Staff Product Manager - Linux Platforms and Ecosystem

Qualcomm is seeking an experienced Staff Product Manager to define and drive Linux platform roadmap across Snapdragon-based AI PCs, Edge AI systems, developer platforms, and enterprise computing solutions.

In this role, you will be responsible for product planning, roadmap development, ecosystem engagement, distribution enablement, and commercialization of Linux-based software platforms spanning AI development, enterprise computing, and edge AI. You will work closely with engineering, OEMs, independent software vendors, Linux distribution partners, open-source communities, enterprise customers, and strategic partners to deliver industry-leading Linux experiences optimized for Snapdragon platforms.

The successful candidate will combine strong technical knowledge of Linux ecosystems with customer-focused product management skills and the ability to influence cross-functional teams. The role requires translating market and customer needs into platform requirements, upstream plans, partner priorities, and executable product roadmaps.

Principal Duties and Responsibilities

Product Strategy & Roadmap Development

• Define Linux product roadmaps for Snapdragon AI PCs, workstations, edge AI systems, enterprise devices, and developer platforms.

• Gather customer, ecosystem, and market requirements to identify product investments, platform gaps, and differentiation opportunities.

• Create product requirements documents, use cases, customer scenarios, and business justifications for Linux platform initiatives.

• Drive prioritization decisions that balance customer value, upstream readiness, engineering feasibility, schedule, cost, and business objectives.

• Align Linux platform requirements across hardware, firmware, kernel, operating system, middleware, AI software, developer tools, and enterprise services.

Linux Platform Enablement & Upstreaming

• Define and drive the Linux upstreaming strategy for kernel, device drivers, firmware interfaces, graphics, multimedia, connectivity, security, power management, virtualization, and AI acceleration components.

• Partner with engineering teams to establish upstream-first plans that improve long-term maintainability, reduce downstream fragmentation, and accelerate ecosystem adoption of Snapdragon platforms.

• Drive alignment between upstream community requirements, commercial product schedules, customer commitments, and Snapdragon platform roadmaps.

• Track upstream readiness, dependencies, gaps, risks, and acceptance criteria across Linux subsystems and product generations.

• Collaborate with maintainers, open-source communities, Linux Foundation initiatives, and ecosystem partners to advance Qualcomm technologies in broadly adopted open-source projects.

Linux Distribution Strategy & Enablement

• Define the requirements to enable industry-leading Linux distributions on Snapdragon platforms, including Ubuntu, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), Debian, Fedora, SUSE Linux Enterprise, and other strategic enterprise or community distributions.

• Lead technical and product engagements with distribution vendors and communities to align platform support, certification, release schedules, installation experiences, update mechanisms, security maintenance, and lifecycle expectations.

• Drive a consistent, production-ready Linux experience spanning installation, boot, kernel, drivers, graphics, multimedia, networking, AI acceleration, developer tooling, manageability, observability, security, and supportability.

• Develop joint enablement plans with OEMs, distribution partners, ISVs, and enterprise customers.

AI Developer & Enterprise Platform Enablement

• Drive Linux enablement initiatives for AI developers across desktops, workstations, AI PCs, and edge computing platforms.

• Define requirements for AI frameworks and runtimes such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, ONNX Runtime, llama.cpp, and containerized AI workflows.

• Partner with engineering to optimize local AI inferencing and application development across CPU, GPU, NPU, and heterogeneous compute resources.

• Define enterprise-grade requirements for manageability, observability, telemetry, security, remote diagnostics, virtualization, containers, orchestration, software updates, and fleet operations.

Ecosystem, Customer & Market Engagement

• Collaborate with Linux distribution partners, OEMs, ISVs, cloud providers, system integrators, open-source communities, and enterprise customers.

• Translate customer and partner feedback into actionable platform requirements, upstream priorities, and roadmap recommendations.

• Support customer design wins and strategic engagements through clear product positioning, solution definition, and execution planning.

• Represent Qualcomm in customer briefings, partner discussions, industry events, developer conferences, and open-source forums.

• Monitor developments across Linux, Arm computing, AI platforms, cloud-edge infrastructure, enterprise deployment, and competing platform ecosystems.

Cross-Functional Product Collaboration

• Partner closely with software engineering, hardware engineering, architecture, program management, business development, marketing, sales, quality, security, and customer engineering teams.

• Drive cross-functional alignment on product vision, scope, milestones, dependencies, risks, and success metrics.

• Communicate roadmap priorities, market insights, customer requirements, and execution status to technical and executive stakeholders.

• Influence complex decisions without direct authority and resolve competing requirements using customer impact, data, and business priorities.

Qualifications

• Experience defining software products, platform roadmaps, technical requirements, and cross-functional execution plans.

• Experience working with Linux operating systems, open-source software ecosystems, and upstream development models.

• Experience driving Linux upstreaming or working with upstream kernel, driver, firmware, graphics, multimedia, networking, security, or platform software communities.

• Experience enabling one or more major Linux distributions, such as Ubuntu, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), Debian, Fedora, SUSE Linux Enterprise, or an equivalent enterprise or community distribution.

• Working knowledge of Linux kernel architecture, device drivers, board support packages, distribution integration, package and release processes, and upstream contribution workflows.

• Experience collaborating with software engineering teams, open-source communities, distribution partners, OEMs, ISVs, or customer-facing organizations.

• Strong analytical, written, verbal, and executive communication skills, with demonstrated ability to lead through influence.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Business Administration, or a related discipline.

• Experience contributing to or leading Linux upstreaming initiatives and working with subsystem maintainers or open-source foundations.

• Experience with enterprise Linux certification, distribution release planning, long-term support models, security response, and commercial support requirements.

• Knowledge of Linux graphics and compute stacks, AI/ML frameworks, containers, Kubernetes, virtualization, Arm-based platforms, and heterogeneous compute architectures.

• Experience commercializing Linux platforms across AI PCs, workstations, edge appliances, enterprise devices, robotics, or embedded systems.

• Experience defining enterprise-grade platform capabilities including manageability, observability, telemetry, security, lifecycle management, and fleet deployment.

• Demonstrated success managing complex products across globally distributed engineering and business teams.

Role Impact

This role will help shape Qualcomm's Linux platform direction across AI PCs, enterprise computing, edge AI infrastructure, and next-generation Snapdragon platforms. The Staff Product Manager will connect upstream technology strategy, distribution enablement, customer requirements, and cross-functional execution to deliver scalable, maintainable, and commercially compelling Linux solutions.