Director, Android Software Product Management at Qualcomm, San Diego, CA

Director, Android Software Product Management at Qualcomm in San Diego, CA. Est. up to $200k. Apply with swipeandhired.

Company:
Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
Job Area:
Operations Group, Operations Group > Product Management
General Summary:
General Summary
Leads product strategy, definition, execution, and lifecycle management for Android software products, platform capabilities, and experiences from concept through end of life. This role drives the Qualcomm Mobile Business Unit software agenda across multiple technology areas by coordinating closely with technology product managers, software engineering leads, architecture teams, and business stakeholders.

The Director establishes an integrated software strategy that aligns Android platform capabilities, system software, AI, graphics, multimedia, connectivity, security, developer experiences, and other technology domains with Mobile BU business objectives and customer requirements. The role translates market, customer, partner, and technology needs into cohesive product roadmaps, investment priorities, platform requirements, and execution plans.
Serves as the central product resource across software engineering, architecture, user experience, quality, testing, marketing, sales, business development, customer engineering, and ecosystem partners. Works closely with Google, OEMs, carriers, application developers, chipset partners, and internal Qualcomm organizations to define product goals, prioritize requirements, manage dependencies, and drive successful execution.
Provides product leadership throughout the lifecycle, including product definition, development, integration, launch, maintenance, upgrades, and end-of-life planning. Represents the consolidated Qualcomm Mobile BU software strategy to senior leadership and external stakeholders, ensuring that technology-area plans support a consistent, differentiated, and customer-focused Android software portfolio.

The responsibilities of this role include:

• Working independently with broad direction and significant latitude in determining objectives and approaches.
• Making decisions with substantial impact on product strategy, software roadmaps, customer relationships, and business outcomes.
• Driving alignment across multiple technology areas and organizations that may not have direct reporting relationships.
• Communicating complex technical and business information to executives, engineering teams, customers, partners, and other stakeholders with varying levels of technical expertise.
• Influencing key organizational decisions through product expertise, data-driven analysis, negotiation, and executive communication.
• Solving ambiguous, highly complex problems that require the integration of technical, market, customer, and business considerations.
• Exercising creativity and strategic judgment to define new products, processes, platforms, and software experiences.
• Applying deductive and inductive problem-solving techniques, advanced analysis, and interpretation of incomplete or conflicting information.
• Participating in strategic planning that influences the direction of Android software products, the Mobile BU software portfolio, and related business areas.
• Leading through influence across product management, engineering, architecture, business, and ecosystem organizations.

Principal Duties and Responsibilities

• Defines and maintains the product vision, strategy, positioning, and roadmap for Android software products, platform capabilities, and related ecosystem experiences.
• Drives the Qualcomm Mobile BU software agenda across multiple technology areas by coordinating with technology product managers and engineering leads.
• Establishes cross-functional software priorities, aligns technology-area roadmaps and investment areas, identifies dependencies and execution risks, and ensures consistent strategic direction across the Mobile BU.
• Orchestrates collaboration among technology product managers, software engineering leaders, architecture teams, and business stakeholders to develop an integrated Mobile BU software strategy.
• Ensures that Android platform, system software, AI, graphics, multimedia, connectivity, security, developer experience, and other relevant technology plans support common product, platform, customer, and business objectives.
• Represents the consolidated Mobile BU software strategy in discussions with senior leadership, Google, OEMs, carriers, application developers, and other ecosystem partners.
• Conducts complex market, customer, competitive, and technology analyses to assess opportunities for Android software differentiation, adoption, and growth.
• Evaluates Android ecosystem requirements, AOSP developments, OEM priorities, developer needs, customer feedback, and industry trends to identify product opportunities.
• Creates business cases and investment proposals for new Android software products, platform capabilities, features, and services, including analysis of customer value, adoption, cost, schedule, risk, and expected business impact.
• Establishes product requirements, objectives, success criteria, and key performance indicators for assigned Android software products and cross-domain initiatives.
• Translates customer, partner, market, and Mobile BU needs into clear product requirements and prioritized engineering backlogs.
• Leads product definition activities for complex Android software products, including feature prioritization, user and developer experience objectives, technical feasibility, dependencies, release strategy, and lifecycle planning.
• Coordinates with technology product managers and engineering leads to reconcile competing priorities, resolve cross-domain tradeoffs, and establish integrated release plans.
• Identifies critical technology, platform, customer, and ecosystem dependencies that may affect product delivery, quality, adoption, or business objectives.
• Drives alignment on software architecture direction, platform integration points, product interfaces, and cross-technology requirements in partnership with engineering and architecture leadership.
• Guides product execution from concept through development, integration, validation, launch, maintenance, upgrades, and end-of-life.
• Establishes governance mechanisms, operating rhythms, and decision-making frameworks to track progress against the Mobile BU software agenda.
• Reviews execution status, risks, resource constraints, quality metrics, customer feedback, and market developments; recommends corrective actions and escalates issues when appropriate.
• Partners with engineering and program management leadership to improve execution predictability, product quality, release readiness, and customer satisfaction.
• Develops launch strategies, positioning, messaging, enablement materials, and customer communication plans for Android software products and platform capabilities.
• Supports customer and partner engagements by articulating product value, technical differentiation, roadmap direction, integration requirements, and expected business benefits.
• Builds trusted relationships with Google, OEMs, carriers, application developers, and other strategic ecosystem partners.
• Represents Qualcomm in industry forums, customer briefings, technical discussions, and executive engagements related to Android software and mobile platform strategy.
• Monitors competitive offerings and emerging technologies to identify threats, opportunities, and areas for product differentiation.
• Defines and tracks adoption, performance, quality, customer satisfaction, and business metrics to assess product success.
• Develops recommendations for product investments, prioritization, roadmap changes, and resource allocation based on data-driven analysis.
• Mentors and provides strategic guidance to product managers and cross-functional teams.
• Promotes consistent product management practices, requirements quality, roadmap discipline, and cross-functional accountability across the Mobile BU software organization.
• Performs other duties and responsibilities as assigned.

