Six Figure Work

Senior System Software Engineer, Agentic Kernel Development

NVIDIA

Company websitenvidia.com (NVIDIA, opens in new tab)

Base salary $184,000  to $356,500

Employer-published annual base salary, USD. Advertised base range in Santa Clara, CA

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  • LocationSanta Clara, CA
  • WorkplaceWorkplace not stated
  • Status at last checkSource accepting applications when checked
  • Last checked (19 min ago) · observed since

About this job

Join NVIDIA's GPU SW Kernel organization, where we're groundbreaking the next generation of outstanding AI systems to transform GPU software development. Our team leads the effort in crafting agentic AI systems that improve the quality and efficiency of GPU software. This is an outstanding opportunity to grow innovative systems from promising projects to critically important infrastructure. Be part of a dynamic team that impacts GPU release quality and establishes new standards in AI-enhanced automation!

What you'll be doing:

Compose, build, and productize agentic AI systems that operate directly on GPU software artifacts — source code, crash dumps, changelists, test results, and CI/CD signals

  • Own the full lifecycle of agentic services: from prototype through evaluation, deployment, and continuous improvement

  • Build robust LLM-powered pipelines for code generation, automated bug triage, regression detection, and intelligent test coverage analysis

  • Develop the agentic knowledge layer and MCP-based infrastructure that allow agents to interact with internal developer systems (Gerrit, NVBugs, CI/CD, Perforce, Slack)

  • Design and assess agent quality thoroughly — establish metrics, develop evaluations, measure precision/recall tradeoffs at each stage of the funnel

  • Work closely with GPU SW kernel engineers to pinpoint high-impact automation opportunities and convert domain knowledge into effective agentic AI systems

  • Drive adoption across GPU SW teams by shipping agentic services that are fast, reliable, and meaningfully better than the manual alternative!

What we need to see:

  • BS/MS in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or equivalent experience

  • 8+ years of software engineering experience, including a minimum of 2 years developing production LLM or agentic AI systems

  • Strong Python skills and experience with modern LLM frameworks (LangChain, LlamaIndex, or equivalent)

  • Hands-on experience with RAG pipelines, tool-use / function-calling patterns, multi-step agentic services, and timely engineering at scale

  • Proven experience delivering and refining agentic AI systems within a live production setting

  • Solid software engineering fundamentals: system build, testing, observability, and scalable architecture

  • Strong analytical skills — comfortable reasoning about precision/recall tradeoffs, false positive rates, and evaluation methods for agent outputs

Ways to stand out from the crowd:

  • Experience building code agents — automated generation, review, or repair of real codebases

  • Background in GPU, driver, or systems software (even as a user or collaborator) and familiarity with CUDA, kernel-mode software, or GPU driver development workflows

  • Experience with MCP servers, tool-calling agents, or multi-agent orchestration frameworks

  • Contributions to open-source AI tooling, agentic frameworks, or developer efficiency tools

  • Familiarity with CI/CD systems, crash analysis pipelines, or automated regression triage

Your base salary will be determined based on your location, experience, and other objective job-related factors. The expected base salary ranges for this position are:
184,000 USD – 287,500 USD for Level 4; and 224,000 USD – 356,500 USD for Level 5.

You will also be eligible for equity and benefits.

Applications for this job will be accepted at least until November 3, 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 ($184,000) is above 56% of the 4,302 Software Engineering roles in California listed on this site; 123 others list the same floor. Their median floor is $176,000; the middle half runs from $149,100 to $203,000.

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 6, 2026.

This range next to 6 other live NVIDIA roles with the nearest advertised base floor
Chart as a table
This range next to 6 other live NVIDIA roles with the nearest advertised base floor
RolePublished base
Senior System Software Engineer, Agentic Kernel Development (this listing)$184,000 - $356,500
Senior Software Engineer, Subnet Management$184,000 - $356,500
Senior Software Engineer, AI Networking$184,000 - $356,500
Senior Software Engineer, Machine Learning Safety$184,000 - $356,500
Senior Firmware Security Architect, Networking$184,000 - $356,500
Senior Compiler Engineer - AI$184,000 - $287,500
Senior System Software Engineer, Performance - CUDA Driver$184,000 - $356,500

Same $100K to $400K scale as every card. All NVIDIA roles · How to read the bar

Observed changes

  1. First observed on the employer's board
  2. Began meeting the published-salary criteria
Observed since
Employer-stated posting date
2026-10-30
Where this pay comes from

Location as the employer wrote it: US, CA, Santa Clara (Levels 4-5 combined)

184,000 USD – 287,500 USD for Level 4; and 224,000 USD – 356,500 USD for Level 5.

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.