Staff Software Engineer
$134,800 - $202,200 USD yearly
Originally posted 10 December 2025 by the employer.
About the role
As a Staff Software Engineer at Qualcomm, you will contribute to the design, development, optimization, and commercialization of software solutions for data center platforms while leading an engineering team. Scope includes advancing virtualization, memory management, scheduling, and Linux Kernel technologies on ARM-based systems.
What you'll do
- Develop and enhance Linux Kernel features, including virtualization (KVM), scheduling, and memory management (IOMMU). - Optimize power and performance management technologies, such as DVFS, for ARM-based systems. - Conduct pre-silicon development on FPGA-based platforms and QEMU. - Debug and resolve complex software issues using JTAG debuggers. - Drive system software improvements on ARMv8 and ARMv9 platforms, and contribute to upstream open-source Linux Kernel projects. - Analyze system requirements, propose system architecture, and maintain technical documentation.
What you'll need
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or a related field with 4+ years of software engineering experience (or Master's with 3+ years, or PhD with 2+ years). - 2+ years of work experience with programming languages such as C, C++, Java, or Python.
Nice to have
- Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field with 6 years of software development experience, or equivalent. - Experience in Linux Kernel development, including virtualization (KVM), schedulers, memory management, and device trees. - Knowledge of ARMv8 and ARMv9 architecture and extensions. - Understanding of computer system architecture (core, cache, memory models, bus architecture), board and SOC bringup, device drivers, peripheral buses (SPI, I2C, USB), and memory controllers for DDR. - Familiarity with SCM tools (GIT), JTAG debuggers, and open-source contributions to projects like the Linux Kernel. - Practical experience with ARM-based platforms, system performance management tools, and embedded systems development methodologies.
Skills: Linux Kernel, virtualization (KVM), memory management (IOMMU), power and performance management, JTAG debuggers, ARMv8, ARMv9
This role has been open 200 days — slightly above the 199-day median for Embedded Firmware Engineering roles.
Embedded Firmware Engineering · AI ML Hardware
|
Open roles in category
27
|
Median days open
199 d
|
Median salary
$163k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Qualcomm | All employers we track in this specialty (27 roles · 12 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 13 | 27 |
| Open roles in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family | 735 | 6250 · 144 employers |
| Median days open | 200 d | 199 d (+1 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $163k |
Skills observed across this category: Linux Kernel, virtualization (KVM), memory management (IOMMU), power and performance management, JTAG debuggers, ARMv8
Who's hiring in this category
- Qualcomm (this employer) · 13 open roles · median 199 d
- NVIDIA · 3 open roles · median 223 d
- Infineon Technologies · 2 open roles · median 155 d
- Ambarella · 1 open role · median 221 d
- AMD · 1 open role · median 20 d
- Arm Holdings · 1 open role · median 170 d
How we counted: 27 open Embedded Firmware Engineering (AI ML Hardware) roles from 12 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 Software, Firmware & Systems family row. Figures refresh nightly.
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