Audio Engineer Internship Jobs in Rancho Santa Fe, CA

Company:
Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
Job Area:
Engineering Group, Engineering Group > Systems Test Engineering
General Summary:
*** This position is not eligible for Qualcomm immigration sponsorship.***
We are seeking a Systems Software SoC Test Engineer to develop, deploy, and automate cross-platform system validation solutions for Snapdragon SoCs, ensuring stable, reliable, and high-performance operation across critical subsystems including CPU, Graphics, Audio, Video, Storage, Display, Connectivity, Peripherals, Memory, Interconnects, and AI accelerators.
The ideal candidate has a strong foundation in computer science, software development, and system-level debugging, with proficiency in C/C++. This role combines software engineering, automation, validation, and root-cause analysis to ensure high-quality platform releases across Android, Linux, Windows, QNX, and Qualcomm Hexagon DSP environments.
Working within a system test engineering team, you will define validation strategies, develop scalable automation frameworks, expand test coverage, and validate new hardware and software features from early silicon bring-up through production readiness. You will also help drive quality across software, firmware, and AI SDK ecosystems while enabling robust validation across multiple Snapdragon platforms.
Key Responsibilities:
On-Device Validation and System Testing

• Validate system functionality, performance, reliability, and robustness across mobile, PC, and automotive platforms.
• Design, develop, and execute end-to-end validation solutions for critical SoC subsystems including DDR, CPU, PCIe, Storage, NoCs, Power Management, Clocking, GPU, Video, Audio, and AI/DSP processors.
• Develop and execute AI model integration and validation tests using Qualcomm Hexagon and AI Direct SDKs.
• Support early silicon bring-up, platform enablement, and full system validation on target hardware.
• Verify system correctness, performance, low-power operation, reliability, and bit-exact behavior across hardware and software stacks.
• Evaluate system stability through stress, endurance, performance, and reliability testing.

Test Strategy, Coverage, and Quality

• Define, expand, and track test coverage across features, subsystems, and platforms.
• Identify validation gaps and develop new test scenarios to improve product quality.
• Monitor test metrics, regression trends, pass rates, and quality indicators.
• Ensure comprehensive logging and diagnostic data collection across Android, Linux, Windows, and QNX environments.
• Perform root-cause analysis of issues reported by customers, OEMs, and internal teams, spanning BSP through HLOS software layers.

Automation Framework Development

• Design and develop scalable cross-platform automation frameworks primarily in C/C++.
• Build automation capable of supporting large-scale device farms with robust recovery, monitoring, and analytics capabilities.
• Improve validation efficiency through reusable tools, automation best practices, and continuous integration workflows.
• Develop supporting automation using Python, Shell/Bash, and PowerShell where appropriate.

Debugging and Reliability Engineering

• Analyze logs, traces, crash dumps, and system telemetry to identify root causes.
• Debug software, firmware, and hardware-related issues affecting platform stability.
• Investigate power, thermal, performance, memory, and system-level failures.
• Collaborate with hardware, firmware, driver, and software teams to drive issue resolution.

Minimum Qualifications:
• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field.
Preferred Qualifications

• BS or MS in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related STEM field.
• Strong programming fundamentals, data structures, and algorithms.
• Proficiency in C/C++ development and debugging.
• Experience in software validation, test engineering, embedded systems, or related areas. Exceptional new graduates with relevant internship or project experience from the tech sector are encouraged to apply.
• Public GitHub projects demonstrating embedded software, DSP, systems programming, or automation development.
• Experience with Qualcomm Hexagon DSP, AI Direct SDK, Vulkan, OpenCL, or embedded ARM-based platforms.
• Experience building large-scale automated validation environments.
• Familiarity with performance profiling, telemetry collection, and system test analytics.
• Knowledge of AI/ML workloads, edge AI deployment, or accelerator validation.

Technical Skills

• Strong programming skills in C/C++.
• Experience with embedded systems, DSP SDKs, or system software development.
• Ability to debug software issues using debuggers, memory analysis tools, and system diagnostics.
• Debug System issues : Thermal excursions, Power state problems, CPU Latency issues, ARM ISA familiarity
• Experience working in Linux environments, including kernel debugging and system-level development.
• Familiarity with Android, Windows, QNX, or similar operating systems.
• Experience with scripting and automation using Python, Shell/Bash, or PowerShell.
• Understanding of computer architecture, operating systems, and hardware-software interactions.

Soft Skills

• Critical thinking and methodical analytical and problem-solving abilities across complex SoC subsystems or embedded systems
• Excellent communication and collaboration across time zones with inter-departmental teams (Design teams, Development teams, SOC Leads)
• Ability to learn quickly and thrive in a fast-paced engineering environment.
• Self-motivated with a passion for system-level technology and product quality.
• Periodic updates through presentation and dashboard reporting to senior technical audience is needed.

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).
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EEO Employer: Qualcomm is an equal opportunity employer; all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, Veteran status, or any other protected classification.
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Pay range and Other Compensation & Benefits:
$89,000.00 - $133,600.00
The above pay scale reflects the broad, minimum to maximum, pay scale for this job code for the location for which it has been posted. Even more importantly, please note that salary is only one component of total compensation at Qualcomm. We also offer a competitive annual discretionary bonus program and opportunity for annual RSU grants (employees on sales-incentive plans are not eligible for our annual bonus). In addition, our highly competitive benefits package is designed to support your success at work, at home, and at play. Your recruiter will be happy to discuss all that Qualcomm has to offer - and you can review more details about our US benefits at this link.
If you would like more information about this role, please contact Qualcomm Careers.