Principal Engineer - Core Platform Storage

Company:

Qualcomm India Private Limited

Job Area:

Engineering Group, Engineering Group > Software Engineering

General Summary:

We are seeking a Senior Staff Engineer to provide technical leadership in the Core Platform Storage domain. This role involves driving architecture, design, development, and enablement of storage software across multiple Qualcomm chipsets and operating systems. The ideal candidate will combine deep hands‑on expertise with system‑level thinking, cross‑functional leadership, and the ability to influence platform‑wide storage direction.

Key Responsibilities

Technical Leadership & Architecture

Drive storage software architecture and design across next‑generation Qualcomm multiprocessor chipsets.

Work closely with Product Management and Program Management to define new feature requirements, scope deliverables, and drive key performance metrics.

Lead innovation in storage architectures across UFS3/4/5, eMMC, NVMe, NAND, SPI‑NOR, SD/SDIO, and related technologies.

Provide technical guidance on performance, scalability, reliability, and power optimization across storage subsystems.

Influence system‑level design decisions spanning hardware, firmware, and software .

Software Design & Development

Design, develop, and support device drivers and storage frameworks across multiple operating systems including Linux, Windows, and RTOS .

Own and contribute to Linux kernel storage subsystems , including block I/O path, schedulers, memory management interactions, and DMA.

Design and develop file systems, flash management layers, and storage utilities for embedded and external storage devices.

Develop and maintain complex data structures and flash algorithms to optimize storage performance and endurance.

Drive Linux upstream and open‑source contributions (Linux, UEFI, Zephyr), ensuring long‑term maintainability and standards compliance.

Debug, Support & Quality

Lead failure triage, root‑cause analysis, and system‑level debugging across platforms.

Leverage kernel debugging tools such as debugfs, ftrace, blktrace , and other instrumentation frameworks.

Ensure high software quality across the full software development life cycle , from requirements and design through commercialization and post‑launch support.

Cross‑Functional Collaboration

Collaborate closely with hardware designers, validation teams, customer engineering, and dependent software teams .

Act as a technical point of contact for internal and external stakeholders on storage‑related features and issues.

Support customer enablement and issue resolution for complex storage use cases.

Team & Project Leadership

Provide technical leadership and mentorship to a team of engineers.

Support people management activities (for ~5–6 engineers); prior experience leading larger teams is a strong plus.

Drive project planning, task breakdown, estimation, prioritization, and execution tracking .

Ensure delivery predictability, quality, and risk mitigation across projects.

Required Qualifications

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in ECE, EEE, CSE , or a related field.

12–14 years of experience in embedded systems and device driver development .

Strong hands‑on experience with storage technologies , including:

UFS, eMMC, SD/SDIO

NAND, SPI‑NOR

NVMe, SDXpress

Deep expertise in embedded C programming , including:

Data structures and algorithms

System‑level programming (file handling, multithreading, synchronization)

Strong experience with OS kernel and device driver development (Linux / Windows / RTOS).

Solid understanding of:

Storage software stacks and block I/O path

Page cache, buffer cache, virtual memory

MMU and DMA concepts

Hands‑on experience with Linux Block Subsystem and I/O schedulers

Excellent communication, collaboration, and leadership skills.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience contributing to or working closely with Linux upstream , UEFI , or Zephyr communities.

Experience with real‑time and embedded operating systems , including Zephyr RTOS.

Exposure to multi‑SoC platform enablement and customer‑facing storage issues.

Prior people leadership or mentoring experience at Staff/Senior Staff level.

Senior Staff Level Expectations

Recognized technical expert in storage software and architecture .

Drives platform‑level impact across multiple products and teams.

Operates effectively in high‑ambiguity problem spaces with minimal direction.

Influences technical direction beyond immediate team boundaries.

Acts as a technical multiplier through mentorship and architectural leadership

Minimum Qualifications:

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

OR

Master's degree in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field and 5+ years of Software Engineering or related work experience.

OR

PhD in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field and 4+ years of Software Engineering or related work experience.

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

Qualcomm expects its employees to abide by all applicable policies and procedures, including but not limited to security and other requirements regarding protection of Company confidential information and other confidential and/or proprietary information, to the extent those requirements are permissible under applicable law.

To all Staffing and Recruiting Agencies : Our Careers Site is only for individuals seeking a job at Qualcomm. Staffing and recruiting agencies and individuals being represented by an agency are not authorized to use this site or to submit profiles, applications or resumes, and any such submissions will be considered unsolicited. Qualcomm does not accept unsolicited resumes or applications from agencies. Please do not forward resumes to our jobs alias, Qualcomm employees or any other company location. Qualcomm is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes/applications.

If you would like more information about this role, please contact Qualcomm Careers .