Director – AI/ML Engineering (Automotive & Edge AI)

About the job

Company: Qualcomm India Private Limited Job Area: Engineering Group, Engineering Group > Software Applications Engineering General Summary: As a leading technology innovator, Qualcomm pushes the boundaries of what's possible to enable next-generation experiences and drives digital transformation to help create a smarter, connected future for all. As a Qualcomm Software Application Engineer, you will provide technical expertise of software systems through technical presentations in support of business development, product demonstrations, design and development of customer-specific requirements, commercialization, and maintenance of Qualcomm products. Qualcomm Engineers collaborate with cross-functional teams and customers to address questions, issues, debugging, or troubleshooting regarding software systems and applications. Minimum Qualifications: • Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field and 6+ years of Software Applications Engineering, Software Development experience, or related work experience. • Master’s degree in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field and 5+ years of Software Applications Engineering, Software Development experience, or related work experience. • PhD in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field and 4+ years of Software Applications Engineering, Software Development experience, or related work experience. • 3+ years of experience with Programming Language such as C, C++, Java, Python, etc. • 3+ years of experience with debugging techniques. Summary: Role Overview We are seeking a Director of AI/ML Engineering to lead the commercialization of production-grade AI/ML and GenAI solutions across automotive and edge platforms. This role owns technical strategy, execution, and customer ownership for AI systems spanning LLMs, VLMs/LVMs, multimodal AI, and agentic frameworks, deployed on heterogeneous SoCs (CPU/GPU/DSP/NPU) under strict performance, safety, and reliability constraints. The Director will shape the AI roadmap, build and scale high-performing teams, partner with product, silicon, and customer engineering, and ensure delivery of differentiated, scalable AI capabilities across infotainment, digital cockpit, ADAS, industrial, and connected-edge use cases. Job Title: Director – AI/ML Engineering (Automotive & Edge AI) Location: Bengaluru, India Employment Type: Full-time Key Responsibilities AI/ML Strategy & Platform Leadership • Define and own the AI/ML technology roadmap aligned with business goals across automotive and edge AI platforms. • Drive adoption of LLMs, VLMs/LVMs, multimodal AI, and agentic AI systems for real-world, safety-critical deployments. • Influence platform and silicon-level decisions by translating AI workload requirements into hardware and software capabilities. Execution & Delivery • Oversee end-to-end delivery of AI systems from research to production, including model onboarding, optimization, validation, and lifecycle management. • Ensure performance, power, latency, memory, and accuracy targets are met across heterogeneous compute (CPU/GPU/DSP/NPU). • Establish best practices for model optimization (quantization, compression, batching, KV-cache tuning, mixed precision). Team & Organizational Leadership • Build, mentor, and scale multi-disciplinary AI/ML engineering teams (ML engineers, systems engineers, platform engineers). • Set technical direction, define career growth paths, and uphold a high bar for engineering excellence. • Foster a culture of ownership, accountability, and innovation. Cross-Functional & Executive Collaboration • Partner closely with Product Management, Silicon, SDK, Systems, Safety, and Customer Engineering teams. • Act as an executive technical voice in customer engagements, escalations, and roadmap discussions. • Translate complex technical topics into clear, actionable insights for senior leadership. Safety, Quality & Compliance • Ensure AI systems are designed with safety-first principles, including alignment with ISO 26262, ASPICE, and functional-safety expectations. • Establish robust validation, observability, and governance frameworks for AI behavior in production. Minimum Qualifications • Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field. • 25+ years of industry experience in software engineering. • 20+ years of people management experience, including managing managers or senior technical leads and customers. • Strong background in AI/ML system design, not just model development. • Hands-on experience with ML frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow, ONNX) and edge/embedded deployment. Preferred Qualifications • Master’s or PhD in AI/ML, Computer Science, or related field. • Deep understanding of LLMs, VLMs/LVMs, multimodal and agentic AI architectures. • Experience with automotive or industrial platforms, embedded Linux/QNX, and real-time constraints. • Familiarity with QNN-like runtimes, inference SDKs, and heterogeneous acceleration. • Strong customer-facing experience, including executive-level technical discussions. • Track record of influencing product and platform roadmaps through technical leadership. • Experience in software architecture and design patterns. • Knowledge of architectural approaches for large-scale software applications. • Previous customer-facing experience is advantageous. Applicants: Qualcomm is an equal opportunity employer...

Requirements

• AI/ML Engineering
• Team Leadership
• Production Systems
• LLMs
• Multimodal AI

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree
• Master’s
• PhD

Preferred Technologies

• AI/ML Engineering
• Team Leadership
• Production Systems
• LLMs
• Multimodal AI

About the company

Qualcomm is a global leader in semiconductor technology, focusing on advancing wireless technology and computing platforms. They innovate to enable connected devices for various applications, including automotive, mobile, and IoT.