Principal Software Engineer - Compute Infrastructure

NVIDIA; Santa Clara (CA); On-site; USD 248,000 - 391,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Benefits

Job summary

NVIDIA is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to lead the architectural vision for a global compute platform, spanning thousands of nodes, VMs, and containers. You will drive the operationalization of frontier-class AI inference systems and shape the paved road for standardized platforms across autonomous engineering teams.

You will design scalable, self-service architectures using Terraform/OpenTofu, champion GitOps with ArgoCD, and guide migrations of large workloads to modern Kubernetes

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience in Engineering, CS, Mathematics, or related field.
• 15+ years of proven experience in compute platform engineering or systems architecture with automation at massive scale.
• Deep Kubernetes expertise and virtualization architectures (KubeVirt/OpenShift).
• Experience across bare metal, virtualized, and cloud with a unified GitOps posture (ArgoCD or similar).

Responsibilities

• Define Platform Architecture: Architect and transform the global enterprise compute platform across thousands of nodes, VMs, and containers with OpenShift and KubeVirt.
• Operationalize Frontier AI Infrastructure: Build automated remediation pipelines, hardware watchdogs, and telemetry for AI inference systems.
• Drive Strategic Capacity & Scale: Analyze data for capacity planning amid hardware constraints; explore public cloud bursting and alternative compute architectures.
• Build the 'Paved Road': Create self-service architectures, APIs, and Terraform/OpenTofu providers to encourage adoption by NVIDIA teams.
• Lead Complex Migrations: Migrate massive legacy workloads to modern Kubernetes orchestration.

Skills

Leadership

Go

Python

Automation

Education

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent

Tools

Kubernetes

OpenShift

KubeVirt

Terraform

OpenTofu

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—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.

NVIDIA is widely considered to be one of the technology world’s most desirable employers. We have some of the most forward-thinking and dedicated people in the world working for us. If you are creative and autonomous, we want to hear from you!

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.