Lead/Staff Engineer – Synthesizable IP Design, Emulation & FPGA Prototyping

Company:

Qualcomm India Private Limited

Job Area:

Engineering Group, Engineering Group > Hardware Engineering

General Summary:

We are seeking an experienced Lead/Staff Engineer with 5 + years of ASIC/SoC design experience to lead the development and delivery of synthesizable IP models for advanced emulation and FPGA prototyping platforms.

The ideal candidate will bring strong expertise in RTL design, C/C++ modeling, FPGA implementation, and hardware emulation, along with the ability to contribute to architecture, drive complex technical execution, and provide technical leadership across multidisciplinary teams.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the design and development of synthesizable IP models for emulation and FPGA prototyping platforms.
• Contribute to architecture and micro-architecture definition, design reviews, and implementation strategies.
• Develop and optimize Verilog/SystemVerilog RTL for functionality, performance, area, and timing.
• Develop and maintain C/C++ reference models and ensure functional alignment between software models and RTL.
• Drive IP integration, debug, validation, and bring-up across simulation, emulation, and FPGA environments.
• Support FPGA synthesis, implementation, timing closure, hardware validation, and performance optimization.
• Collaborate with architecture, verification, software, and system teams to enable platform bring-up and software development.
• Own project planning, technical risk assessment, schedule estimation, and execution against committed milestones.
• Drive productivity improvements through automation and AI-assisted design methodologies.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Electrical, Electronics, Computer Engineering, or a related discipline.
• 5+ years of experience in ASIC/SoC/FPGA design, RTL development, emulation, or prototyping.
• Proven experience delivering complex IP, subsystem, or SoC designs through development, integration, and validation.
• Strong experience in synthesizable RTL/IP model development and ASIC/SoC design methodologies.

Technical Expertise

• Strong hands-on expertise in Verilog/SystemVerilog RTL design and synthesizable model development.
• Ability to translate architecture and micro-architecture specifications into high-quality, implementation-ready RTL.
• Strong C/C++ programming skills with experience developing reference models and validation frameworks.
• Good understanding of CDC, reset architecture, power management, and system-level integration.
• Familiarity with bus/interconnect protocols such as AXI, AHB, and APB.
• Experience with Git, CI/CD workflows, and scripting using Python, Tcl, Perl, or Shell.

Emulation & FPGA Prototyping

• Hands-on experience with AMD/Xilinx FPGA design and prototyping flows, including UltraScale+ and Versal architectures.
• Experience with Vivado, including FPGA synthesis, implementation, timing closure, debug, and hardware bring-up.
• Familiarity with emulation platforms such as Siemens Veloce/Veloce TBX, Cadence ZeBu, Palladium, or equivalent technologies.
• Understanding of SCE-MI, DPI-C, transactors, transaction-based acceleration, co-emulation, and software-driven validation.
• Experience with multi-FPGA partitioning and system-level integration is highly desirable.

Protocol Expertise:

Experience or familiarity with one or more of the following:

LPDDR5/LPDDR5X/LPDDR6, PCIe, Ethernet, USB, UART, I2C/I3C, MIPI C-PHY/D-PHY, AXI, AHB, and APB.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with large-scale SoC prototyping, emulation-based validation, and software bring-up.
• Experience with multi-FPGA prototyping and partitioning.
• Exposure to HLS methodologies and cloud-based EDA workflows.
• Familiarity with AI-assisted semiconductor design methodologies, Generative AI, automation frameworks, and engineering productivity tools.

Leadership & Collaboration

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to debug complex RTL, FPGA, and system-level issues.
• Ability to lead technical discussions and influence architecture and implementation decisions.
• Experience mentoring engineers and driving engineering best practices and design quality.
• Strong project ownership with the ability to plan, prioritize, identify risks, and execute independently.
• Excellent communication and cross-functional collaboration skills.
• Strong focus on engineering excellence, innovation, execution, and continuous improvement.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Electrical/Electronics Engineering, Engineering, or related field and 4+ years of Hardware Engineering or related work experience.
OR
Master's degree in Computer Science, Electrical/Electronics Engineering, Engineering, or related field and 3+ years of Hardware Engineering or related work experience.
OR
PhD in Computer Science, Electrical/Electronics Engineering, Engineering, or related field and 2+ years of Hardware Engineering or related work experience.

Applicants: Qualcomm is an equal opportunity employer. If you are an individual with a disability and need an accommodation during the application/hiring process, rest assured that Qualcomm is committed to providing an accessible process. You may e-mail disability-accomodations@qualcomm.com or call Qualcomm's toll-free number found here. Upon request, Qualcomm will provide reasonable accommodations to support individuals with disabilities to be able participate in the hiring process. Qualcomm is also committed to making our workplace accessible for individuals with disabilities. (Keep in mind that this email address is used to provide reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities. We will not respond here to requests for updates on applications or resume inquiries).

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.