Senior Vice President, Engineering
Qualcomm, Inc.
Susan M. Armstrong started at Qualcomm working on Globalstar and then early CDMA base station projects. She was a pioneer in bringing internet protocols to the cellular industry, resulting in the first web surfing on a cellular phone in 1997, and Qualcomm’s commercialization of packet data in 1998. Since then she has held various leadership positions, first as the head of Software Engineering in Qualcomm’s mobile chipset division, and then as the head of worldwide Customer Engineering, the group who integrates and commercializes the company’s products in phones and other wireless devices. She has worked extensively with phone and device makers in Asia and Europe to bring Qualcomm’s technologies to market.
In 2015, Armstrong has joined Qualcomm’s Government Affairs group, where she brings an engineering and product background the Government Affairs work in worldwide public policy, including intellectual property protection, trade and immigration reform, STEM and STEM diversity.
Prior to joining Qualcomm in 1994, Armstrong worked for 10 years at the Xerox Systems Development Department and the Xerox Webster Research Center, holding a variety of software engineering positions that focused on data protocols and operating systems, and advanced development in high-speed data networking.
Armstrong holds a bachelor's degree in computer science from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.