Senior SoC Performance Architect - Santa Clara, California, United States of America
$198,600 - $297,800 USD yearly
Originally posted 8 May 2026 by the employer.
About the role
As a Senior SoC Performance Architect at Qualcomm, you will lead server CPU workload analysis, performance modeling, competitive projection, and optimization across both hardware and software. The role focuses on identifying bottlenecks across the compute stack, including CPU, memory hierarchy, interconnect fabric, I/O, firmware, OS, compiler, and application behavior.
What you'll do
- Drive workload-based performance analysis for server SoCs, emphasizing CPU-intensive and system-level workloads across pre-silicon and post-silicon platforms. - Conduct bottleneck analysis across CPU cores, caches, memory hierarchy, on-chip fabric, memory controllers, and I/O subsystems. - Build analytical and empirical models for workload behavior, performance scaling, and feature sensitivity. - Develop performance projections for internal designs and competitive external products. - Perform sensitivity studies on parameters including frequency, cache size, memory latency/bandwidth, prefetch behavior, SMT, compiler options, and system scheduling. - Collect profiling data using tools such as perf, Intel VTune, and AMD uProf to evaluate PMU metrics, hotspot profiles, call stacks, CPI breakdowns, and microarchitectural stalls.
What you'll need
- Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or related field with 6+ years of systems engineering or related experience (or Master's with 5+ years, or PhD with 4+ years). - At least 2 years of experience in system architecture technology areas and products (such as Power System, Shared Resource Management, Limits/Thermal Management, or Hardware Islands). - Deep understanding of CPU microarchitecture, including pipelines, OoO execution, branch prediction, caches, prefetching, and SMT. - Strong knowledge of SoC-level architecture, including on-chip fabric/interconnect, memory controllers, DRAM systems, coherency, and I/O subsystems. - Hands-on experience with performance profiling tools such as perf, Intel VTune, or AMD uProf in Linux-based environments. - Demonstrated experience in workload analysis, performance characterization, modeling, and optimization for server-class systems.
Nice to have
- Experience with pre-silicon performance modeling, simulation, or trace-based analysis. - Experience with server workloads across cloud, enterprise, data analytics, web, database, virtualization, and AI infrastructure. - Familiarity with PMU-based top-down analysis, CPI decomposition, memory subsystem analysis, and sensitivity modeling. - Experience working with firmware, BIOS, power/performance tuning, and system configuration controls. - Experience with competitive performance analysis and product projection methodologies.
Skills: CPU microarchitecture, SoC-level architecture, workload analysis, performance modeling, Linux-based environments
This role has been open 173 days — well above the 79-day median for SoC/Chip Architecture roles.
SoC/Chip Architecture · SOC Architecture
|
Open roles in category
477
|
Median days open
79 d
|
Median salary
$239k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Qualcomm | All employers we track in this specialty (477 roles · 67 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 80 | 477 |
| Open roles in the wider Digital Design & Verification family | 424 | 3328 · 115 employers |
| Median days open | 83 d | 79 d (+4 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $239k |
Skills observed across this category: CPU microarchitecture, SoC-level architecture, workload analysis, performance modeling, Linux-based environments
Who's hiring in this category
- Qualcomm (this employer) · 80 open roles · median 83 d
- NVIDIA · 56 open roles · median 67 d
- Apple · 37 open roles · median 17 d
- AMD · 36 open roles · median 74 d
- Arm Holdings · 27 open roles · median 122 d
- Micron Technology · 21 open roles · median 101 d
How we counted: 477 open SoC/Chip Architecture (SOC Architecture) roles from 67 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 25 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 Digital Design & Verification family row. Figures refresh nightly.