IT Engineer, Principal

Company: Qualcomm Incorporated Job Area: Information Technology Group, Information Technology Group > IT Engineering General Summary: We are seeking an exceptional Principal IT Engineer to serve as the senior-most technical authority within the infrastructure engineering organization. This role is responsible for defining infrastructure strategy, driving technology modernization, and ensuring the delivery of secure, scalable, and resilient platforms that support critical business operations and government mission requirements. As the highest-level individual contributor within the organization, the Principal IT Engineer provides technical leadership across enterprise infrastructure, network architecture, cloud platforms, identity services, virtualization, endpoint management, storage technologies, and automation. This individual establishes engineering standards, influences executive decision-making, drives architectural governance, and leads the resolution of the organization's most complex technical challenges. The successful candidate will have a proven track record of leading large-scale infrastructure initiatives, developing long-term technology roadmaps, mentoring engineering teams, and partnering with executive leadership to align technology investments with business objectives and mission requirements. This position requires an active U.S. Top Secret (TS/SCI) security clearance and the ability to maintain that clearance throughout employment. Candidates must be U.S. citizens and capable of working with sensitive and classified information in accordance with government and customer security requirements. Experience supporting classified environments and working within NIST, RMF, CMMC, FedRAMP, and related federal compliance frameworks is strongly desired. This position is ON-SITE only and is in San Diego, CA . Minimum Qualifications: • 8+ years of IT-related work experience with a Bachelor's degree. OR 10+ years of IT-related work experience without a Bachelor’s degree. *Completed advanced degrees in a relevant field may be substituted for up to two years (Master’s = one year, Doctorate = two years) of work experience.

Technical Leadership & Enterprise Architecture Serve as the senior technical authority and subject matter expert for enterprise infrastructure services Define and maintain strategic infrastructure roadmaps aligned with business and mission objectives Lead the design, architecture, and implementation of enterprise-scale infrastructure solutions Establish engineering standards, reference architectures, technical governance models, and operational frameworks Drive enterprise-wide architectural decisions spanning infrastructure, networking, cloud platforms, identity services, and endpoint technologies Evaluate emerging technologies and provide recommendations regarding adoption, modernization, lifecycle management, and investment strategy Serve as a trusted technical advisor to executive leadership on technology strategy, risk management, and infrastructure investments Lead technical decision-making for highly complex programs and initiatives spanning multiple engineering teams Act as the final technical escalation point for high-risk architectural, security, operational, and performance-related issues Partner with cybersecurity, compliance, and risk management teams to ensure infrastructure architectures meet security and regulatory requirements Network Architecture & Solution Design Define enterprise network architectures supporting both classified and unclassified environments Lead network modernization initiatives involving segmentation, resiliency, Zero Trust principles, and secure connectivity Establish standards for network reliability, scalability, performance, and security Lead end-to-end infrastructure and network solution design efforts, ensuring solutions are secure, supportable, and aligned with enterprise architecture standards Produce and review technical designs,