Senior Compiler Engineer

NVIDIA AI; Santa Clara (CA); On-site; USD 152,000 - 242,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Benefits

Job summary

NVIDIA is seeking a Senior Compiler Engineer to advance Rust-based GPU programming, crafting compiler backends, IRs, and JIT/AOT toolchains for high-performance CUDA development in Santa Clara, CA.

You will design safe parallel abstractions, expose low-level hardware features, and contribute to future-proof GPU software tooling while collaborating across teams on cutting-edge compiler technology.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's, Master's or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, a related field or equivalent experience.
• 5+ years of relevant work or research experience in compiler development, language design or GPU code generation.
• Deep expertise in the Rust programming language, including a strong grasp of compiler internals (rustc), Rust MIR, procedural macros and Rust's borrow-checker/lifetime model.
• Hands‑on experience with compiler infrastructures, intermediate representations (IRs) and code generation (such as LLVM IR, MLIR or custom IR systems).
• Solid understanding of parallel programming models, GPU architectures and CUDA programming.

Responsibilities

• Develop Rust-to-GPU Compiler Pipelines: Design, implement, and maintain custom compiler backends (such as rustc codegen backends and proc-macros) and Rust-native intermediate representation (IR) frameworks to compile standard Rust directly to high-performance CUDA PTX and machine code.
• Build compiler IRs and Optimizers: Work with modern compiler architectures to lower Rust AST and MIR into IRs including MLIR, PTX and LLVM, including GPU-specific optimizations.
• Support complex ahead-of-time, just-in-time, and link time optimization workflows: Build state-of-the-art tooling to support users targeting a broad family of NVIDIA GPUs, host platforms, and feature sets.
• Define Safe Parallel Abstractions: Architect innovative compiler-enforced safety models that extend Rust's ownership, borrowing and lifetime disciplines across the GPU launch boundary—preventing data races and enforcing memory safety during asynchronous GPU execution.
• Expose Next-Gen Hardware Features: Implement type-safe, ergonomic device-side abstractions in Rust for low-level GPU hardware primitives, including shared memory, barriers, scoped atomics, Tensor Memory Accelerator (TMA), and warp/cluster-level operations.
• Build the future: Supporting today’s accelerated computing applications is not sufficient. We have to build composable building blocks for others around us to build the applications of tomorrow.

Skills

Rust

Compiler design

GPU programming

IR frameworks

MLIR/LLVM

CUDA

Education

Bachelor's/Master's/PhD in CS or related

Tools

LLVM IR

MLIR

Custom IR systems

Rustc

Job description

Job Requisition ID JR2025008

Job Category Engineering

Time Type Full time

NVIDIA is dedicated to reinvent accelerated computing. Reinvention requires great technology and amazing people. As an NVIDIAN, you’ll be immersed in a diverse, supportive environment where everyone is inspired to do their best work. Come join the team and see how you can make a lasting impact on the world.

NVIDIA is hiring a Senior Compiler Engineer to join our team driving the next generation of GPU systems programming. We are redefining how developers write high-performance GPU software by bringing the safety, expressiveness, and modern tooling of Rust to native GPU and CUDA development. On this team, you will build cutting-edge compiler pipelines, custom intermediate representation (IR) frameworks, and JIT compilation systems that bridge host and device execution—allowing developers to write memory-safe, high-performance GPU kernels in idiomatic Rust.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Develop Rust-to-GPU Compiler Pipelines: Design, implement, and maintain custom compiler backends (such as rustc codegen backends and proc-macros) and Rust-native intermediate representation (IR) frameworks to compile standard Rust directly to high-performance CUDA PTX and machine code.
• Build compiler IRs and Optimizers: Work with modern compiler architectures to lower Rust AST and MIR into IRs including MLIR, PTX and LLVM, including GPU-specific optimizations.
• Support complex ahead-of-time, just-in-time, and link time optimization workflows: Build state-of-the-art tooling to support users targeting a broad family of NVIDIA GPUs, host platforms, and feature sets.
• Define Safe Parallel Abstractions: Architect innovative compiler-enforced safety models that extend Rust's ownership, borrowing and lifetime disciplines across the GPU launch boundary—preventing data races and enforcing memory safety during asynchronous GPU execution.
• Expose Next-Gen Hardware Features: Implement type-safe, ergonomic device-side abstractions in Rust for low-level GPU hardware primitives, including shared memory, barriers, scoped atomics, Tensor Memory Accelerator (TMA), and warp/cluster-level operations.
• Build the future: Supporting today’s accelerated computing applications is not sufficient. We have to build composable building blocks for others around us to build the applications of tomorrow.

What We Need To See

• Bachelor's, Master's or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, a related field or equivalent experience.
• 5+ years of relevant work or research experience in compiler development, language design or GPU code generation.
• Deep expertise in the Rust programming language, including a strong grasp of compiler internals (rustc), Rust MIR, procedural macros and Rust's borrow-checker/lifetime model.
• Hands‑on experience with compiler infrastructures, intermediate representations (IRs) and code generation (such as LLVM IR, MLIR or custom IR systems).
• Solid understanding of parallel programming models, GPU architectures and CUDA programming.
• Strong software design skills, including debugging, profiling and benchmarking compilers and GPU kernels.
• Ability to orchestrate agents for product requirement design, architecture, code development, testing, code review and issue triage.
• Ability to work independently, define project goals and scope and drive complex compiler‑engineering efforts from research to production.

Ways To Stand Out From The Crowd

• A track record of contributing to the Rust compiler (rustc), Cargo tooling or open-source Rust-to-GPU projects.
• Experience building custom compiler front-ends, AST translators or JIT engines.
• Familiarity with MLIR or other extensible compiler frameworks.
• Deep proficiency in low-level GPU programming, including the use of modern hardware features (e.g., Tensor Cores, warp-level shuffles or asynchronous transfer pipelines).
• Experience designing Domain-Specific Languages (DSLs) or tile-based programming abstractions for tensor processing.

With competitive salaries and a generous benefits package, 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 unprecedented growth, our exclusive engineering teams are rapidly growing. If you’re a creative and autonomous engineer with a real passion for programming languages and systems technology, 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 152,000 USD - 241,500 USD.

You will also be eligible for equity and benefits.

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