Modem Software Engineer
$109,400 - $164,200 USD yearly
Originally posted 2 October 2026 by the employer.
About the role
This role involves working on modem performance and architecture within the Modem Power and Performance (MPP) organization.
What you'll do
- Contribute to foundational architectural initiatives for Qualcomm modem and Compute products.
- Innovate in memory architecture and optimization, performance optimization, and cache level compression/decompression.
- Address challenges in power/performance/area (PPA), memory efficiency, reliability, security, software productivity, and platform scalability.
- Define and evaluate SoC-level performance requirements and assess architectural trade-offs.
- Analyze real-world modem workloads to identify bottlenecks and propose/implement solutions across software optimization, task design, SW/HW partitioning, cache utilization, and memory behavior.
- Develop, enhance, and maintain tools for silicon profiling, performance validation, and debug.
What you'll need
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or related field.
Nice to have
- Strong fundamentals in computer architecture, including processors, memory systems, embedded real-time systems, operating systems, and low-level programming.
- Ability to deliver quantifiable improvements in code performance through architectural redesign, compiler optimizations, hardware acceleration, and multithreading.
- Experience working with embedded software development using C/C++ (or ASM) with RTOS schedulers and kernel modules.
- Strong programming capabilities with C (or C++) and Python.
- Master’s degree in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or Electrical Engineering.
- Up to five (5) years of cumulative work experience in a relevant field.
- Experience contributing to performance analysis, and/or optimization on embedded systems.
- Experience using Python for tooling, data analysis, ML frameworks (e.g., PyTorch), or automation.
- Debug experience using JTAG or equivalent hardware/software debug tools.
- Exposure to compiler technology, low-level performance tuning, or system-on-chip (SoC) architecture.
- Working knowledge of wireless protocols and technologies.
- Familiarity with traditional machine learning and/or generative AI.
Skills: modem software, modem architecture, embedded systems, operating systems, kernel modules, performance optimization
This role has been open 7 days — well below the 58-day median for Systems Software Engineering roles.
Systems Software Engineering · Systems Software
|
Open roles in category
679
|
Median days open
58 d
|
Median salary
$213k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Qualcomm | All employers we track in this specialty (679 roles · 73 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 169 | 679 |
| Open roles in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family | 725 | 6078 · 146 employers |
| Median days open | 74 d | 58 d (+16 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $213k |
Skills observed across this category: modem software, modem architecture, embedded systems, operating systems, kernel modules, performance optimization
Who's hiring in this category
- Qualcomm (this employer) · 168 open roles · median 73 d
- NVIDIA · 127 open roles · median 51 d
- AMD · 61 open roles · median 49 d
- Mobileye · 29 open roles · median 72 d
- Broadcom · 22 open roles · median 44 d
- Arm Holdings · 20 open roles · median 106 d
How we counted: 679 open Systems Software Engineering (Systems Software) roles from 73 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 9 Oct 2026. Specialty figures count only roles carrying this exact specialty label, so an employer's related work in neighbouring specialties is not included there — it is counted in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family row. Figures refresh nightly.