Senior Director SoC Architecture - AI Accelerators (Multiple Locations) at Qualcomm
San Diego, CA
$249,900–$375,800from the description
Jul 13, 2026
San Diego, CA
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior leadership role focused on setting the long-term architectural direction for AI datacenter SoCs, with responsibility spanning security, reliability/availability/serviceability, and virtualization. The position involves engaging hyperscalers, enterprise customers, and industry standards bodies to shape product roadmaps, while guiding cross-functional hardware, firmware, and software teams. Suited to a seasoned architect with deep datacenter SoC experience and a track record of influencing large-scale technical strategy.
Principal level · 15+ years · San Diego, CA · Master's required · Full-time
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
Why we read it this way (6)
The posting has two separate 'Minimum Qualifications' blocks that partially conflict. The first block accepts a Bachelor's + 10 years or Master's + 9 years or PhD + 8 years of ASIC experience. The second (more detailed) block requires a Master's or higher plus 15+ years overall and 10+ years in datacenter technologies. The stricter second block is treated as the operative gate, yielding a Master's degree requirement and 15-year total experience floor.
The title 'Senior Director' and the scope — defining org-wide technology strategy, leading global cross-functional organizations, influencing executive-level decisions, and shaping industry standards — clearly places this at the Principal band despite the 11-3021 (management) classification. The role is a genuine hybrid of deep technical architecture and executive leadership; 11-3021 was chosen as primary because people-management and org leadership are explicitly required, with 15-1299 noted as the runner-up for the strong individual-contributor architecture component.
RAS, virtualization, and security are listed as three parallel domain options ('at least one or more'); all three are treated as required skills since the JD gates on deep expertise in the domain area collectively, even if a candidate need not cover all three equally.
PCIe (including SR-IOV, SIOV, IDE, TDISP), confidential computing, and Ethernet appear only under Preferred Qualifications.
No work location is explicitly stated in the posting body; San Diego, CA (Qualcomm's headquarters CBSA) is inferred as the primary location.
Ignored 4 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): ASIC design, SoC architecture, datacenter architecture, security architecture.
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