Sr. Staff Engineer – Power Lead, Systems Architecture

Job Title

Sr. Staff Engineer – Power Lead, Systems Architecture

Role Summary

Lead system-level power architecture, analysis, modeling, projection, optimization, and issue closure for complex SoCs and platforms. This is a systems-architecture role focused on end-to-end power behavior rather than circuit-level or physical-design tasks.

The role partners across SoC architecture, IP teams, RTL, firmware, software, validation, lab, and silicon organizations to translate product use cases into measurable power and performance outcomes and feed findings into future product improvements.

Experience Level

Senior-level. The posting expects extensive industry experience (typical guidance: on the order of 8–10+ years of relevant SoC/system engineering or equivalent experience).

Responsibilities

Accountable for defining, analyzing, projecting, and optimizing system power across the product lifecycle and ensuring pre-silicon estimates align with post-silicon measurements.

• Lead system power architecture from concept through architecture freeze, pre-silicon readiness, and post-silicon characterization.
• Translate product requirements, workloads, duty cycles, and thermal constraints into system-level power requirements and architecture decisions.
• Define and analyze power states, islands, retention strategies, clock/power gating, wake/sleep flows, operating points, and DVFS policies.
• Establish top-down power budgets and decompose them with IP teams into assumptions, modes, and activity profiles.
• Develop or guide analytical, simulation, empirical, or hybrid workload-driven power/performance models and projections.
• Drive cross-IP power optimizations involving compute, memory, interconnect, multimedia, connectivity, peripherals, firmware, and software policies.
• Lead investigations into gaps between projections and measurements; perform root-cause analysis and drive mitigations and closure.
• Define validation and measurement requirements and correlate pre-silicon models with post-silicon telemetry and lab data.
• Communicate status, trade-offs, risks, and recommendations to technical and program stakeholders.

Requirements

Must-have technical experience and skills for success in this role.

• Deep understanding of SoC and computer architecture: compute subsystems, memory hierarchy, interconnects, system infrastructure, I/O, and HW/SW interaction.
• Proven experience in system power architecture, workload-based power analysis, power-performance analysis, modeling, projection, optimization, or post-silicon power characterization.
• Ability to reason about dynamic vs. leakage power, operating modes, utilization, duty cycles, voltage/frequency points, concurrency, and thermal/sustained-performance effects.
• Experience creating or guiding workload-driven analytical/simulation/empirical models and performing sensitivity and trace analysis.
• Track record of driving cross-functional technical investigations and converting analysis into architecture or optimization decisions.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, technical-communication, and stakeholder-leadership skills.
• Experience integrating IP-level models and implementation evidence into system projections and making model fidelity and uncertainty explicit.

Nice-to-have:

• Hands-on with rail-level power measurements, silicon telemetry, performance counters, profiling, lab measurement methods, or board bring-up.
• Familiarity with RTL/gate-level power inputs, activity factors, UPF/CPF, power-domain crossings, or structural low-power verification considerations.
• Knowledge of PMICs, regulators, PDN/power-grid considerations, thermal management, and their impact on system policies.
• Familiarity with Linux/Android, firmware, device drivers, or Python/shell-based automation for data analysis and tooling.

Education Requirements

Posting specifies degree-dependent minimums: Bachelor's, Master's, or PhD in Engineering, Electrical/Electronics Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related technical field. The listing includes alternative equivalent-experience language and degree-dependent experience ranges (examples shown in the posting include: Bachelor's with multi-year experience, Master's, or PhD with reduced experience). Specific numeric examples in the posting varied by section (e.g., ranges on the order of 4–10+ years depending on degree). Equivalent practical experience is accepted where indicated.

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.