Senior Firmware Engineer

NVIDIA Gruppe; Santa Clara (CA); On-site; USD 184,000 - 356,500; Full time

Job summary

NVIDIA Gruppe in Santa Clara is looking for a Senior Firmware Engineer to enhance the core of the Tegra SoC architecture. This role focuses on developing and optimizing low-level C firmware, addressing complex technical issues, and leading projects from inception to delivery.

The ideal candidate should have 8+ years in firmware development, exceptional debugging skills, and experience working in cross-functional teams. NVIDIA offers competitive salaries, equity, and great benefits.

Qualifications

• Education: BS or MS degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent experience.
• Experience: 8+ years of professional experience in embedded firmware development.
• Technical leadership with a proven track record in complex projects.

Responsibilities

• Develop firmware for the Boot and Power Management Processor.
• Provide technical support to active product programs.
• Lead system control firmware from inception through productization.
• Improve software engineering processes and team workflows.
• Collaborate with hardware and software teams across engineering locations.
• Identify hardware/software failures and conduct testing.

Skills

Embedded firmware development

Low-level C programming

Debugging skills

Technical leadership

Communication skills

AI workflow familiarity

SoC architecture knowledge

Hardware interface expertise

Education

BS or MS in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or Computer Engineering

Job description

Do you enjoy hacking and tinkering at the lowest levels of software? Are you passionate about extracting maximum efficiency from complex hardware while maintaining complete system stability? If so, we are searching for an outstanding Senior Firmware Engineer to join the NVIDIA System Control Firmware team.

Joining the System Control Firmware team places you at the core of NVIDIA’s Tegra SoC architecture. You will develop, implement, and secure the essential software that regulates everything from boot sequencing to dynamic power, clock, and thermal management for top-tier autonomous vehicles, AI edge devices, next-generation data centers, and advanced robotics. This role lets you influence the industry directly while working with a diverse set of minds in the field.

What you’ll be doing:

• Core Firmware Development: Build, implement, and optimize low-level C firmware for the Boot and Power Management Processor (BPMP) across the entire Tegra SoC lifecycle.
• Active Program Support: Provide hands‑on technical support to active product programs by diagnosing and debugging complex, high‑priority issues, collaborating closely with cross‑functional teams to drive rapid resolutions.
• Project Leadership: Lead system control firmware from inception through bring‑up and productization, owning integration, release readiness, issue resolution, and customer/factory deliverables. Manage integration, release workflows, validation, production binaries, and productionging lessons learned.
• Process Improvement: Lead and promote the ongoing refinement of software engineering processes, development methodologies, and team workflows to improve efficiency, code quality, and release reliability.
• Global Collaboration: Work closely with hardware, software, and safety architecture groups across worldwide engineering locations to coordinate requirements and system‑level interfaces.
• Debug & Test Automation: Identify complex hardware/software boundary failures by analyzing boot logs and hardware traces. Develop thorough unit/integration tests and conduct error injection on emulation platforms and physical boards.

What we need to see:

• Education: BS or MS degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or equivalent experience.
• Experience: 8+ years of professional experience in embedded firmware development, low‑level C programming, and memory‑mapped register access.
• Technical Leadership & Influence: Demonstrated ability to lead technical problem‑solving efforts in complex projects, with a proven track record of influencing cross‑functional teams and driving technical alignment.
• Communication Skills: Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex technical ideas clearly across a distributed, multi‑site team.
• AI Skills: Practical experience or familiarity with contemporary software development involving AI agents or LLM‑assisted workflows to improve code generation, testing, or engineering efficiency.
• Deep Systems Knowledge: Solid grasp of SoC boot flows, interrupts, linker/build systems, and device tree‑based configurations.
• Hardware Interface Expertise: Direct experience managing low‑level SoC infrastructure like clocks, resets, voltage rails, and power‑gating behaviors.
• Problem‑Solving Skills: Outstanding debugging skills, a self‑starter attitude, a high sense of teamwork, and a meticulous approach to avoiding regressions in sensitive system behaviors.

Ways to stand out from the crowd:

• Experience or strong professional interest in applying the Rust language for systems programming, safe firmware architectures, or tooling.
• Proven background working under ISO 26262 functional safety standards and accomplishing FMEA.
• Knowledge of secure boot principles and hardware/software boundary protection.
• A passion for collaborating closely with hardware engineers to influence next‑generation silicon development across automotive, robotic, and data center platforms.

Offering competitive salaries and a generous benefits package, NVIDIA provides a comprehensive compensation structure. Your base salary will be determined based on your location, experience, and peer compensation, with a range of 184,000USD–287,500USD for Level4 and 224,000USD–356,500USD for Level5. You will also be eligible for equity and benefits.

NVIDIA is committed to fostering an inclusive work environment and is 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.