Senior Staff Machine Learning Engineer - Riyadh, KSA

About the company

Qualcomm Middle East Information Technology Company LLC is expanding its footprint in Riyadh and strengthening its regional infrastructure capabilities. The organization is investing in advanced computing and data centre capacity to support AI, cloud, and next-generation connectivity initiatives in line with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030.

Role overview

This position sits within Qualcomm’s AI team, which builds hardware and software for machine learning solutions across data center, edge, infrastructure, automotive, and other markets. The role calls for a senior individual contributor who can lead technically while staying deeply involved in hands-on engineering.

The selected engineer will guide the design, optimization, and deployment of machine learning frameworks and applications for Qualcomm AI platforms. The scope is broad, with ownership across research, architecture, implementation, and long-term optimization, along with collaboration across multiple engineering teams.

Key responsibilities

• Investigate, build, improve, and deliver core components of machine learning frameworks and graph optimizations focused on performance and accuracy for Qualcomm NPUs.
• Review software needs, judge design feasibility within technical limits, coordinate with architecture and hardware teams, and implement software approaches suited to Qualcomm SoCs.
• Identify system integration problems and work closely with software development, integration, and testing teams to resolve them.
• Explore and adapt current GenAI methods for NPUs, and develop new approaches that align well with Qualcomm SoC architecture.
• Offer technical direction and mentoring through design reviews, architecture guidance, and direct engineering collaboration, without formal people-management duties.

Experience and qualifications

• A bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or a related discipline is required.
• The role expects strong systems engineering experience, with 12+ years mentioned for the senior profile and alternative qualification paths listed as 6+ years with a bachelor’s degree, 5+ years with a master’s degree, or 4+ years with a PhD.
• Applicants should understand machine learning frameworks such as PyTorch and TensorFlow.
• Experience in model optimization techniques such as torch compile is required.
• Strong knowledge of model architecture, supported by literature-based reasoning and practical intuition, is expected.
• Candidates should be familiar with a wide range of model architectures, ML methods, and learning techniques across multiple modalities.
• Hands-on experience with model training and inference workflows is needed.
• At least 5 years of practical development experience in C/C++ and Python is required.
• Solid exposure to object-oriented design and general software engineering practices is required.
• Working knowledge of source code and configuration management tools, including Git, is required.

Preferred background

• Comfort working in a collaborative software engineering environment, including low-level coding, testing, and interaction with hardware and simulators.
• Exposure to neural network architectures and ML compiler workload synthesis is considered an advantage.
• Experience with hardware accelerators and hardware-software co-design is valuable.
• Ability to profile software and apply optimization methods is preferred.
• Interest in building advanced deep learning frameworks and algorithms for mobile and embedded environments is desirable.
• A research-oriented mindset combined with strong software development capability is a plus.

Compensation and benefits

• Salary package includes housing and transportation allowances.
• Employees may receive RSUs and performance-based bonuses.
• 16 weeks of fully paid maternity leave are offered.
• 6 weeks of fully paid paternity leave are offered.
• An employee stock purchase plan is available.
• Child education allowance is included.
• Relocation and immigration support may be provided if required.
• Life and medical insurance are provided.
• Live+ Well reimbursement covers health and recreational membership fees.

Additional information

The employer states that year-of-experience figures are indicative and that candidates with equivalent experience may still be considered if they can demonstrate the ability to perform the role and meet the required competencies.

Qualcomm is an equal opportunity employer and can provide reasonable accommodations during the hiring process for candidates with disabilities. The company also notes that applicants should follow all applicable policies, including those related to confidentiality and proprietary information.

Staffing and recruiting agencies are not authorized to use the careers site or submit unsolicited resumes or applications for this role.