Six Figure Work

Senior System Software Engineer - GPU Performance

NVIDIA

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

Base salary $152,000  to $287,500

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 (1 h ago) · observed since

About this job

NVIDIA is leading the way in groundbreaking developments in Artificial Intelligence, High Performance Computing and Visualization. The GPU, our invention, serves as the visual cortex of modern computers and is at the heart of our products and services. Our work opens up new universes to explore, enables amazing creativity and discovery, and powers what were once science fiction inventions from artificial intelligence to autonomous cars.

We are the GPU Communications Libraries and Networking team at NVIDIA. We deliver libraries like NCCL, NVSHMEM, UCX for Deep Learning and HPC. We are looking for a motivated Performance engineer to influence the roadmap of our communication libraries. The DL and HPC applications of today have a huge compute demand and run on scales which go up to tens of thousands of GPUs. The GPUs are connected with high-speed interconnects (eg. NVLink, PCIe) within a node and with high-speed networking (eg. Infiniband, Ethernet) across the nodes. Communication performance between the GPUs has a direct impact on the end-to-end application performance; and the stakes are even higher at huge scales! This is an outstanding opportunity for someone with HPC and performance background to advance the state of the art in this space. Are you ready for to contribute to the development of innovative technologies and help realize NVIDIA's vision?

What you will be doing:

  • Conduct in-depth performance characterization and analysis on large multi-GPU and multi-node clusters.

  • Study the interaction of our libraries with all HW (GPU, CPU, Networking) and SW components in the stack

  • Evaluate proof-of-concepts, conduct trade-off analysis when multiple solutions are available

  • Triage and root-cause performance issues reported by our customers

  • Collect a lot of performance data; build tools and infrastructure to visualize and analyze the information

  • Collaborate with a very dynamic team across multiple time zones

What we need to see:

  • M.S. (or equivalent experience) or PhD in Computer Science, or related field with relevant performance engineering and HPC experience

  • 3+ yrs of experience with parallel programming and at least one communication runtime (MPI, NCCL, UCX, NVSHMEM)

  • Experience conducting performance benchmarking and triage on large scale HPC clusters

  • Good understanding of computer system architecture, HW-SW interactions and operating systems principles (aka systems software fundamentals)

  • Implement micro-benchmarks in C/C++, read and modify the code base when required

  • Ability to debug performance issues across the entire HW/SW stack. Proficient in a scripting language, preferably Python

  • Familiar with containers, cloud provisioning and scheduling tools (Kubernetes, SLURM, Ansible, Docker)

  • Adaptability and passion to learn new areas and tools. Flexibility to work and communicate effectively across different teams and timezones

Ways to stand out from the crowd:

  • Practical experience with Infiniband/Ethernet networks in areas like RDMA, topologies, congestion control

  • Experience debugging network issues in large scale deployments

  • Familiarity with CUDA programming and/or GPUs

  • Experience with Deep Learning Frameworks such PyTorch, TensorFlow

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:
152,000 USD – 241,500 USD for Level 3; and 184,000 USD – 287,500 USD for Level 4.

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 ($152,000) is above 28% of the 4,199 Software Engineering roles in California listed on this site; 86 others list the same floor. Their median floor is $176,500; the middle half runs from $149,200 to $204,000.

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 - GPU Performance (this listing)$152,000 - $287,500
Senior Networking Architect$152,000 - $287,500
Solutions Architect, AI and ML$152,000 - $287,500
Infrastructure Solutions Architect - OEM$152,000 - $287,500
Senior Software Engineer, CUTLASS Performance$152,000 - $287,500
Senior Software Engineer - Distributed Systems Engineer, EDA Infrastructure$152,000 - $287,500
Senior Graphics Driver Engineer$152,000 - $241,500

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 • US, Remote (Levels 3-4 combined)

152,000 USD – 241,500 USD for Level 3; and 184,000 USD – 287,500 USD for Level 4.

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.