Engineer, Staff – Ambient AI Technology
Qualcomm
- Location
- San Diego, California, United States of America
- Work model
- On-Site
- Level
- Staff
- H-1B history
- 22 approvals (FY2023)
- Posted
- Aug 19, 2026
Skills
About this role
Company: Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. Job Area: Engineering Group, Engineering Group > Software Engineering General Summary: Qualcomm is a global leader in intelligent computing, connectivity, and edge AI technologies. Our Snapdragon platforms power the next generation of mobile, compute, automotive, XR, IoT, and connected devices. As part of Qualcomm’s software organization, you will work with a world-class team of hardware, systems, AI, and software engineers to define and deliver the future of always-on, context-aware, and agentic AI experiences on power-constrained edge devices. The Ambient Perception Platform team is responsible for the architecture, development, integration, optimization, and commercialization of the Ambient Perception Platform across Android, Linux, Windows, XR, automotive, and IoT platforms powered by Qualcomm SoCs. Our mission is to enable intelligent, low-power, context-aware experiences that continuously understand user intent, environmental context, and device state while maintaining industry-leading battery efficiency and privacy. We are seeking a highly motivated Staff Engineers to lead the architecture and evolution of next-generation Ambient Perception frameworks, context awareness engines, multimodal data collection systems, secure data delivery and storage architectures, and low-power AI runtime platforms. This role offers an opportunity to influence the software architecture that powers future AI assistants, proactive experiences, multimodal sensing systems, autonomous edge intelligence solutions, and heterogeneous computing frameworks that operate efficiently across CPU, DSP, NPU across Qualcomm’s product portfolio. 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
Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related field. 8–12+ years of combined software architecture, embedded systems development, and platform integration experience. Strong programming skills in C, C++, and Python. Experience developing software on ARM-based and heterogeneous SoC architectures. Proven experience leading architecture design, technical roadmaps, and cross-functional engineering initiatives. Experience architecting SDKs, middleware, or platform frameworks for AI-enabled applications. Strong understanding of Ambient Perception, context-aware computing, and multimodal sensing systems. Knowledge of On-Device AI workload optimization across CPU, DSP, NPU, and GPU architectures. Experience developing software on ARM, DSP, and heterogeneous computing platforms. Strong understanding of low-power system design, workload offloading, and always-on architectures. Experience with power, performance, memory, and latency optimization for edge AI applications. Familiarity with IPC, shared memory frameworks, and heterogeneous compute scheduling. Experience with Linux kernel architecture, driver development, and system debugging. Familiarity with AI safety, model governance, privacy-preserving AI, and responsible AI deployment practices. 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