Senior/Staff Software Engineer — QAIRT Windows Platform

Job Title

Senior/Staff Software Engineer — QAIRT Windows Platform

Role Summary

Work on the QAIRT SDK for Windows on Snapdragon as part of Qualcomm's Taiwan Windows platform team. The role owns full-stack development, runtime stability, inference performance, and long-term compatibility across SDK, OS, SoC drivers, and hardware backends.

The team is small, cross-functional, and responsible for end-to-end delivery from developer APIs and sample tools to the HTP backend and hardware-accelerated inference engines.

Experience Level

Senior (Staff-level candidates considered). Typical experience: senior-level systems software engineers with multiple years of relevant production experience; postings indicate 5+ years as a baseline and preferred 8+ years for more senior hires.

Responsibilities

Primary accountabilities include owning the SDK surface and resolving correctness, stability, and performance issues across layers.

• Own development and long-term maintenance of the QAIRT SDK on Windows on Snapdragon across the full stack, from APIs and tools to HTP backend integration.
• Investigate and resolve runtime failures, inference-accuracy issues, and performance regressions from validation, partner integrations, or production.
• Port and enable new features and operator support across SDK releases, ensuring functional correctness and performance on Qualcomm accelerators.
• Design components for durability and cross-version compatibility when different SDK, OS, and driver versions interact in the field.
• Drive architectural decisions and collaborate with global platform, hardware, and driver teams.
• Contribute to testing and tooling infrastructure covering compatibility scenarios, performance baselines, and runtime correctness.

Requirements

Must-have qualifications and skills required to perform the role.

• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience in systems software, SDK/runtime development, or related disciplines (senior/Staff roles typically require more experience).
• Proficiency in C/C++ with a focus on Windows platform development and user-space internals.
• Experience working in large-scale software projects with emphasis on correctness, stability, maintainability, and cross-component compatibility.
• Familiarity with version control and code review workflows (e.g., Git, Gerrit).
• Solid understanding of system architecture and software design principles, including API design, versioning, and failure-mode reasoning.
• Strong debugging skills and the ability to reason across multiple layers of the stack to diagnose deep runtime or system-level issues.
• Effective written and verbal communication for collaboration across distributed, cross-functional teams.

Nice-to-have / Preferred

• 8+ years of relevant experience in semiconductor, systems software, or consumer devices with end-to-end ownership of major components.
• Experience with Windows diagnostic/debugging tools (WinDbg, Application Verifier, dump analysis) and Windows DLL/versioning behaviors.
• Experience with AI inference SDKs, runtime libraries, compiler backends, and frameworks such as PyTorch or ONNX Runtime in deployment/productization contexts.
• Performance profiling and optimization experience for CPU, DSP, and GPU pipelines on heterogeneous hardware.
• Familiarity integrating AI coding assistants into development workflows and validating generated output.

Education Requirements

Degree or equivalent experience required: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field is stated as the baseline. The posting also lists degree/experience equivalencies: Bachelor's degree plus several years of experience, or a Master’s degree with fewer years, or a PhD with still fewer years (explicitly: Bachelor's with ~4–5+ years; Master's with ~3+ years; PhD with ~2+ years). Equivalent practical experience may be accepted where specified.

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.