Qualcomm

Designs mobile chips and licenses wireless patents

Senior Staff Hardware Design Engineer - SoC/SIP, Hardware Engineering

Board & Electronics Design +1Posted on Nov 13

Full-timeSan Diego, CA, USA

About the Job

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Electrical/Electronics Engineering, Engineering, or a related field and 6+ years of Hardware Engineering or related work experience; or a master's degree in those fields and 5+ years of related experience; or a PhD in those fields and 4+ years of related experience.
Experience in system-, card-, or rack-level development, including architecture, design, validation, and deployment of enterprise-class hardware platforms.
Experience integrating rack-level systems, including chassis, backplane, cabling, airflow, and thermal management across multiple cards or modules.
Familiarity with rack-scale power delivery, including power distribution units, voltage regulator modules, power management integrated circuits, and power budgeting across multiple boards.
Experience with rack-level diagnostics and bring-up, debugging interconnects and signal integrity across long traces or cables, and system-level validation.
Understanding of rack-level mechanical constraints, electromagnetic interference shielding, and data center deployment standards.
Experience collaborating with ODMs/OEMs on rack-level design and manufacturing, including mechanical drawing reviews, thermal simulations, and compliance testing.
Deep knowledge of PCIe cards, motherboards, daughtercards, and backplane signal and power delivery.
Expertise in chassis design, airflow optimization, and thermal management.
Understanding of system software operation from bootloader to operating system and application layers.
Experience qualifying power management integrated circuits, voltage regulators, clock buffers, flash memory, and connectors for complex card and rack-level designs.
Hands-on experience with dense, high-layer-count printed circuit board designs of 8–20+ layers.
Skill in PCIe add-in card/module design and debugging high-performance x86 and ARM systems.
Familiarity with JTAG tools for bring-up and debugging.
Experience with networking switches and high-speed Ethernet interfaces.
Knowledge of high-speed serial I/O (6–10+ Gbps), PCIe Gen5/6, LPDDR4x/5x, DDR4/5, and 200/400/800 GbE.
Experience with long printed-circuit-board or cable topologies (0.35–1.5 meters), signal integrity, and compliance with current standards.
Ability to debug at packet/protocol level across link, transport, transaction, and command layers.
Experience with LPDDR4x memory technologies, DIMM layout, and validation.
Expertise in clock distribution, power distribution, SMBus, PMBus, SPI, PWM/Tach, and BMC integration.
Proficiency in schematic capture and printed circuit board layout tools, including Cadence Allegro and Mentor Expedition.
Experience with circuit simulation tools such as SPICE and signal/power integrity analysis.
Skill using laboratory equipment including oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, JTAG, SMBus, and serial debuggers.
Experience collaborating with ODMs on joint designs, schematic/layout reviews, and compliance with Qualcomm design guidelines.
Understanding of the x86 firmware/software stack and firmware architecture.
Experience with BMC hardware/software integration and management.
Familiarity with regulatory, environmental, and compliance testing for rack-level systems.

Responsibilities

Lead schematic design, printed circuit board layouts, design reviews, component selections, mechanical and thermal designs, and test-plan development.
Co-develop functional specifications for systems, cards, subsystems, and rack-level architectures.
Collaborate with internal teams and ODMs to develop and support customer-specific hardware and system requirements.
Facilitate consensus on technical trade-offs at the hardware, software, and chip-design levels.
Support architecture and card designs involving accelerator SoCs, memory, I/O, power delivery, electrical/mechanical integration, and printed circuit board definition/design.
Participate in designing and developing rack-level inference solutions aligned with customer requirements and system-level performance goals.
Resolve architecture and design issues across system, card, and rack levels.
Assist with bring-up and debugging of hardware systems, cards, and rack-level configurations.
Provide technical oversight of factory and manufacturing processes to ensure quality and consistency across rack-level deployments.
Contribute to writing Statements of Work and ODM product requirements, and drive technical milestones and deliverables.
Coordinate across multiple development sites, including Qualcomm locations and ODM/JDM partners in Taiwan and internationally.
Travel to development and customer sites as needed to support rack-level solution deployment and validation.
Communicate technical recommendations across disciplines and geographic locations.
Coordinate and deliver technical training for ODMs, focused on rack-level system integration and deployment.

Desired Qualifications

A master's degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field.
10+ years of hardware engineering/systems development or related work experience.
4+ years of circuit design experience, such as digital, analog, or radio frequency design.
4+ years of experience using schematic capture and circuit simulation software.
4+ years of experience with hardware design and measurement instruments such as oscilloscopes, spectrum analyzers, and debug tools.

Company:

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

Job Area:

Engineering Group, Engineering Group > Hardware Engineering

General Summary:

The Qualcomm Data Center AI Hardware Engineering team designs and develops motherboards/add in cards/modules for Qualcomm new AI System On Chip (SoC)/System In Package (SIP). Primary responsibilities include working with cross functional teams (mechanical, thermal, SI, PTE, regulatory, validation, manufacturing, etc.) for execution of projects from concept to production. Support rack level design and integration of cards, servers and networking switches.

Join a world-class, multidisciplinary team that is shaping the future of AI infrastructure. You will be working alongside industry-leading experts across the entire AI infrastructure stack—from silicon, systems architecture, networking, and distributed computing to machine learning platforms and large-scale AI deployment. Our collaborative and fast-paced environment offers unparalleled opportunities for learning, innovation, and professional growth, empowering you to solve some of the most challenging problems in the industry.

