Camera ISP/IQ tuning Engineer

Company

Qualcomm Semiconductor Limited

Job Area

Engineering Group, Engineering Group > Systems Engineering

General Summary

GENERAL SUMMARY:

As a leading technology innovator, Qualcomm pushes the boundaries of what's possible to enable next-generation experiences and drives digital transformation to help create a smarter, connected future for all.

As a Qualcomm Camera ISP/IQ Tuning Engineer, you will be responsible for image quality tuning, validation, benchmarking, and optimization for camera products based on Qualcomm IE-IOT camera platforms.

Your work will span across image sensors, optics, ISP pipelines, 3A algorithms, HDR/WDR processing, low-light imaging, and system-level image quality analysis to deliver industry-leading camera performance for surveillance, smart devices, industrial IoT, and edge AI applications.

You will work closely with ISP, firmware, hardware, AI, and application engineering teams to investigate image quality issues, develop tuning methodologies, perform competitive benchmarking, and optimize imaging performance across camera products.

Principal Duties And Responsibilities

Image Quality Tuning & Optimization

• Perform image quality tuning and optimization for camera products, including AE, AF, AWB, HDR/WDR, low-light imaging, noise reduction, detail preservation, sharpness, and color reproduction.
• Support camera bring-up and tuning activities for new image sensors and camera platforms.
• Optimize image quality performance across multiple customer use cases and deployment scenarios.

Image Quality Evaluation & Benchmarking

• Design and execute image quality validation plans and experiments.
• Conduct image quality benchmarking against competitive camera platforms and industry-leading products.
• Define test scenarios, evaluation patterns, and benchmarking methodologies.
• Analyze benchmarking results and identify image quality improvement opportunities.

System-Level Debug & Root Cause Analysis

• Investigate and resolve image quality issues through systematic root-cause analysis.
• Perform image quality analysis across image sensors, optics, ISP, 3A, image processing, and video encoding pipelines.
• Work closely with ISP, firmware, hardware, and application teams to identify and resolve cross-module issues.
• Support escalated customer issues through technical investigation and system-level analysis.

Image Quality Methodology & Validation

• Define and utilize objective image quality metrics to support tuning and validation activities.
• Develop repeatable and scalable image quality evaluation methodologies.
• Contribute to benchmarking, validation, and regression workflows.
• Support automation initiatives that improve image quality evaluation efficiency.

Documentation & Communication

• Prepare technical reports, benchmarking results, validation findings, and root-cause analysis summaries.
• Document image quality methodologies, evaluation criteria, tuning guidelines, and investigation results.
• Communicate image quality findings and technical recommendations to ISP, firmware, hardware, and application engineering teams.
• Present technical conclusions and improvement recommendations to project stakeholders when required.

Required Competencies

(All competencies are required upon entry)

Image Quality Tuning

• Understanding of camera ISP pipelines and interactions among imaging modules.
• Experience with image quality tuning for AE, AF, AWB, HDR/WDR, low-light imaging, noise reduction, and color reproduction.
• Ability to evaluate image quality using both objective measurements and subjective assessments.

Image Quality Evaluation & Benchmarking

• Experience conducting image quality validation and benchmarking activities.
• Familiarity with image quality evaluation methodologies and objective metrics.
• Understanding of competitive benchmarking and image quality comparison techniques.

Camera System Knowledge

• Understanding of CMOS image sensors, optics, and camera system fundamentals.
• Familiarity with dynamic range, sensitivity, noise performance, and HDR operation.
• Understanding of imaging system integration and image processing workflows.

System Debug & Problem Solving

• Experience analyzing and debugging image quality issues in camera systems.
• Understanding of interactions across sensor, ISP, 3A, image processing, and video encoding pipelines.
• Familiarity with debugging interfaces such as I2C, UART, and SPI.

Programming & Automation

• Experience with Python, C/C++, or similar programming languages.
• Ability to develop scripts or tools that improve image quality evaluation efficiency.
• Familiarity with data analysis and reporting workflows.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Imaging Science, or related field and 3+ years of industry experience in camera image quality tuning, ISP tuning, camera validation, or imaging system development.

OR

• Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Imaging Science, or related field and 2+ years of industry experience in camera image quality tuning, ISP tuning, camera validation, or imaging system development.
• Hands-on experience with camera ISP pipelines and image quality tuning.
• Experience analyzing and debugging image quality issues in camera products.
• Experience using image quality evaluation tools such as Imatest or equivalent platforms.
• Programming or scripting experience in Python, C, or C++.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in security or surveillance camera image quality development.
• Experience in HDR/WDR tuning and optimization.
• Experience in low-light image quality optimization.
• Experience in image quality benchmarking and competitive analysis.
• Experience defining image quality metrics and data-driven evaluation methodologies.
• Experience developing validation, benchmarking, or regression workflows.
• Experience performing system-level image quality analysis across sensor, ISP, 3A, and video encoding pipelines.
• Demonstrated ability to independently drive image quality investigations and benchmarking activities.
• Familiarity with modern computational imaging technologies and advanced image processing pipelines is a plus.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field.

Applicants: 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. (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.