Senior / Staff SoC Platform Software Engineer – AI Accelerator (NSP)

Job Title

Senior / Staff SoC Platform Software Engineer – AI Accelerator (NSP)

Role Summary

Develop and maintain platform software for the Neural Signal Processor (NSP) on ARM-based heterogeneous SoCs. Work on SoC integration, inter-processor communication, memory management, debugging/profiling frameworks, and NSP-specific tools to enable coordination between Linux and RTOS environments.

Experience Level

Senior-level. Preferred: 3+ years in embedded platform or kernel/framework development. Minimum experience per posting: typically 2+ years (with a Bachelor's) or 1+ year (with a Master's); see Education Requirements for degree-specific minima.

Responsibilities

Primary technical responsibilities and deliverables:

• Design, implement, and maintain inter-processor communication (IPC) including RPC and RPMsg.
• Develop NSP core platform drivers (reset, clock, power, interrupts) and SoC integration code.
• Implement and maintain debug frameworks: logging, diagnostic hooks, crash dump and process dump mechanisms.
• Manage memory subsystems and RTOS/Linux coordination for multi-core environments.
• Develop and maintain NSP tools: performance profilers, runtime debug utilities, and crash analysis tools.
• Use hardware debug capabilities (JTAG, ETM) and profiling/PMU tools to diagnose HW/SW issues and optimize performance.
• Analyze crash/PD/SSR dumps and translate hardware specifications into platform code and fixes.
• Collaborate with globally distributed engineering teams on integration and validation tasks.

Requirements

Must-have technical skills and experience; concise list of required competencies.

• Proficient in C and embedded platform development.
• Familiarity with ARM architecture and SoC integration.
• IPC concepts and implementations (RPC, RPMsg).
• Understanding of RTOS thread and memory management.
• Experience with debug/logging frameworks and use of JTAG/ETM.
• Familiarity with device tree and basic BSP development.
• Strong debugging skills across hardware/software boundaries and crash dump analysis.
• Experience with performance profiling and runtime debug tools.

Nice-to-have:

• Experience with ftrace, kgdb, PMU profiling, and SSR/PD dump analysis.
• Hands-on RPC and cross-core coordination experience; kernel/framework development background.
• Experience working in globally distributed teams.

Education Requirements

Degree required as stated in the posting: Bachelor's, Master's, or PhD in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or a related technical field. Posting specifies: Bachelor's + 2+ years relevant software engineering experience, OR Master's + 1+ year, OR PhD (no specific additional experience required). Programming experience in languages such as C, C++, Java, or Python is also referenced.

About the Company

Company: Qualcomm

Headquarters: San Diego, California, United States

Qualcomm is a global leader in semiconductor and telecommunications equipment, specializing in mobile technologies and innovations. Known for its Adreno GPUs, the company provides solutions enabling advancements in mobile gaming, AI, VR/AR, and autonomous driving. Qualcomm's cutting-edge technology and commitment to high-performance, power-efficient designs drive the evolution of mobile graphics and connectivity worldwide.