Responsibilities

Lead schematics design, PCB layouts, design reviews, component selections, mechanical and thermal designs, and develop test plans.
Co-develop functional specifications for systems, cards, sub-systems, and rack-level architectures.
Collaborate with internal teams and ODMs to develop and support customer-specific hardware and system requirements.
Facilitate consensus on technical trade-offs at hardware, software, and chip design levels.
Support architecture and card designs including accelerator SoCs, memory, I/O, power delivery, electrical/mechanical integration, and PCB definition/design.
Participate in the design and development of rack-level inference solutions, ensuring alignment with customer requirements and system-level performance goals.
Resolve architecture and design issues across system, card, and rack levels.
Assist in the bring-up and debugging of hardware systems, cards, and rack-level configurations.
Provide technical oversight of factory and manufacturing processes, ensuring quality and consistency across rack-level deployments.
Contribute to writing Statements of Work (SOWs) and ODM product requirements; drive technical milestones and deliverables.
Coordinate across multiple development sites, including Qualcomm locations and ODM/JDM partners in Taiwan and internationally.
Travel to development and customer sites as needed to support rack-level solution deployment and validation.
Influence and communicate technical recommendations across disciplines and geographic locations.
Coordinate and deliver technical training for ODMs, with a focus on rack-level system integration and deployment.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Electrical/Electronics Engineering, Engineering, or related field and 6+ years of Hardware Engineering or related work experience.
OR
Master's degree in Computer Science, Electrical/Electronics Engineering, Engineering, or related field and 5+ years of Hardware Engineering or related work experience.
OR
PhD in Computer Science, Electrical/Electronics Engineering, Engineering, or related field and 4+ years of Hardware Engineering or related work experience.

REQUIRED EXPERIENCE:

System/card/rack-level development, including architecture, design, validation, and deployment of enterprise-class hardware platforms.

Rack-Level Expertise:

Proven experience in rack-level system integration, including chassis, backplane, cabling, airflow, and thermal management across multiple cards/modules.
Familiarity with rack-scale power delivery, including PDUs, VRMs, PMICs, and power budgeting across multiple boards.
Experience with rack-level diagnostics and bring-up, including debug of interconnects, signal integrity across long traces/cables, and system-level validation.
Understanding of rack-level mechanical constraints, EMI shielding, and compliance with data center deployment standards.
Collaboration with ODMs/OEMs on rack-level design and manufacturing, including review of mechanical drawings, thermal simulations, and compliance testing.

Board-Level Design:

Deep knowledge of PCIe cards, motherboards, daughtercards, and backplane signal and power delivery.
Expertise in chassis design, airflow optimization, and thermal management.
Solid understanding of system software operation from bootloader to OS and application layers.

Component Qualification:

Experience qualifying PMICs, voltage regulators (VRs), clock buffers, flash memory, and connectors for use in complex card and rack-level designs.

Design & Validation:

Hands-on experience in dense, high-layer count PCB designs (8–20+ layers).
Skilled in PCIe add-in card/module design, debugging in high-performance systems (x86 and ARM).
Familiarity with JTAG tools for bring-up and debug.
Experience with networking switches and high speed ethernet interfaces

High-Speed Interfaces:

Knowledge of high-speed serial I/O (6–10+ Gbps), PCIe Gen5/6, LPDDR4x/5x, DDR4/5, 200/400/800 GbE.
Experience with long PCB/cable topologies (0.35–1.5 meter), signal integrity, and compliance with current standards.
Ability to debug at packet/protocol level across link, transport, transaction, and command layers.

Memory & Clocking:

Experience with LPDDR4x memory technologies, DIMM layout and validation.
Expertise in clock distribution, power distribution, SMBus, PMBus, SPI, PWM/Tach, and BMC integration.

Tools & Collaboration:

Proficient in schematic capture and PCB layout tools (Cadence Allegro, Mentor Expedition).
Experience with circuit simulation tools (SPICE), signal/power integrity analysis.
Skilled in using lab equipment: oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, JTAG, SMBus, serial debuggers.
Strong collaboration with ODMs on joint designs, schematic/layout reviews, and compliance to Qualcomm design guidelines.

Firmware & Software:

Good understanding of x86 FW/SW stack and firmware architecture.
Experience with BMC hardware/software integration and management.

Compliance & Testing:

Familiarity with regulatory, environmental, and compliance testing for rack-level systems.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

Master's Degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field.
10+ years hardware engineering/Systems development experience or related work experience.
4+ years of experience with circuit design (e.g., digital, analog, RF).
4+ years of experience utilizing schematic capture and circuit simulation software.
4+ years of experience with hardware design and measurement instruments such as oscilloscopes, spectrum analyzers, debug tools, etc.

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 [email protected] 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:

$169,800.00 - $254,600.00

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.

About the Company

Qualcomm

Designs mobile chips and licenses wireless patents

Qualcomm designs the Snapdragon processors and modems inside many Android phones, and it licenses its wireless patents to device makers around the world. It helped commercialize CDMA, the cellular technology behind 3G networks, and its patents cover core parts of the 4G and 5G standards that phones use to connect. The company does not run its own chip factories; contract foundries make its chips, which it sells to makers of phones, PCs, cars, and connected devices. Device makers also pay Qualcomm royalties for using its patented technology, which forms a second business alongside chip sales. Qualcomm was founded in 1985 and is based in San Diego, California.

Company size: 10,001+
Company stage: IPO
Headquarters: San Diego, CA
Founded: 1985

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