Principal Software Engineer, Robotics Systems

Company:

Qualcomm International, Inc. Australia Branch Office

Job Area:

Engineering Group, Engineering Group > Software Engineering

General Summary:

Role Summary

As a Principal Software Engineer, you are a recognized technical authority responsible for defining, architecting, and deliveringmission criticalrobotics software systems across multiple product generations. Youoperatewith minimal direction, solve ambiguous andcross domainproblems, and influence technical decisions beyond your immediateteam.criticalrobotics software systems across multiple product generations. Youoperatewith minimal direction, solve ambiguous andcrossdomainproblems, and influence technical decisions beyond your immediate team.

This role is not focused on people management, but on technical leadership at scale owningend-to-endarchitecture, setting engineering standards, and unblocking complexsystem levelchallenges across hardware, software, and productteams.toendarchitecture, setting engineering standards, and unblocking complexsystemlevelchallenges across hardware, software, and product teams.

Scope & Impact

At the Principal level, you are expected to:

• Ownsystem levelarchitecture for major subsystems (e.g., localization, navigation, sensor fusion).levelarchitecture for major subsystems (e.g., localization, navigation,

• Drivecross teamtechnical alignment and influence roadmapdecisions.teamtechnical alignment and influence roadmap decisions.

• Anticipate future platform needs (compute, sensing, software abstractions) and design with multiyear durability.

• Be thego toexpert for one or more deep technical areas whilemaintainingstrong systembreadth.to expert for one or more deep technical areas whilemaintainingstrong systembreadth.

Key Responsibilities

System Architecture & Product Translation

• Independently translate product and platform requirements into software architecture, technical requirements, and measurable performance targets.

• Define error budgets, latency budgets, and accuracy targets, and ensure they are met across sensing, compute, and execution pipelines.

• Make and defend architectural tradeoffs across cost, performance, power, and robustness, with clear technical rationale.

• Influenceplatform leveldecisions thatimpactmultiple teams or product lines.level decisions thatimpactmultiple teams or product lines.

Localization, INS/GNSS, and Sensor Fusion

• Architect and lead development ofproduction gradeINS/GNSS andmultisensoryfusion systems for robotics use cases such as indoor mapping, outdoor navigation, and humanoidlocomotion.gradeINS/GNSS andmultisensorfusion systems for robotics use cases such as indoor mapping, outdoor navigation, and humanoid locomotion.

• Select and justify sensor fusion approaches (EKF/UKF, factor graphs, hybrid methods) based on performance, stability, and compute constraints.

• Evaluate IMU and GNSS solutions (MEMS vs.highergradeIMUs, RTK vs. PPP) and guidesystemlevelintegration decisions.

• Design forrealworldfailure modes including multipath, GNSS outages, time sync issues, and sensor drift, with robust recovery strategies.

Optimization, Estimation, and RealTime Control

• Own the design ofrealtimeoptimization and estimation components used in motion planning, control, or locomotion.

• Select and adapt optimization techniques (QP, MPC, trajectory optimization) for embedded,realtimeexecution.

• Drivesolverleveloptimizations such aswarmstarting, sparsity exploitation, approximation, and numerical stabilization.

• Ensure deterministic behavior under tight latency and memory budgets on heterogeneouscomputeplatforms.

Embedded Software Engineering Excellence

• Set the technical bar forhighreliabilityembedded software in C/C++.

• Design and review software architectures for modularity, testability, andlongtermmaintainability.

• Lead complex debugging efforts involving timing jitter, race conditions, memory corruption, or intermittent hardware faults.

• Establish best practices for testing, diagnostics, fault handling, and system observability.

Technical Leadership & Influence

• Act as a technical mentor to Senior and Staff engineers through design reviews, architecture discussions, and problem solving.

• Lead technical reviews forhighriskorhighimpactfeatures.

• Proactively identify technical risks and drive mitigation strategies before they impact delivery.

• Represent the team incrossfunctionalandcrossorganizationaltechnical forums.

Required Qualifications (Principal Level)

• 15+ years of professional software engineering experience, with deepexpertisein embedded systems, robotics, orrealtimesoftware.

• Demonstrated ownership of large, complex systems from architecture through production deployment.

• Expertproficiencyin C/C++, withstrongcommand of concurrency, memory management, andrealtimeconstraints.

• Proven experience designing sensor fusion, localization, navigation, or control systems used in real products.

• Strong applied background in estimation, optimization, or control theory.

Preferred Qualifications

• Handson experience with GNSS, RTK, PPP,IMUbasednavigation, or similar localization technologies.

• Experience deploying algorithms onresourceconstrainedor heterogeneouscomputeplatforms (CPU/DSP/NPU).

• Familiarity withroboticsmiddleware and system integration (e.g., ROS2based stacks).

• Experience withsafetycriticalorhighreliabilitysystems (robotics, automotive, aerospace).

• Track recordof influencing architecture across multiple teams or product areas

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.

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