integrations, and governed workflow patterns.
• Identify high-value embedded and software workflows, turn them into reusable capabilities, and scale adoption across teams to reduce duplication and increase leverage.
• Establish secure and responsible AI practices across governance, permissions, auditability, model/tool selection, data handling, context management, and cost optimization.
• Define metrics and dashboards to track AI adoption, productivity gains, workflow efficiency, quality improvements, security compliance, and business impact.
• Serve as a technical thought leader, mentor, and executive-facing advisor who raises AI fluency and communicates strategy, progress, risks, and impact clearly.
Impact
• Accelerate CPSG’s transition from AI-assisted development to AI-native and agentic engineering workflows.
• Deliver measurable improvements in productivity, quality, release confidence, security posture, and development cycle time.
• Create reusable AI assets, workflow patterns, and governance models that scale across teams and product lines.
• Act as a technical multiplier who shapes the long-term evolution of AI-enabled embedded and software engineering across the organization.
Minimum Qualifications:
• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field and 8+ years of Software Engineering or related work experience.
OR
Master's degree in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field and 7+ years of Software Engineering or related work experience.
OR
PhD in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field and 6+ years of Software Engineering or related work experience.
• 4+ years of work experience with Programming Language such as C, C++, Java, Python, etc.
Required Qualifications
• Demonstrated Principal-level technical leadership, cross-team influence, architecture ownership, and organization-scale impact.
• Deep expertise in Generative AI, AI/ML fundamentals, LLM-based systems, model/tool selection, evaluation, optimization, and practical application in engineering environments.
• Hands-on experience building, deploying, or integrating GenAI solutions such as agentic workflows, RAG/context-aware systems, developer tools, automation frameworks, or AI-enabled engineering platforms.
• Proven ability to lead large-scale technical transformation across teams, influence without authority, shape architecture, and drive adoption in complex engineering organizations.
• Strong understanding of the SDLC, including requirements, design, implementation, code review, testing, CI/CD, release readiness, security workflows, and productivity measurement.
• Strong foundation in secure software development, responsible AI usage, data protection, governance, observability, and risk management for enterprise AI systems.
• Experience in systems software, embedded software, platform software, or performance-sensitive engineering environments, with proficiency in languages such as C, C++, Python, or Go.
• Excellent communication, collaboration, mentoring, and executive-facing storytelling skills, with the ability to translate technical depth into clear strategy and measurable impact.
Preferred Qualifications
• Experience building AI agents, multi-agent workflows, MCP services, tool-calling systems, evaluation harnesses, prompt/skill libraries, or governed AI automation platforms.
• Experience with AI-enabled developer productivity use cases such as code generation, code review, defect triage, log analysis, test generation, documentation, release validation, or security analysis.
• Familiarity with embedded platforms, Linux, Android, RTOS, device drivers, BSP, SoC bring-up, hardware/software interfaces, or protocols such as I2C, SPI, UART, USB, or PCIe.
• Experience with camera, multimedia, sensors, power/performance, kernel, middleware, platform software, or AI deployment on edge/resource-constrained systems.
• 5+ years of hands-on AI/ML, GenAI, LLM application development, AI platform, or AI-enabled engineering workflow experience preferred.
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).
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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 :
$197,000.00 - $295,400.00
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. 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 .
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