Senior Engineering Leader: Developer SDKs for Embedded Markets Job Listing at AMD in San Jose, CA (Job ID 86378-en-us)

Description

WHAT YOU DO AT AMD CHANGES EVERYTHING 

At AMD, our mission is to build great products that accelerate next-generation computing experiences—from AI and data centers, to PCs, gaming and embedded systems. Grounded in a culture of innovation and collaboration, we believe real progress comes from bold ideas, human ingenuity and a shared passion to create something extraordinary. When you join AMD, you'll discover the real differentiator is our culture. We push the limits of innovation to solve the world's most important challenges—striving for execution excellence, while being direct, humble, collaborative, and inclusive of diverse perspectives. Join us as we shape the future of AI and beyond.  Together, we advance your career.  

THE ROLE

We are hiring a senior engineering leader to define, build, and scale a portfolio of world‑class SDKs that enable developers to create next‑generation applications across video analytics, real‑time sensor processing dataflow and runtime, distributed compute/communication middleware, delivering a best-in-class developer experience and accelerated time-to-market.

THE PERSON

This leader will own the SDK strategy end‑to‑end: architecture, roadmap, engineering execution, packaging/distribution, tooling, documentation, sample apps, performance entitlement on AMD CPUs/GPUs/NPUs, and ecosystem enablement. The role requires deep hands‑on expertise in heterogeneous sensor pipelines, time synchronization, mixed‑criticality real‑time constraints, and distributed systems, while also scaling and leading global engineering teams and partnering across silicon, system software, product, and field.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

1) SDK Architecture & Technical Leadership 

• Define the end‑to‑end SDK architecture for several key functionalities but not limited to:
• Video analytics pipelines (decode/encode, pre/post-processing, inference, tracking, streaming, metadata).
• High‑speed graph runtime for heterogeneous sensor dataflow and orchestration (CPU/GPU/NPU scheduling, memory movement, zero‑copy).
• Real‑time communication and sensor data passing, including distributed compute patterns (pub/sub, RPC, shared memory, DDS‑class concepts).
• Multimedia framework integration (GStreamer‑class pipelines, plug‑in models, caps negotiation, timestamps, jitter buffering).
• Vision pipelines and integration with OpenCV‑class ecosystems; accelerate critical primitives while maintaining developer portability.
• ROS2‑adjacent integration (or ROS2‑like SDK abstractions) to support distributed autonomy stacks and multi‑node execution. 

• Own the system design for heterogeneous sensor ingestion (cameras, radar, lidar, IMU, audio, encoders, industrial sensors), including:
• Time synchronization (PTP/IEEE‑1588 concepts, timestamp domains, clock drift, latency accounting).
• Deterministic pipeline behavior under load (bounded latency, scheduling, backpressure, QoS). 

2) Performance, Real‑Time, Safety, and Mixed‑Criticality

• Ensure the SDKs support mixed‑criticality systems: best‑effort analytics + hard real‑time control paths coexisting safely.
• Build the runtime with attention to:
• Real‑time determinism (priority inversion, CPU affinity, lock contention, bounded queueing).
• Isolation, safety patterns, and fault containment (watchdogs, health monitors, graceful degradation, recovery).
• Memory + bandwidth efficiency across CPU/GPU and DMA/zero‑copy paths.

3) Developer Experience (DX) Excellence

• Deliver SDKs that feel “effortless” to adopt:
• Simple APIs, consistent abstractions, strong defaults.
• Excellent documentation, tutorials, reference apps, and performance playbooks.
• Strong tooling: profiling, tracing, pipeline visualization, graph debugging, log/metric correlation, replay tools.
• Establish a packaging and distribution strategy:
• Versioning/compatibility policy, semantic versioning, long‑term support (LTS).
• Container images, Debian/RPM/conda/pip (where relevant), cross‑compile toolchains, reproducible builds.
• Multi‑OS support where market requires (Linux-first, others based on business priorities). 

