Senior/Staff Software Engineer (On-Device AI Prototyping)

Qualcomm AI Research is seeking a Senior Software Engineerwith strong software engineering fundamentals and experience building AI-powered applications. 

We are looking for engineers who can rapidly transform cutting-edge AI research into working prototypes, with particular interest in agentic AI systems that combine foundation models, tools, memory, planning, and reasoning capabilities.

You will work closely with AI researchers to develop and validate next-generation agentic experiences, turning emerging research concepts into real-world prototypes running across mobile, edge, cloud, and Snapdragon-powered platforms.

In this hands-on role, you will design and implement applications, frameworks, and system components that showcase Qualcomm's AI capabilities. The position focuses on rapid prototyping, agentic AI workflows, software architecture, experimentation, and system integration, helping bridge research and product through robust demos and internal tools.

What You’ll Do

• Develop prototype applications and system components that showcase advanced AI capabilities.

• Collaborate with AI researchers to transform emerging AI technologies into compelling end-to-end experiences.

• Rapidly prototype and evaluate new agent architectures, workflows, and user experiences.

• Build proof-of-concept systems that integrate AI agents with mobile, edge, cloud, and device capabilities.

• Architect clean, maintainable, and extensible software systems that support rapid experimentation and iteration.

• Contribute to internal frameworks, tools, and infrastructure that accelerate AI prototyping.

Key Responsibilities

• Agentic AI Application Development:

• Design and implement software components, frameworks, and end-to-end prototypes.

• Develop agent-enabled applications that combine foundation models, tools, APIs, external services, and device capabilities.

• Evaluate emerging agent architectures, workflows, and user experiences.

• AI Integration & System Development:

• Work with AI researchers and system engineers to integrate and evaluate AI models and agentic workflows, including tool integration, orchestration logic, memory systems, runtime integration, and end-to-end data flows.

• Provide practical feedback on feasibility, performance bottlenecks, system constraints, and user experience.

• Software Engineering Excellence:

• Drive high-quality software design, architecture, testing, and maintainability.

• Build internal tools and automation to improve engineering productivity and prototyping velocity.

• Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner closely with researchers and engineers to deliver impactful prototypes.

• Communicate technical designs, trade-offs, and implementation details effectively.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related field and 4+ years of software development experience

OR Master’s degree and 3+ years

OR PhD and 2+ years

OR equivalent industry experience in systems or mobile development.

• Strong programming skills in one or more languages such as Python, C++, Java, Kotlin, Go, or Rust.

• Strong software engineering fundamentals, including architecture design, modularity, testing, debugging, and performance optimization.

• Experience designing and building complex software systems with clean, maintainable code.

• Experience developing applications or systems from concept to working prototype.

• Excellent problem-solving and collaboration skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience building agentic AI applications using LLMs, multimodal models, tool calling, workflow orchestration, memory systems, planning, reasoning, or multi-agent architectures.

• Familiarity with agent frameworks such as LangGraph, Semantic Kernel, MCP, or similar technologies.

• Experience evaluating and improving agent reliability, task completion, and user experience.

• Experience rapidly prototyping AI-powered applications and bringing research concepts to working demonstrations.

• Experience integrating AI-powered features across mobile, edge, cloud, or embedded platforms.

• Familiarity with Snapdragon platforms or on-device AI deployment is a plus.

• Experience building internal tools, automation systems, or developer productivity solutions.