Staff Engineer

Company

Qualcomm India Private Limited

Job Area

Engineering Group, Engineering Group > Software Engineering

General Summary

Staff Engineer / Manager

DSP Firmware, Linux/HLOS & Embedded Systems

Location: Bangalore, India

We are looking for a hands-on technical leader to drive architecture, development, and delivery of high-performance DSP firmware, Linux/HLOS integration, and platform software for next-generation SoC platforms. The role requires deep expertise in real-time embedded systems, low-level processor software, system integration, performance optimization, customer engagement, and technical team leadership.

The successful candidate will own critical firmware and platform components, guide hardware-software interfaces, and drive technical decisions from pre-silicon development and silicon bring-up through product commercialization.

Responsibilities

DSP Firmware, Linux/HLOS Architecture & Ownership

• Define software architecture for real-time DSP and processor subsystems, including integration with Linux-based high-level operating systems (HLOS).
• Own low-level software spanning boot, board support packages, RTOS integration, DSP services, Linux kernel and user-space interfaces, device drivers, middleware, system services, and developer frameworks.
• Drive architecture decisions balancing deterministic latency, throughput, power, memory footprint, reliability, security, and scalability.
• Influence hardware-software partitioning, DSP workload offload, host-subsystem interfaces, and the long-term platform roadmap.
• Define scalable software models for single-core, multi-core, and heterogeneous compute configurations.
  
  

Technical Leadership

• Lead resolution of complex system issues spanning DSP and processor cores, silicon, firmware, RTOS, Linux/HLOS, kernel and user-space drivers, middleware, and host software.
• Drive multi-core and heterogeneous compute architecture, DSP workload partitioning, Linux/HLOS offload, and real-time scheduling.
• Guide interrupt, exception, timer, clock, reset, watchdog, and power-domain frameworks.
• Own memory architecture and optimization across tightly coupled memory, on-chip memory, external memory, caches, memory protection, DMA, shared memory, and coherency.
• Drive boot, image loading, secure boot, subsystem startup, restart, fault handling, recovery, and diagnostic dump mechanisms.
• Architect inter-processor communication, shared-memory transport, synchronization, remote procedure calls, and Linux/HLOS-to-DSP interfaces.
• Guide Linux kernel drivers, user-space services, DSP drivers, peripheral drivers, data movement engines, and platform services.
• Drive DSP performance optimization using profiling, instruction-level analysis, vector and parallel processing, fixed-point arithmetic, signal-processing optimization, memory-access optimization, and compiler/toolchain capabilities.
• Lead power optimization across dynamic frequency and voltage scaling, clock gating, retention, sleep states, and coordinated HLOS-subsystem power management.
• Drive platform security, privilege separation, memory protection, access control, and subsystem isolation.
• Lead pre-silicon validation, silicon enablement, board bring-up, platform stabilization, and production readiness.
• Drive measurable improvements in performance, power, latency, memory, stability, and reliability.
  
  

Execution, Customer Engagement & Team Development

• Translate product and customer requirements into architecture, milestones, and executable engineering plans.
• Partner with hardware, DSP, Linux/HLOS, systems, validation, tools, applications, and customer engineering teams to deliver end-to-end solutions.
• Lead technical reviews, root-cause analysis, and risk management for critical deliverables.
• Mentor engineers in firmware design, Linux integration, debugging, optimization, and system-level problem solving.
• Manage and develop engineers while remaining technically hands-on and accountable for delivery quality.
  
  

Qualifications


Required Experience & Skills

• 11+ years of experience in embedded software, DSP or processor firmware, Linux/HLOS integration, board support packages, device drivers, or platform software development.
• Expert-level proficiency in C/C++ with strong understanding of assembly-level debugging and processor architecture.
• Strong experience with RTOS environments such as Zephyr or FreeRTOS, along with Embedded Linux or another Linux-based HLOS environment.
• Deep understanding of RTOS internals, scheduling, synchronization, interrupts, exceptions, and real-time constraints.
• Strong understanding of Linux kernel fundamentals, user-space services, device-driver models, system startup, power management, and debugging across HLOS and DSP boundaries.
• Strong knowledge of boot flows, linker scripts, memory maps, executable formats, image loading, and firmware packaging.
• Hands-on experience with caches, tightly coupled memory, memory protection, DMA, shared memory, coherency, and memory bandwidth optimization.
• Experience with Linux/HLOS-to-DSP communication, multi-core synchronization, subsystem lifecycle management, and fault recovery.
• Experience with DSP profiling, compiler optimization, vector processing, fixed-point arithmetic, low-level optimization, and performance-per-watt analysis.
• Proven ability to debug hardware-software issues using JTAG, trace, crash dumps, logs, hardware instruments, Linux debugging tools, and profilers.
• Proven experience delivering products from pre-silicon development and silicon bring-up through production.
• Experience leading engineers while remaining technically hands-on.
• Strong customer-facing communication, technical negotiation, and leadership skills.
• Proficiency in using AI-assisted development tools to improve design, implementation, debugging, documentation, and engineering efficiency.
  
  

Preferred Experience

• Experience developing DSP firmware and Linux/HLOS integration for compute, audio, sensor, communication, imaging, or machine-learning subsystems.
• Experience with high-throughput signal-processing pipelines, fixed-point arithmetic, vectorized algorithms, and latency-sensitive workloads.
• Experience with simulation, emulation, virtual platforms, pre-silicon validation, and automated firmware testing.
• Familiarity with safety, security, reliability, or functional-isolation requirements in production SoCs.
  
  

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.
  
  

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 [Confidential Information] 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.