Director, Engineering | Principal Engineer/Manager

Company:
Qualcomm Incorporated
Job Area:
Engineering Group, Engineering Group > Software Engineering
General Summary:
We’re hiring a seasoned engineering leader to run software development for our enterprise AI organization. You’ll lead a global team building full‑stack AI solutions on top of our enterprise AI platform—everything from production-grade chatbots, MCP servers, and workflow engines to agentic AI and automations that drive measurable business outcomes. This role owns global software delivery end‑to‑end: portfolio planning, architecture, execution, quality, and operations at scale. You’ll partner closely across product, data, security, infra/cloud, and business teams to deliver secure, reliable, and compliant AI products used across the enterprise.
You combine deep engineering leadership with hands-on technical judgment across Python, Rust, TypeScript, React/React Native, and modern cloud-native delivery (Docker, Kubernetes). You’re comfortable running multiple concurrent projects, guiding frameworks and patterns, raising the engineering bar, and creating clarity in a fast-moving, multi-stakeholder environment.
This role requires full-time onsite work in San Diego, CA (5 days per week).
Key Responsibilities

Own global software delivery for our AI solutions portfolio—roadmaps, release plans, staffing, budgets, quality, and operational readiness across regions and time zones.
Lead and grow a high-performing, global engineering team (managers and ICs); set standards for design, coding, testing, security, and documentation; cultivate a culture of ownership, inclusion, and continuous improvement.
Deliver enterprise-grade AI applications: chatbots and virtual assistants, MCP servers, workflow/decision engines, and agentic automations for complex business processes.
Drive architecture and technical strategy for full-stack solutions (web and mobile) and platform integrations (APIs, events, data, identity, observability).
Scale with cloud-native practices: containerized services (Docker) orchestrated via Kubernetes; enforce IaC, GitOps, CI/CD, blue/green and canary strategies, and progressive delivery.
Ensure data excellence across SQL/NoSQL/Search (incl. Elasticsearch): schema design, indexing, performance, backup/restore, governance, and cost management.
Operationalize AI systems: define SLOs/SLAs, telemetry/observability (logs, metrics, traces), incident management, on-call rotations, and post-incident learning.
Champion security and compliance by design: least-privilege access, secrets management, policy controls, PII handling, auditability, and adherence to enterprise standards.
Manage a multi-project portfolio: intake & prioritization, cross-team dependencies, risk mitigation, change management, and executive stakeholder communication.
Standardize frameworks & patterns for LLM orchestration, agentic workflows, retrieval/search, prompt and memory management, and evaluation/guardrails.
Partner cross-functionally with Product, Data Science/ML, Platform/SRE, Security, and Business stakeholders to translate objectives into shippable, high-impact solutions.
Measure what matters: establish OKRs and engineering KPIs (quality, reliability, velocity, cost); use data to guide decisions and continually raise the bar.
Vendor and ecosystem management: evaluate tools and frameworks, negotiate licenses, manage partners, and ensure interoperability within the enterprise stack.

Required Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or related field (Computer Science, Electrical/Computer Engineering, or equivalent).
15+ years of overall software engineering experience with progressive leadership responsibility.
~10 years relevant leadership experience leading software engineering teams delivering enterprise products/platforms.
Demonstrated success running global teams and delivering multiple concurrent projects in a complex enterprise environment.
Strong technical depth in:
Languages/Frameworks: Python, Rust, TypeScript; React and React Native for web/mobile.
Cloud-Native Delivery: Docker, Kubernetes; CI/CD and environment promotion strategies.
Data: SQL and NoSQL systems; Search/Elasticsearch (design, indexing, performance tuning).
Enterprise AI solution delivery experience: building production-grade chatbots, MCP servers, workflow engines, and agentic AI/automations.
Architecture and systems design expertise for distributed, event-driven, and API-first systems with strong reliability and security postures.
Operational excellence: observability, SRE practices, incident management, and performance/cost optimization.
Agentic frameworks: Semantic Kernel, LangChain, CrewAI, AutoGen (or equivalents) and experience integrating enterprise tools via MCP.
Exceptional communication and stakeholder management skills; proven ability to align executives and cross-functional partners.
Preferred Qualifications

