Senior System and Hardware Validation Engineer - San Diego, California, United States of America
$111,300 - $166,900 USD yearly
Originally posted 28 July 2026 by the employer.
Qualcomm develops rack-level AI inference solutions for liquid-cooled data centers.
About the role
What you'll do
- Define and manage requirements, scope, schedules, and deliverables in alignment with engineering teams, partners, and stakeholders.
- Own rack-level integration plans across compute nodes/accelerators, PCIe fabrics, networking, storage, power delivery, cooling, and rack management/telemetry.
- Drive firmware/software/hardware co-design execution, aligning BIOS/BMC/Redfish/telemetry requirements with hardware schedules and validation gates.
- Lead cross-functional design reviews and readiness reviews (architecture, schematic/layout, SI/PI, thermal, mechanical, firmware, manufacturing).
What you'll need
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Electrical/Electronics Engineering, Engineering, or related field and 2+ years of Hardware Engineering or related work experience.
- Master's degree in Computer Science, Electrical/Electronics Engineering, Engineering, or related field and 1+ year of Hardware Engineering or related work experience.
- PhD in Computer Science, Electrical/Electronics Engineering, Engineering, or related field.
Nice to have
- Master’s degree in computer science/engineering, electrical engineering, or a related field.
- 3 years of experience in systems or hardware engineering, hardware project lifecycle management, and technical product/program management.
- Experience with rack level systems and components.
- Experience managing technical programs across cross-functional teams.
- Demonstrated proficiency with Microsoft Office applications, SharePoint, JIRA/Confluence.
- Experience with server technologies, including board design, SIPI, thermal and mechanical aspects, BIOS, BMC, and networking.
- Familiarity with Agile methods and practices.
- Experience working with CMs, OEMs, ODMs, and suppliers in product development.
Skills: rack-scale designs, rack-level integration, compute nodes, PCIe fabrics, BIOS/BMC
This role has been open 81 days — well above the 58-day median for Hardware Systems Engineering roles.
Hardware Systems Engineering · SOC Architecture
|
Open roles in category
103
|
Median days open
58 d
|
Median salary
$208k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Qualcomm | All employers we track in this specialty (103 roles · 28 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 21 | 103 |
| Open roles in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family | 705 | 6118 · 145 employers |
| Median days open | 47 d | 58 d (−11 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $208k |
Skills observed across this category: rack-scale designs, rack-level integration, compute nodes, PCIe fabrics, BIOS/BMC
Who's hiring in this category
- AMD · 28 open roles · median 58 d
- Qualcomm (this employer) · 21 open roles · median 46 d
- NVIDIA · 16 open roles · median 77 d
- Intel Corporation · 6 open roles · median 45 d
- Mobileye · 4 open roles · median 25 d
- Apple · 3 open roles · median 17 d
How we counted: 103 open Hardware Systems Engineering (SOC Architecture) roles from 28 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 18 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.