R&D – Multimedia Software Engineer (GStreamer)

Company: Qualcomm China Job Area: Engineering Group, Engineering Group > Software Engineering General Summary: You will design, implement, optimize, and maintain GStreamer plugins for streaming, hardware-accelerated video/audio encoding & decoding, muxing/demuxing, camera integration, GPU/NPU AI inference, and end-to-end real-time multimedia pipelines. You will deliver high-quality and time-critical multimedia features, quickly respond to customer issues, and collaborate closely with cross-functional teams including Camera, Video Codec, GPU/NPU, Hardware, BSP, and Test teams. Your responsibilities will include: • Design, develop, and maintain GStreamer plugins and elements for:Camera serviceHardware-accelerated encoders/decoders (H.264, HEVC, VP9, AV1, AAC, etc.)Muxers/demuxers (MP4, MKV, PS/TS, etc.)AI inference pipelines with NPU/GPU accelerationZero-copy pipelines (Camera → GPU → NPU → Display) • Optimize pipelines for latency, throughput, CPU/GPU/NPU utilization, power efficiency, and memory footprint. • Debug system-level multimedia issues involving drivers, HAL, middleware, and user-space frameworks. • Work closely with hardware and firmware teams to enable new platform features and bring up next-generation SoCs. • Contribute to architecture design, code review, documentation, and continuous integration. Minimum Qualifications • 1+ years’ experience in Linux system-level development. • 2+ years’ experience in Embedded C/C++ programming. • Excellent verbal and written English communication skills. • Strong independent problem-solving abilities with a proactive attitude. • Strong expertise in Linux IPC mechanisms, multithreading (mutexes, condition variables, atomics), and advanced memory management, including buffer lifecycle handling and zero‑copy data workflows. • Proficiency with Linux debugging and analysis tools (GDB, strace, perf, valgrind, ftrace) and ability to interpret kernel logs, dmesg, and crash dumps. • Experience with cross-compilation, toolchains, and embedded build systems (CMake, Yocto, Make). • Hands-on experience with Git, branching strategies, and code review platforms (Gerrit/GitHub). • Understanding of networking fundamentals relevant to media streaming (TCP/UDP, RTP/RTSP, sockets). • Experience with performance profiling and identifying CPU, memory, or I/O bottlenecks. • Basic knowledge of hardware acceleration concepts: DMA-BUF, GBM, hardware codec, GPU/NPU offload. Preferred Qualifications • In-depth understanding of video/audio codecs such as H.264/H.265, VP9, AV1, AAC. • Experience with multimedia frameworks: GStreamer, FFmpeg, Android Multimedia Framework, or similar. • Experience with Qualcomm CamX framework • Understanding of camera pipelines: V4L2, ISP, sensor formats, RAW processing. • Experience with AI/ML pipelines and model optimization: TFLite, TensorRT, ONNX Runtime, SNPE. • Familiarity with GPU/NPU/DSP compute frameworks: OpenCL, Vulkan compute, CUDA. • Knowledge of zero-copy rendering, buffer sharing, and hardware display pipelines (DRM/KMS). • Experience with real-time video streaming pipelines and protocols (RTP/RTSP, HLS, DASH, WebRTC). • Knowledge of deep learning workloads, model architectures, quantization, and performance tuning. • Prior experience profiling multimedia workloads on embedded hardware Education Requirements BS with 3+ years experiences or MS. Major: Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Software Engineering Minimum Qualifications: • Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field and 2+ years of Software Engineering or related work experience. OR Master's degree in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field and 1+ year of Software Engineering or related work experience. OR PhD in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field. • 2+ years of academic or work experience with Programming Language such as C, C++, Java, Python, etc. 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). Qualcomm expects its employees to abide by all applicable policies and procedures, including but not limited to security and other requirements regarding protection of Company confidential information and other confidential and/or proprietary information, to the extent those requirements are permissible under applicable law. To all Staffing and Recruiting Agencies: Our Careers Site is only for individuals seeking a job at Qualcomm. Staffing and recruiting agencies and individuals being represented by an agency are not authorized to use this site or to submit profiles, applications or resumes, and any such submissions will be considered unsolicited. Qualcomm does not accept unsolicited resumes or applications from agencies. Please do not forward resumes to our jobs alias, Qualcomm employees or any other company location. Qualcomm is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes/applications. If you would like more information about this role, please contact Qualcomm Careers.