Required Skills and Experience

• Bachelor's degree in engineering, computer science, business, or a related field.
• Extensive experience in software product management, platform strategy, product planning, or a related technical discipline.
• Significant experience with Android, AOSP, mobile software platforms, system software, or related ecosystem technologies.
• Demonstrated experience defining and executing complex software products and technology roadmaps.
• Experience coordinating across multiple technology domains, product management teams, and engineering organizations.
• Strong understanding of mobile platform architecture, Android ecosystem requirements, software development lifecycle, and customer integration considerations.
• Experience working with Google, OEMs, carriers, developers, or other technology ecosystem partners.
• Demonstrated ability to translate customer and market needs into product strategy, requirements, and execution priorities.
• Strong analytical, strategic planning, problem-solving, negotiation, and executive communication skills.
• Ability to influence decisions and drive results across organizational boundaries without direct authority.
• Experience balancing technical feasibility, customer value, business priorities, schedule, quality, and risk.
• Excellent written, verbal, presentation, and interpersonal communication skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced degree in engineering, computer science, business, or a related field.
• Experience with Qualcomm Snapdragon platforms, Mobile BU technologies, or semiconductor-enabled software ecosystems.
• Experience across multiple mobile technology areas, such as AI, graphics, multimedia, connectivity, security, power, performance, or developer platforms.
• Experience with Android framework, system services, HALs, AOSP integration, Google requirements, or OEM software customization.
• Experience developing multi-year platform strategies and executive-level product presentations.
• Experience managing complex partner relationships and leading strategic ecosystem engagements.
• Demonstrated success launching differentiated mobile software products or platform capabilities.
• Experience operating in a highly matrixed global organization.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related technical field.
• 8+ years of Product Management or related work experience.

*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.

Preferred Qualifications:

• 15+ years of Product Management or related work experience.
• 4+ years of working in a large matrixed organization.
• 2+ years of working with operating budgets and/or project financials.
• 2+ years of negotiating 3rd party business agreements.

Principal Duties and Responsibilities:

• Reviews identified gaps in market based on complex analyses of overall ecosystem demands and makes portfolio decisions on how these gaps impact product roadmaps.
• Validates business cases based on a thorough understanding of internal and external influences and assists in determining product development that advances the roadmap.
• Drives product line launch strategies for new products and technologies through technical marketing opportunities such as conferences, congresses, and direct customer contact and ensures successful product launch.
• Prepares and delivers highly complex and high-stakes technical presentations regarding product roadmaps that explain and demonstrate products to customers, and integrates customer feedback into project roadmaps.
• Monitors the market to validate product roadmaps and translates these into changes and adjustments for the roadmap.
• Oversees the development of multiple, complex products and ensures cross-functional communication of product development goals. Ensures products and roadmap are differentiated using input from customers, market, competitors, and technology advancements.
• Reviews development and definition activities for multiple new and emerging technology product portfolios including determination of cost and impact, and continually reviews ROI of specific products.
• Drives the development of long-term innovation strategies for products and drives IP strategies while maintaining the best interest of customers and alignment to the product roadmap.
• Communicates regularly with internal customers, third-party vendors, and senior management to establish needs and goals, and executes communication/change management plan for stakeholders, management, and executives.
• Oversees successful cross-functional collaboration by ensuring the completion of milestones by Engineering team and other internal partners (i.e., program management) ensuring the completed work aligns with roadmap for a product line(s).
• Collaborates with key stakeholders and program sponsors to develop product goals (e.g., performance, cost, timeline, customer schedules), discuss product feasibility, and facilitate cross-functional decision making for product lines.

Level of Responsibility:

• Working independently with no supervision.
• Making decisions that are significant in impact, influencing overall program or project success, finances, and/or the ability to meet objectives; errors are not readily apparent due to the complexity of work process/product or time between decisions and results; errors typically result in significant expenditure of time, resources, and funds to correct.
• Using verbal and written communication skills to convey complex and/or detailed information to multiple individuals/audiences with differing knowledge levels. Role may require strong negotiation and influence, communication to large groups or high-level constituents.
• Some financial accountability (e.g., manages a small budget, has input into P&L).
• Having a great degree of influence over key organizational decisions (e.g., is making or directly making key decisions that have substantial impact on the organization).
• Completing tasks that require multiple steps that can be performed in various orders; tasks require simultaneously executing multiple cognitive abilities and maintaining information in short- or long-term memory.
• Regularly determines what needs to be done and is involved with sharing innovative solutions to achieve broad policies and objectives.
• Using deductive and inductive problem solving; multiple approaches may be taken/necessary to solve the problem; often information is missing or conflicting; advanced data analysis and interpretation skills are required.
• Develops, redesigns organizational strategies and provides overall direction for various functional areas and/or entire organization. Has influence over the formulation and achievement of long-term business plans and objectives.

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 [email protected] 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. (Kee