Staff Embedded Software Engineer – Edge AI/GenAI & Multimedia
Qualcomm· Semiconductors· May 1, 2026 · 6mo agoPosted 179 days ago
San Diego, California, United States of America
In office
Full-time
Staff
$180K–$242K est.
4+ years exp
Before you apply
Ghost Signal:
Open since May 1, 2026 — 179 days, and still accepting applications.
Job description
Company:
Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
Job Area:
Engineering Group, Engineering Group > Software Engineering
General Summary:
As a leading technology innovator, Qualcomm pushes the boundaries of what is possible to enable next-generation experiences and drive digital transformation to help create a smarter, connected future for all. As a Qualcomm Software Engineer, you will design, develop, create, modify , and validate embedded and cloud edge software applications across subsystems—Multimedia, AI/Gen AI, and Computer Vision—and/or specialized programs that launch cutting-edge , world-class products that meet and exceed customer needs. Qualcomm Software Engineers collaborate with systems, hardware, architecture, and test engineers, as well as other teams, to design system-level software solutions and obtain information on performance requirements and interfaces.
• Design and develop Multimedia, AI, and Gen AI SDKs/framework components to facilitate end-application development across various categories of IoT products, such as Drones, IP/security/Sports cameras, AI boxes, Home appliances and media devices.
Minimum Qualifications:
• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field and 4+ years of Software Engineering or related work experience.
OR
Master's degree in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field and 3+ years of Software Engineering or related work experience.
OR
PhD in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field and 2+ years of Software Engineering or related work experience.
• 2+ years of work experience with Programming Language such as C, C++, Java, Python, etc.
Preferred Qualifications:
• 5+ years of experience programming in C and C++, with a strong track record of building high-performance software for embedded and industrial systems.
• 5+ years of experience designing and leading real-time embedded and industrial software solutions, with strong hands-on technical execution.
• Strong experience with AI and GenAI inference frameworks such as PyTorch , TensorFlow, ONNX Runtime, Llama.cpp, and LiteRT , along with a solid foundation in AI concepts, model architectures , tensor layouts, tensor transformations, and tensor-processing mathematics.
• 2+ years of experience with GStreamer , including development of AI and multimedia applications using open-source media pipelines.
• Hands-on experience with GenAI orchestration frameworks such as LangChain and LlamaIndex , including building agent-based systems and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines and applications.
• Hands-on experience with multimedia frameworks across Android, Tizen, and other operating systems, with deep understanding of hardware abstraction layers (HALs) for camera, audio, video, graphics/display, computer vision, and USB/UVC.
• Strong knowledge of Android system architecture, including AIDL/HIDL, Binder, system and vendor services, and Java/JNI integration.
• Experience building AI applications for vision and audio use cases, including classification, object detection, segmentation, and pose estimation, as well as GenAI-powered applications. Strong ability to handle tensor pre-processing and post-processing and integrate AI models into end-to-end pipelines across inputs such as camera, audio, and text.
• Strong background in Linux system-level programming, including multithreading, concurrency, DMA/ION memory handling, IPC mechanisms such as Binder and gRPC , and zero-copy architectures.
• Hands-on experience writing OpenGL ES (GLES) and GLSL shaders and working with programmable graphics/GPU pipelines.
• Hands-on experience writing Vulkan shaders and working with modern programmable graphics pipelines.
• Hands-on experience with Docker and container technologies, including familiarity with OCI container standards and specifications.
• Proven development experience across embedded Linux, Ubuntu, and Android software stacks.
• End-to-end experience across the software development lifecycle, including architecture, design, implementation, deployment, and support.
Principal Duties and Responsibilities
• Contribute to the architecture, design, and development of AI, GenAI, and multimedia SDKs that enable application developers to build commercial-quality applications.
• Design and develop GenAI large language model (LLMs) and vision-language model (VLMs) inference workflows, including pre-processing, inference, post-processing, and orchestration.
• Design and develop multi-stream AI and chained AI/GenAI pipelines for real-world IoT products and applications.
• Own the design and development of GStreamer -based plugins for the QIM SDK (Qualcomm Intelligent Multimedia SDK) on Qualcomm hardware platforms, including authoring design documents, developing production-quality software, creating unit tests, and providing ongoing technical support.
• Drive feature design, implementation, debugging, and system integration to ensure high-quality delivery on schedule.
• Lead code reviews, regression testing, and issue triage to uphold strong engineering standards and product quality.
• Collaborate effectively with cross-functional stakeholders and project teams to align technical execution with broader product and program objectives .
• Author and review technical documentation for software components and features to support development, integration, and long-term maintainability.
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).
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.
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 :
$134,800.00 - $202,200.00
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 .
If you would like more information about this role, please contact Qualcomm Careers .
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