Senior / Staff System-on-Chip DRAM System Engineer

Company:

Qualcomm Semiconductor Limited

Job Area:

Engineering Group, Engineering Group > Software Engineering

General Summary:

GENERAL SUMMARY:

As a leading technology innovator, Qualcomm pushes the boundaries of what's possible to enable next-generation experiences and drives digital transformation to help create a smarter, connected future for all.

As a Qualcomm DRAM system Engineer, you will design and develop DRAM system software solutions for Qualcomm IE-IOT SoC platforms, spanning Linux and RTOS environments, enabling high-performance, low-power, and real-time DRAM system experiences in heterogeneous edge computing environments. Your work will support a broad range of applications, including surveillance, smart devices, retail systems, robotics, and edge AI in physical world systems, bridging deep technical knowledge with hands-on engineering execution to deliver robust, market-ready products.

Qualcomm DRAM system Engineers collaborate with cross-functional teams to assess and advance the application of company products that meet and exceed customer needs.

PRINCIPAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Design, develop, and evaluate DRAM system solutions for Qualcomm IE-IOT SoC platforms, including DRAM controller, PHY, timing, calibration, and memory subsystem integration across Linux and RTOS environments.
• Lead DRAM bring-up, initialization, tuning, and validation on new SoC and hardware platforms to ensure stable boot, reliable runtime operation, and production readiness.
• Configure and optimize memory controller and PHY settings to meet JEDEC requirements, platform power targets, bandwidth goals, latency constraints, and system-level performance objectives.
• Collaborate with SoC architecture, hardware, PCB, firmware, bootloader, kernel, validation, and DRAM vendor teams to integrate and debug memory subsystem behavior on Qualcomm IE-IOT SoC-based systems.
• Perform DRAM characterization, stress testing, margin analysis, retention testing, and signal/power integrity correlation to identify stability risks and improve operating margins.
• Analyze and resolve system-level memory issues across boot-up, suspend/resume, low-power modes, and runtime workloads, including failures related to timing, calibration, data corruption, bandwidth, and power state transitions.
• Develop and maintain diagnostic tools, automated validation flows, test patterns, and debug procedures to improve DRAM reliability, coverage, and engineering efficiency.
• Conduct detailed design reviews, validation reviews, failure analysis, and technical documentation to ensure DRAM system implementation meets performance, power, reliability, compliance, and cost requirements.
• Prepare and present technical findings, design tradeoffs, validation status, and issue-resolution plans to cross-functional stakeholders and project leadership.
• Participate in defining assignment objectives, planning validation activities, coordinating schedules, and driving DRAM-related deliverables to closure with minimal supervision.

REQUIRED COMPETENCIES:

(All competencies are required upon entry)

• Demonstrates strong knowledge of DRAM subsystem architecture, including LPDDR3/LPDDR4/LPDDR5 operation, DRAM controller behavior, PHY interface, timing parameters, training, and calibration flows.
• Able to lead DRAM bring-up, initialization, configuration, tuning, and validation on new SoC and hardware platforms from early silicon through production readiness.
• Experienced in configuring memory controller and PHY registers to satisfy JEDEC specifications, board-level constraints, power requirements, bandwidth targets, and system-level performance goals.
• Capable of performing DRAM characterization, stress testing, margin sweeps, retention validation, read/write window analysis, and failure reproduction to assess memory stability and operating margins.
• Skilled in analyzing and resolving system-level DRAM issues across boot-up, suspend/resume, low-power modes, and runtime workloads, including timing violations, calibration failures, data corruption, bandwidth bottlenecks, and power-state transition issues.
• Able to collaborate effectively with SoC architecture, PCB, hardware, firmware, bootloader, kernel, validation, and DRAM vendor teams to debug and optimize memory subsystem behavior.
• Experienced in signal integrity and power integrity validation, including working with hardware teams on layout constraints, routing guidelines, SI/PI correlation, and tuning recommendations.
• Able to develop, maintain, and improve automated validation flows, diagnostic tools, memory test patterns, and debug procedures for DRAM reliability, performance, and regression coverage.
• Understands memory bandwidth utilization, latency impact, QoS behavior, and power/performance tradeoffs, and can identify opportunities to improve throughput, reduce power, and enhance system responsiveness.
• Able to document technical findings, validation results, issue analysis, tuning recommendations, and risk assessments clearly for cross-functional stakeholders.
• Occasional business travel across APAC and other regions may be required.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

• Master's degree in Electrical Engineering or a related field with 3+ years of relevant experience, or a PhD in a related field.
• Strong understanding of LPDDR3/LPDDR4/LPDDR5 specifications, timing parameters, and calibration schemes.
• Experience in configuring DRAM registers and bring-up on embedded platforms.
• Familiar with memory controller architecture and PHY interface tuning.
• Skilled in using logic analyzers, oscilloscopes, and memory test equipment.
• Comfortable with Linux-based embedded systems and debugging low-level software interactions with DRAM.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Experience debugging kernel panics or stability issues caused by DRAM misconfiguration.
• Familiarity with memory low-power states, self-refresh, and power-saving strategies.
• Knowledge of post-silicon validation, including test pattern development and validation coverage planning.
• Worked with DRAM vendors to understand datasheets, tuning recommendations, and errata.
• Comfortable working in a globally distributed, cross-disciplinary engineering team.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field and 4+ years of Software Applications Engineering, Software Development experience, or related work experience.
OR
Master's degree in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field and 3+ years of Software Applications Engineering, Software Development experience, or related work experience.
OR
PhD in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field and 2+ years of Software Applications Engineering, Software Development experience, or related work experience.

• 2+ years of experience with Programming Language such as C, C++, Java, Python, etc.
• 1+ year of experience with debugging techniques.

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