Senior Director, Graphics Systems Software
Company websitenvidia.com (NVIDIA, opens in new tab)
Base salary $384K to $575K
Employer-published annual base salary, USD. Advertised base range in Santa Clara, CA
You apply on the employer's own site. Six Figure Work does not handle applications.
- LocationSanta Clara, CA
- WorkplaceWorkplace not stated
- Status at last checkSource accepting applications when checked
- Last checked (57 min ago) · observed since
About this job
NVIDIA has been transforming computer graphics, PC gaming, and accelerated computing for more than 25 years. Today, compute and AI are changing how images are created, while agentic development is changing how complex, performance-critical software is built. Our team sits at the intersection of these shifts: advancing production graphics across compute graphics, automotive, robotics, and consumer platforms while pioneering new ways to build the systems behind them.
We are seeking a deeply technical Senior Director of System Software Engineering to lead a world class software organization, bringing sound judgment and a steady hand as our technology and engineering practices evolve. You will lead experienced managers and engineers responsible for graphics drivers and APIs, platform integration, and the compilers and shading languages that support them, including Slang. Your mandate is to advance what graphics can do while guiding teams through change, sustaining production commitments, and establishing an agentic engineering model that delivers measurable improvements in development speed, performance, reliability, and production quality.
What You’ll Be Doing:
- Set technical strategy, roadmaps, and priorities, balancing emerging graphics capabilities with existing product commitments.
- Guide hardware/software co-design and the evolution of graphics APIs, compilers, and shading languages to bring new capabilities to developers.
- Establish an AI friendly development model for implementation, debugging, and validation, using production results to refine and expand it across teams.
- Drive execution and production delivery of Vulkan, OpenGL, and CUDA-based graphics software, from GPU and SoC enablement through integration, optimization, validation, and release, including automotive graphics safety commitments.
- Lead engineering partnerships across NVIDIA and externally as well, aligning requirements, component ownership, integration plans, and release commitments.
- Attract, develop, and retain world-class engineering leaders while encouraging technical excellence, accountability, inclusion, and innovation.
What We Need to See:
- Bachelor’s degree or higher in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Graphics, or equivalent experience.
- 15+ overall years of relevant management experience in system software graphics, GPU, or related platform engineering, including 8+ years leading engineering teams with senior individual contributors and managers.
- Deep expertise in graphics system software, with substantial experience in drivers, APIs, compilers, or shading languages.
- Strong understanding of GPU architecture, graphics and compute pipelines, operating systems, and hardware/software interfaces, supported by a C/C++ systems programming background.
- Outstanding record of leading software organizations through complex product cycles and shipping highly performant production-quality systems.
- Demonstrated proficiency in agentic software development, with measurable results and a track record of building team expertise.
- Strong technical judgment and communication skills, with proven success building engineering partnerships and resolving technical disagreements.
Ways to Stand Out from the crowd:
- Background with console platforms, pre-silicon validation, or new hardware bring-up.
- Experience advancing compute-based graphics or neural rendering from early development into production.
- Experience leading an open source project, including technical direction, releases, and collaboration with external contributors.
- Functional safety experience in automotive or other safety-critical software, including ISO 26262, ASIL requirements, traceability, verification evidence, or safety-qualified releases.
With competitive salaries and a generous benefits package (www.nvidiabenefits.com ), we are widely considered to be one of the technology world’s most desirable employers. We have some of the most forward-thinking and hardworking people in the world working for us and, due to outstanding growth, our best-in-class engineering teams are rapidly growing. If you're a creative and autonomous engineer with a real passion for technology, we want to hear from you!
Your base salary will be determined based on your location, experience, and other objective job-related factors. The expected base salary range for this position is 384,000 USD – 575,000 USD.You will also be eligible for equity and benefits.
Applications for this job will be accepted at least until November 6, 2026.This posting is for an existing vacancy.
NVIDIA uses AI tools in its recruiting processes.
NVIDIA is committed to fostering an inclusive work environment and proud to be an equal opportunity employer. As we highly value diversity in our current and future employees, we do not discriminate (including in our hiring and promotion practices) on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status or any other characteristic protected by law.Source: NVIDIA on Workday · View original posting (opens in new tab)
Pay in context
This role's base floor ($384,000) is above 98% of the 4,306 Software Engineering roles in California listed on this site. Their median floor is $176,000; the middle half runs from $149,100 to $202,750.
Only jobs on this site count, and each one publishes a base salary of $100,000 or more, so this compares six-figure jobs with each other, not with the whole market. Computed Nov 7, 2026.
This listingSenior Director, Graphics Systems Software$384K to $575K
Senior Director, Board Product Development Engineering$332,000 to $500,250
Senior Director, Reliability Engineering$332,000 to $500,250
Director, Software Engineering – Cloud Compute and Infrastructure$320,000 to $488,750
Director, Tegra Firmware$320,000 to $488,750
Quantum Product Architect$320,000 to $488,750
Senior Director, ATE Test Development$320K to $483K
Chart as a table
| Role | Published base |
|---|---|
| Senior Director, Graphics Systems Software (this listing) | $384K - $575K |
| Senior Director, Board Product Development Engineering | $332,000 - $500,250 |
| Senior Director, Reliability Engineering | $332,000 - $500,250 |
| Director, Software Engineering – Cloud Compute and Infrastructure | $320,000 - $488,750 |
| Director, Tegra Firmware | $320,000 - $488,750 |
| Quantum Product Architect | $320,000 - $488,750 |
| Senior Director, ATE Test Development | $320K - $483K |
Observed changes
- First observed on the employer's board
- Began meeting the published-salary criteria
- Observed since
- Employer-stated posting date
- 2026-11-02
Where this pay comes from
Location as the employer wrote it: US, CA, Santa Clara
base salary will be determined based on your location, experience, and other objective job-related factors. The expected base salary range for this position is 384,000 USD – 575,000 USD.
- Method
- Employer text, read with fixed rules and re-verified
- Checked
- Rule set
- us-base-v2
The pay passage appears in the employer's own job text. Fixed, deterministic rules located it, and the passage below was checked against the stored copy of the posting.
What we verified
- The pay figures come from the employer's own listing, quoted exactly above.
- The pay is an annual base salary in US dollars with a minimum of at least $100,000.
- The role was publicly listed on the employer's job board when last checked.
We do not verify what the employer will actually offer, whether the employer is still recruiting for the role, or anything beyond what the employer published. Full methodology.