4) Roadmap, Program Execution, and Operational Excellence

• Own and drive the SDK roadmap, feature prioritization, and release trains.
• Lead schedule/resource planning, balancing new features vs quality vs performance.
• Create and enforce quality gates: CI/CD, unit/integration/perf tests, fuzzing (where appropriate), security scanning, ABI/API stability testing. 

5) Ecosystem & Market Competitiveness

• Conduct competitive analysis and translate insights into differentiation.
• Partner with ISVs, OEMs, robotics/autonomy stack providers, and framework communities to ensure adoption.
• Work closely with product management and field teams to gather requirements and ensure readiness (samples, solution blueprints, deployment guides). 

6) Build and Scale a High‑Performing Global Team

• Hire, mentor, and scale engineering teams across runtime, multimedia, DX/tooling, and integration.
• Set technical bar, architecture review culture, and ownership model (clear module boundaries, design docs, decision logs).
• Establish an operating rhythm: quarterly planning, roadmap reviews, release health dashboards, and customer/partner feedback loops. 

PREFERRED EXPERIENCE:

• Experiencebuilding cohesive developer SDKs; Experience leading engineering organizations with global teams.
• Proven track record deliveringproduction‑grade developer SDKs: APIs, samples, docs, packaging, release management.
• Deep technical expertise in the following:
• Video analytics pipelines (decode/encode, streaming, metadata, inference orchestration).
• Multimedia frameworks (GStreamer‑class architecture, plugins, buffer management, timestamps).
• Graph runtimes / dataflow execution engines (scheduling, backpressure, zero‑copy, memory pools).
• Distributed systems & communication middleware (DDS‑like pub/sub concepts, QoS, reliability).
• Real‑time systems (determinism, bounded latency, RT scheduling, mixed‑criticality patterns).
• Computer vision and pipeline integration (OpenCV ecosystem; performance‑critical primitives).
• Heterogeneous compute optimization across CPU/GPU/NPU (kernel scheduling, memory movement, batching).
• Experience building developer SDKs for embedded/edge markets: robotics, industrial, automotive, medical (one or more)

Differentiating Qualifications: 

• Experience with ROS2 ecosystems and autonomy stack integration (perception → fusion → planning → actuation).
• Expertise in time synchronization and multi-sensor fusion plumbing (timestamp propagation, replay, latency budgeting).
• Background in safety and certification adjacent practices (process maturity, traceability, safety case thinking).
• Track record creating developer tooling (profilers, trace analyzers, graph visualizers, pipeline debuggers).
• Experience collaborating tightly with silicon/hardware teams to drive platform entitlement.

Leadership Attributes We Value

• Architectural clarity + pragmatism: can define clean abstractions without over‑engineering.
• Developer empathy: thinks like a user, sweats the “last mile” (docs, examples, install friction, error messages).
• Performance literacy: can reason about latency budgets, bandwidth, queueing, scheduling, and bottlenecks.
• Execution excellence: predictable shipping, strong prioritization, and measurable outcomes.
• Influence at scale aligns product, silicon, systems, and ecosystem partners with a coherent story.
• More with less Maximizing engineering efficiency through commonality of work, extensive AI usage, scaling and ecosystem partners.

ACADEMIC CREDENTIALS:

• BS, MS or equivalent with direct experience

PREFERRED LOCATION:

• San Jose / Santa Clara, CA or Austin, TX

This role is not eligible for visa sponsorship.

Benefits offered are described:  AMD benefits at a glance.

AMD does not accept unsolicited resumes from headhunters, recruitment agencies, or fee-based recruitment services. AMD and its subsidiaries are equal opportunity, inclusive employers and will consider all applicants without regard to age, ancestry, color, marital status, medical condition, mental or physical disability, national origin, race, religion, political and/or third-party affiliation, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.   We encourage applications from all qualified candidates and will accommodate applicants' needs under the respective laws throughout all stages of the recruitment and selection process.

AMD may use Artificial Intelligence to help screen, assess or select applicants for this position.  AMD's “Responsible AI Policy” is available here.

This posting is for an existing vacancy.