Senior Staff Engineer - Technical Standards - Wired Data Center - Qualcomm - remote, Germany

As a senior Technical Standards contributor and participant, you will work closely with internal and external partners to improve and evolve industry technical standards while representing Qualcomm as a delegate in standardization forums and industry organizations. Your responsibility will include understanding data center industry landscapes and competitors' strength and weaknesses, collaborating with internal partners to identify existing and emerging standards for Qualcomm to focus on, help review and guide internal product requirements and specifications for conformance with the standards, and working with attorneys to file patents that protect the novel IP aspects of any inventions.

The primary focus for this role is wired connectivity infrastructure involving high-speed optical and electrical SerDes standards for core data center infrastructure. This includes the implications of solving problems across photonics, packaging, materials science, and system architecture.

Technical Focus Areas

• Direct experience with IEEE 802.3 and OIF. Aware of related developments in other data center interconnect standards ecosystems including OCI MSA, OCP, UEC, and UALink.
• Deep understanding of 200G, 400G and forward-looking 800G/1.6T Ethernet rate evolution, including PAM4/PAM6 modulation, FEC, equalization, channel loss, BER targets and link-budget tradeoffs.
• Knowledge of scale-up, scale-out and scale-across data center fabrics, including electrical copper reach limits, active electrical cables, linear pluggable optics, co-packaged optics, near-packaged optics, and optical module architectures.
• Strong ecosystem credibility with data center silicon, optics, connector, cable, module, switch, NIC and hyperscaler stakeholders.
• Ability to assess competitive technology directions, identify standards gaps, and shape specifications to support Qualcomm product and IP roadmap objectives.
• Ability to translate hyperscaler, AI accelerator, switch silicon, and optical module requirements into practical SerDes, PHY, controller and standards engagement priorities.
• Ability to check posted technical material for accuracy and prepare internal technical material and analysis.
• Ability to establish and play a leading role in a potential future "800G Interest Group" (or similar name) as a means to promote Qualcomm credibility and thought leadership in Data Center connectivity.

• Master's degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related field
• 7+ years of experience in system design, validation, or related engineering roles
• 2+ years of experience participating in technical standards bodies or industry organizations
• Demonstrated ability to influence across teams and organizations
• Effective communication, collaboration, and stakeholder engagement skills, * 10+ years of experience in optical, SerDes and system design, modeling, validation, or test
• 4+ years of active participation in standards organizations (e.g., IEEE, OCP, PCI-SIG or similar)
• 5+ years of work experience in a role requiring interaction with senior leadership
• 5+ years in a technical leadership role
• Deep understanding of data center ecosystems, including enterprise, HPC, and hyperscale environments
• Authored or co-authored contributions in IEEE, OCP or similar
• Has implemented or influenced deployable OCP-compliant platforms
• Experience designing and developing SerDes across full lifecycle (architecture, design, implementation, verification, validation, through manufacturing and silicon qualification)
• Knowledge of global data center market dynamics and competitive landscape
• Background in technical leadership roles with demonstrated impact
• Familiarity with Qualcomm technologies and semiconductor platforms (preferred)
• Established network within industry, standards bodies, or academia (preferred)
• Excellent written, presentation, and interpersonal communication skills
• Willingness to travel as required

Keywords:

Optical, SerDes, Server, Systems, Semiconductor, Standards, Infrastructure, IEEE, PCIe, OCP, Data Center

Education Requirements:

Required: Master's degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering

Preferred: Doctorate, Computer Engineering or Electrical Engineering or related field, * Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field and 6+ years Software Engineering, Hardware Engineering, Systems Engineering, or related work experience., Master's degree in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field and 5+ years Software Engineering, Hardware Engineering, Systems Engineering, or related work experience. OR PhD in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field and 4+ years Software Engineering, Hardware Engineering, Systems Engineering, or related work experience.

• Global travel several times per year for standards organization forums.

*References to a particular number of years experience are for indicative purposes only. Applications from candidates with equivalent experience will be considered, provided that the candidate can demonstrate an ability to fulfill the principal duties of the role and possesses the required competencies.