Advanced degree (MS/PhD) in a relevant engineering discipline.
LLM/AI ecosystem expertise: orchestration frameworks (e.g., LangChain, Semantic Kernel), RAG/search patterns, evaluation/guardrails, vector indexing; experience standardizing agentic patterns at scale.
Mobile at scale: React Native architecture, release pipelines, app store operations, and mobile observability.
DevSecOps & SRE tooling: IaC (Terraform/Helm), GitOps (ArgoCD/Flux), OpenTelemetry, Prometheus/Grafana, feature flags, canary/AB testing.
Data & streaming: Kafka or equivalent, CDC, event sourcing, and data contracts; experience with feature stores and ML metadata systems a plus.
MLOps familiarity: model registries, inference gateways, evaluation pipelines, and performance monitoring (latency/cost/quality).
Identity & security: SSO, OAuth2/OIDC, RBAC/ABAC, secrets/KMS; compliance experience (e.g., SOX, HIPAA, GDPR) in enterprise settings.
Portfolio/program management: establishing intake, prioritization, OKRs, and reporting for multi-team, multi-quarter initiatives.
Cloud expertise (Azure/AWS/GCP) with cost governance and multi-environment strategies.
Certifications: CKA/CKAD, major cloud certs, or security certs (e.g., CISSP) are beneficial.

Minimum Qualifications:

Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field and 8+ years of Software Engineering or related work experience.

OR
Master's degree in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field and 7+ years of Software Engineering or related work experience.
OR
PhD in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field and 6+ years of Software Engineering or related work experience.

4+ years of work experience with Programming Language such as C, C++, Java, Python, etc.

Preferred Qualifications:

Master's Degree in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science or related field.
15+ years of Software Engineering or related work experience.
4+ years of supervisory experience.
4+ years of experience with Database Management Software.
4+ years of experience with API.
3+ years of work experience in a role requiring interaction with executive leadership (e.g., Vice President level and above).
3+ years of working with operating budgets and/or project financials.

Principal Duties And Responsibilities:

Leverages expert Software knowledge and experience to implement and drive the design, development, creation, modification, and validation of embedded and cloud edge software, applications, and/or specialized utility programs.
Analyzes user needs, software requirements, and time and cost constraints to direct and drive the design and customization of highly sophisticated software with maximum operational efficiency.
Directs the resolution of design, coding, and other technical issues by presenting end-to-end solutions.
Influences and communicates guidelines for design, coding, and testing efforts and ensures projects are completed to specifications and schedules.
Directs, influences, and drives code reviews, regression tests, and the triage of issues to ensure the quality of code.
Collaborates with high-level representatives from other functions (e.g., testing group, product group, customers) to plan functionality of end-to-end systems.
Sets and communicates the strategic direction for the discipline across the organization; identifies and promotes a unifying vision throughout the organization with associated long-term goals.
Communicates guidelines across teams for writing detailed technical documentation for Software projects; writes and reviews technical documentation for highly complex projects.

Level Of Responsibility:

Provides supervision to direct reports.
Decision-making is critical in nature and highly impacts program, product, or project success.
Requires verbal and written communication skills to convey highly complex and/or detailed information. May require strong negotiation and influence with large groups or high-level constituents.
Develops and administers budgets, schedules, and performance standards for functional area within the prescribed budgetary objectives of the department.
Has a great degree of influence over key organizational decisions (e.g., is making or directly making key decisions that will have substantial impact over the organization).
Tasks often require multiple steps which can be performed in various orders; extensive planning, problem-solving, and prioritization must occur to complete the tasks effectively.

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Pay Range and Other Compensation & Benefits :
$207,600.00 - $311,400.00
The above pay scale reflects the broad, minimum to maximum, pay scale for this job code for the location for which it has been posted. Even more importantly, please note that salary is only one component of total compensation at Qualcomm. We also offer a competitive annual discretionary bonus program and opportunity for annual RSU grants (employees on sales-incentive plans are not eligible for our annual bonus). In addition, our highly competitive benefits package is designed to support your success at work, at home, and at play. Your recruiter will be happy to discuss all that Qualcomm has to offer – and you can review more details about our US benefits at this link.
If you would like more information about this role, please contact Qualcomm Careers.