Principal Software Engineer - Compute Infrastructure

NVIDIA Corporation; Santa Clara (CA); Hybrid; USD 248,000 - 391,000; Full time

Job summary

NVIDIA Corporation in Santa Clara, CA is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to lead the architectural vision for a massive global platform and to operationalize internal AI inference systems, spanning thousands of nodes and VMs.

You will collaborate with autonomous teams to create self‑service APIs and Terraform/OpenTofu providers, drive migrations of legacy workloads to modern Kubernetes, and shape capacity planning amid hardware constraints.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Mathematics, or related field, or equivalent experience.
• 15+ years of proven experience in compute platform engineering, site reliability, or systems architecture with a heavy focus on automation at massive scale.
• Deep expertise in Kubernetes architecture and designing/deploying virtualization architectures, specifically operating VMs inside K8s (KubeVirt, OpenShift).
• In‑depth knowledge of hardware technologies (GPUs, high‑speed backplane networking) with a track record of mitigating hardware‑level failures, silent data corruption, and anomalies in large‑scale environments.
• Experience running large global environments spanning bare metal, virtualized infrastructure, and cloud with a unified GitOps posture (ArgoCD or similar).
• Proficiency in programming languages such as Go and/or Python, alongside expert‑level infrastructure‑as‑code development (Terraform, Config Management).
• Strong leadership skills with the ability to influence technical direction across highly autonomous teams without relying on top‑down mandates.

Responsibilities

• Define Platform Architecture: Lead initiatives to architect and transform our global enterprise compute platform—running thousands of nodes and tens of thousands of VMs and containers via OpenShift and KubeVirt—by defining service tiers, SLAs, and automated cluster lifecycles.
• Operationalize Frontier AI Infrastructure: Build the operational foundation for our internal AI inference platform scaling to frontier‑class models. You will develop automated remediation pipelines, hardware watchdogs, and telemetry for pre‑release, rack‑scale GPU systems (including Blackwell and upcoming architectures).
• Drive Strategic Capacity & Scale: Collect and review system data for capacity planning to navigate extreme hardware supply constraints. Develop proactive strategies, including public cloud bursting, hardware dogfooding, and evaluating alternative compute architectures (e.g., ARM).
• Build the "Paved Road": Collaborate with highly autonomous NVIDIA engineering teams to drive cultural adoption of standard platforms. You will design compelling self‑service architectures, APIs, and Terraform/OpenTofu providers that teams want to use.
• Lead Complex Migrations: Evaluate existing application architectures and drive the fraught but critical migration of massive legacy workloads—including large‑scale, long‑running VDI environments—into modern Kubernetes orchestration.

Skills

Kubernetes

OpenShift

KubeVirt

Terraform

ArgoCD

Go

Python

Leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Mathematics, or related field

Tools

KubeVirt

OpenShift

Terraform

ArgoCD

Job description

NVIDIA has been reinventing computer graphics, PC gaming, and accelerated computing for 30 years. It is a unique legacy of innovation that’s fueled by great technology and amazing people. Today, we’re tapping into the unlimited potential of AI to define the next era of computing. An era in which our GPU acts as the brains of computers, generative AI, robots, and self‑driving cars that can understand the world. Doing what’s never been done before takes vision, innovation, and the world’s best talent. As an NVIDIAN, you’ll be immersed in a diverse, supportive environment where everyone is inspired to do their best work. We are seeking a highly skilled Principal Software Engineer to join our dynamic team. Our company is at the forefront of technological innovation, and we are dedicated to driving efficiency, defining platform architecture, and optimizing the performance of our infrastructure both on‑prem and in the cloud. You will lead the architectural vision for a massive global platform and spearhead the operationalization of our internal frontier‑class AI inference systems. Join us in this exciting endeavor!

What You Will Be Doing:

• Define Platform Architecture: Lead initiatives to architect and transform our global enterprise compute platform—running thousands of nodes and tens of thousands of VMs and containers via OpenShift and KubeVirt—by defining service tiers, SLAs, and automated cluster lifecycles.
• Operationalize Frontier AI Infrastructure: Build the operational foundation for our internal AI inference platform scaling to frontier‑class models. You will develop automated remediation pipelines, hardware watchdogs, and telemetry for pre‑release, rack‑scale GPU systems (including Blackwell and upcoming architectures).
• Drive Strategic Capacity & Scale: Collect and review system data for capacity planning to navigate extreme hardware supply constraints. Develop proactive strategies, including public cloud bursting, hardware dogfooding, and evaluating alternative compute architectures (e.g., ARM).
• Build the "Paved Road": Collaborate with highly autonomous NVIDIA engineering teams to drive cultural adoption of standard platforms. You will design compelling self‑service architectures, APIs, and Terraform/OpenTofu providers that teams want to use.
• Lead Complex Migrations: Evaluate existing application architectures and drive the fraught but critical migration of massive legacy workloads—including large‑scale, long‑running VDI environments—into modern Kubernetes orchestration.

What We Need To See:

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Mathematics, or related field, or equivalent experience.
• 15+ years of proven experience in compute platform engineering, site reliability, or systems architecture with a heavy focus on automation at massive scale.
• Deep expertise in Kubernetes architecture and designing/deploying virtualization architectures, specifically operating VMs inside K8s (KubeVirt, OpenShift).
• In‑depth knowledge of hardware technologies (GPUs, high‑speed backplane networking) with a track record of mitigating hardware‑level failures, silent data corruption, and anomalies in large‑scale environments.
• Experience running large global environments spanning bare metal, virtualized infrastructure, and cloud with a unified GitOps posture (ArgoCD or similar).
• Proficiency in programming languages such as Go and/or Python, alongside expert‑level infrastructure‑as‑code development (Terraform, Config Management).
• Strong leadership skills with the ability to influence technical direction across highly autonomous teams without relying on top‑down mandates.

Ways To Stand Out From The Crowd:

• Hands‑on experience managing bleeding‑edge, pre‑release hardware in production environments.
• Deep understanding of advanced storage migrations and protocols (NFSv4, NVMe/TCP, Hyperconverged storage).
• Solid understanding of microservices architecture and seamless multi‑cloud deployment strategies (AWS, GCP).
• Proven track record of building "Day 2" operational maturity (self‑service, advanced auto‑remediation, strict SLAs) from the ground up on existing foundations.

#LI‑Hybrid

Your base salary will be determined based on your location, experience, and the pay of employees in similar positions. The base salary range is 248,000 USD - 391,000 USD. You will also be eligible for equity and benefits.

Applications for this job will be accepted at least until September 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.

NVIDIA pioneered accelerated computing. Today, our AI infrastructure powers global intelligence, transforming every industry.

Learn more about NVIDIA.