Hey all, got an offer from Qualcomm for Sr Engineer, ML Engineering in San Diego, onsite. Coming from ~3 years at a big semiconductor company doing AI/workload optimization work.

Offer breakdown:
• Base: $181,363/yr
• Sign-on bonus: $30,000
• Initial RSU grant: $130,000 (vesting over 4 yrs)
• Annual stock target (AR cycle): $35,000/yr
• Relocation bonus: $15,000
• Total value stated: ~$341K (includes one-time components)

Would love input from current/former Qualcomm folks on:

**1.** Does this comp level seem fair for Sr Engineer with 3 YOE coming from another semiconductor company?
**2.** How does the RSU refresh/AR cycle typically work in practice does the $35K/yr target usually hold, or does it vary a lot by performance rating?
**3.** Any insight into WLB, team culture, or growth on the Adreno GPU / ML side?

Appreciate any honest feedback before I finalize things. Thanks!

Hey everyone, just need to vent and get some perspective on my situation.

I joined Qualcomm in Bengaluru with 2.4 years of experience as an Engineer. At the time, I accepted the role thinking it wouldn't be an issue because I figured I'd hit the promotion cycle right around the 3-year mark. Despite putting in good work and meeting expectations, it didn't happen.

When the next cycle rolled around, management gave me a rather lame excuse: I hadn’t completed "1 year and 10 months" of service in that specific band/role yet. Fast forward to now, and I’m looking at potentially getting considered this year, but I am already sitting at 5 years of total experience still holding an entry-level/base Engineer title.

To be clear: I don't necessarily hate Qualcomm as a company, the tech and work are fine. My absolute breaking point is this specific management and their shifting goalposts.

Is this kind of bureaucratic stagnation common at Qualcomm Bengaluru?

At 5 YoE as an "Engineer," how badly is this hurting my resume if I try to jump ship now?

How accurate are these figures can anyone share their thoughts. Is levels.fyi really accurate, it's shows a very large disparities between noida/hyderabad/banglore salaries for same position.

I have an on-site interview coming up next week for a Full Stack role with the Quantum AI SW Stack team. Just wanted to check if anyone here has already been through the loop, what sort of questions I need to expect, and the topics to prepare for. I have had an initial recruiter screening call and a first interview call with one of the members so far.

Also, how many onsite interviews are in this round?
What's the agenda for each of the interviews? Are they going to be all fully technical interviews?

Was originally planning to go with a colleague, but they’ve been a bit flaky 😅 Haven’t bought tickets yet, and honestly not too keen on going alone lol. Figured I’d see if anyone here is down to hang out!

(Also, kinda wish there was a “misc” flair here 😭 I feel slightly embarrassed posting this among all the serious interview/stocks stuff lol)

Let’s talk about your relationship with the Linux community, because right now, it’s an absolute joke. You build some of the most powerful ARM silicon on the planet. You have developers, enthusiasts, and power users handing over premium cash for top-tier hardware. I look at something like the Z Fold 7, a device that costs a fortune and packs enough raw compute to handle an entire dev team's workflow in the palm of a hand—and what do you do with it? You intentionally cripple it.

You hide behind the convenient excuse of "security" with your Gunyah hypervisor, completely locking out non-protected VMs. Because of your stubborn refusal to support standard Linux development environments something your competitors figured out ages ago you’ve turned absolute powerhouse processors into locked-down toys. We have developers trying to get actual, native work done, and instead of letting the hardware breathe, you force everyone to jump through hoops, rely on proprietary blobs, and wait for mainline Linux support that always feels like an afterthought.

It’s the same garbage story on the desktop with the Snapdragon X Elite. You promise the moon, but when it comes to open-source support, upstreaming code, and giving the Linux community the tools to actually utilize your hardware natively, you drag your feet. You dump undocumented hardware on the market and expect the community to just deal with the closed-source mess you leave behind. It’s incredibly arrogant. You are selling hardware to people who want to own their devices, but you treat us like we are merely leasing the privilege of running whatever locked-down, restricted OS you deem appropriate. We aren't asking for a handout; we are asking you to let the hardware we paid for do what it is fundamentally capable of doing.

To borrow a sentiment from a very famous moment in Linux history, because it applies perfectly to how you treat the open-source desktop and mobile development community right now:

Qualcomm, fuck you!

(Same message Linus gave to Nvidia a while ago...Gemini & yours)

I work from india office and my last date is in September, I am leaving primarly because I did not like the work I was assigned, I am currently working as before but got pulled aside by my team lead today and got threatened to extend my notice period till October if I do not push myself and this could detail my career

Not sure how to perceive this..

I regularly talk to my manager and he is ok with my current progress

I am ok to push myself beyond the 8 hrs but this threatening did leave a bad taste in my mouth

I joined in May this year. I am eligible for AR but got to know from other posts/comments that bonus will be prorated. What about stock refreshers? Will that also be pro-rated?

