Sr. Staff Engineer, Automotive Reliability/Team Lead

Job Title

Sr. Staff Engineer, Automotive Reliability / Team Lead

Role Summary

Lead the Automotive Reliability team to define and execute reliability and qualification strategies for automotive semiconductor products across devices, packages, components, and systems. Serve as the technical authority on automotive reliability, coordinating cross-functional teams to meet qualification, quality, schedule, and customer requirements.

Experience Level

Senior. Candidate should have extensive reliability engineering experience (multi-year, see Education Requirements for degree-to-experience mapping) and at least 2+ years of technical leadership or mentoring experience.

Responsibilities

Accountabilities include ownership of automotive reliability strategy, team leadership, and cross-functional execution.

• Lead and develop the Automotive Reliability team; provide technical leadership and mentorship.
• Define and evolve automotive reliability requirements and qualification methodologies aligned to AEC standards.
• Develop validation strategies, burn-in and production screening plans to meet reliability, quality, and DPPM targets while managing cost and cycle time.
• Provide technical judgment on reliability tradeoffs among performance, power, quality, schedule, and business constraints.
• Drive cross-functional alignment with design, process, test, product, quality, and program teams to integrate reliability across the product lifecycle.
• Manage customer-facing technical engagements: qualification reviews, reliability assessments, audit support, and resolution of customer concerns.
• Define and manage Statements of Work (SOWs) and coordinate external qualification labs and suppliers.
• Report reliability status, risks, and readiness to senior leadership and stakeholders.

Requirements

Key skills and experience expected. Degree and years-of-experience details are consolidated under Education Requirements below.

• Proven reliability engineering experience: reliability analysis, stress-testing, failure analysis, and qualification execution.
• Technical leadership experience (mentoring, leading projects or teams) with demonstrated ability to drive engineering deliverables.
• Experience with failure mechanisms, physics-of-failure, qualification methodologies, and lifetime/risk modeling for complex semiconductor products.
• Familiarity with automotive qualification practices: burn-in strategies, production screening, and DPPM improvement initiatives.
• Knowledge or practical experience interpreting and applying automotive qualification standards and specifications (AEC-related).
• Experience managing external labs, suppliers, and SOWs for reliability testing and validation.
• Strong communication skills for presenting technical tradeoffs and recommendations to engineering leadership and customers.
• Nice-to-have: hands-on semiconductor or automotive industry experience, experience with Automotive Change Management and Product Change Notifications (PCNs).

Education Requirements

Minimum qualifications specify degree-based experience equivalencies: Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Materials Science, Computer Science, or a related field with 6+ years relevant reliability engineering experience; OR Master's degree in those fields with 5+ years; OR PhD in those fields with 4+ years. The posting also accepts equivalent practical work experience in lieu of degree. Preferred qualifications mention advanced degrees (Master's or PhD) and related fields such as Physics.

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.