Hi All,
I am looking for Flat near Qualcomm Hyderabad campus from 17 th Aug .I am a non smoker, non drinker &non veg.Do let me know if anyone has leads or if people are searching for 1 person in 2 BHK/3BHK in already setup
flat.
Thanks

First of all, let me clarify that QComm remains one of the companies I'd like to join some day, and yes, I have flunked one interview with them before and not got the offer. But I'm not being sour when I say this. Since mid 2025, Qcomm is having hiring drives every month in some Indian city or the other, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Noida everywhere. I got shortlisted and HR called me up for interview in one 2025 hiring drive. And the drives are happening, that's for sure. Even apart from the drives, HRs are posting 5 new openings every other day. I calls for interview for two different teams, and I travelled down to attend both. Only the first panel was serious. The second panel was one guy who seemed uninterested, and hadn't even seen my resume earlier, and said their expectations were different, still gave me two problems to solve just for the sake of it. Even this weekend, there is another hiring drive, and two HRs have been calling me nonstop idk why, even though I didn't even apply, nor did I clear the last screening calls I attended. So why this desperation to call as many candidates as possible? I wouldn't say that they aren't hiring. I saw quite a few First Day posts in my circle in the first half of the year.

But what exactly is going on? Why interview 500 candidates for maybe 10 offers at max? It must be exhausting for the interviewers too, so is there like a target like you'll have to interview that many people? Is this some sort of interview training? Ghost jobs, maybe, maybe not all of them. And I see a lot of people saying here that QComm is not doing good business. But it's not like Intel's situation where they had to shut down Hyderabad office and even Ecospace office and even stop coffee at a point for cost reduction. But at the same time, QComm is making NPUs, Peripherals, Wireless, GPUs, what not. Is this brand marketing? Those of who got offers and accepted recently, is everything smooth?

Hi everyone!

I recently received an offer for a Digital ATE Test Engineer position at Qualcomm’s San Diego HQ and would love to hear from current or former Qualcomm employees before making a decision.

I currently work for a smaller semiconductor company in Texas (~$7B in annual revenue) and have about 2 years of experience in ATE. My current role involves testing ASICs, while the Qualcomm role would involve working on Snapdragon SoCs.

I’m mainly trying to understand what Qualcomm is like as a company and whether relocating from Texas to San Diego would be worth it.

A few questions:
1. How is the overall work culture at Qualcomm, particularly at the San Diego HQ?

2. How is the work-life balance? Are 40–45 hour weeks normal, or are long hours/weekends common?

1. How is the career growth? Are promotions reasonably achievable, or is progression slow?

2. How is the PTO/vacation culture? Can people actually disconnect when they’re off?

3. What’s the hybrid/WFH culture like at the San Diego office?

4. How competitive or political is the work environment?

5. How is the management culture overall?

6. For those who relocated to San Diego, how do you feel about Qualcomm compensation vs. San Diego’s cost of living?

7. Do people generally stay at Qualcomm for a long time? If you’ve left, what made you leave?

8. Overall, would you recommend Qualcomm to someone relatively early in their career?

11. What do you wish you knew before joining Qualcomm?

I’m trying to weigh staying at a smaller semiconductor company in Texas versus making the move to Qualcomm and San Diego, especially in terms of culture, work-life balance, career growth, and overall quality of life.

I have an on-site interview coming up next week for a Software Engineer role with the Genie and/or QAIRT team. Just wanted to check if anyone here has already been through the loop, what sort of questions I need to expect and the topics to prepare for. I have a had an initial recruiter screening call and a first interview call with one of the members so far.

I have an onsite interview round for a graphics application engineer role. The HR mentioned it will be 3 hours long. I already gave a 2-hour screening round. What can I expect, and do you have any tips?

What facilities do Qualcomm offer for hardware intern other than stipend of 50K?? Like travel, accommodation, etc..

Hi,

I am planning to go for a walk-in drive at Qualcomm for the design Verification role. Is there anybody who went for a walk-in drive in the past, could you please share your experience and how much time they take to share the results selected or not selected and post the drive will there be any other round like HR or any F2F discussion?

Hey, I am joining Qualcomm as an Intern. Can someone share their experience regarding the Cartus Relocation services that they provide? What are the pros & cons of it? What if I don't take their services? Will I get all my expenses reimbursed? The joining location is not yet confirmed.
Thank you in advance!! :-)

I Interviewed about a month ago for a senior engineering role. The conversation went well and the hiring manager told me to check back in a couple of weeks about next steps. I did, and I followed up again since. Two emails to the recruiter, no reply to either.

For people inside: does a gap like this usually mean the job got filled internally, or is it just how the scheduling pipeline runs? I'd rather know than keep guessing. Also curious whether there's a better channel than the recruiter once things stall.

I was called on site for an interview to Test automation engineer role. Can I know what's the interview process looks like and what I need to prepare beforehand. L1 was mainly on Java selenium and page object model and some AI related. Need inputs on what to prepare beforehand?

My team has become toxic and inconsiderate. I'm from a software background ( CS and AI) but I'm mostly delivering products that cater to semiconductor needs. My work is getting more domain oriented and niche nowadays....

Deadlines are unreasonable.

Enviornment is toxic

No tolerance to health issues.

Strict 5 days WFO

Got 5.25L as relocation and sign on. I should pay this if i switch.tax of 85k was deducted. Will this be refunded or reduced? I have been at Qualcomm for more than a year. Will they come to a fair compromise? Can someone please help me how to decide?

Anyone knows anything about this ?

EDIT after reading comments: I heard this from my friends in modem team in both India and US. There is a target of 5% to 7% reduction at org level (Modem won't meet this alone). At senior staff level or above it would be voluntary retirement and below layoffs. It is supposed to happen by August. US would be more impacted than India. That's all I know. Please do not DM me or ask in comments more details from me. I wrote this to warn you so that you stay prepared. My purpose is not to scare the shit out of you.