Senior Software Architect, Physical AI

Altera; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 232,000 - 341,000; Full time

Job summary

Altera hires a Senior Software Architect to build our Physical AI SDK, a developer-facing platform enabling robotics and drones apps to leverage FPGA acceleration through high-performance APIs.

You will connect frameworks such as NVIDIA Holoscan, ROS 2, Linux, and ONNX Runtime to Altera FPGA platforms; lead architecture, development, and hardware/software integration for customer-focused solutions.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related field with 15+ years of experience.
• Strong C++ and Linux systems-development skills including concurrency, performance optimization and debugging.
• Experience designing and shipping SDKs, middleware, runtimes, device frameworks, or developer-facing platform software.

Responsibilities

• Define and guide SDK architecture, APIs, hardware abstraction, device discovery, and lifecycle management.
• Architect high-performance modules for sensor ingestion, video pipelines, ISP, memory management, and AI pre-processing.
• Integrate FPGA acceleration into Holoscan and ROS 2 workflows with zero-copy data paths and DMA.
• Develop Linux-based C++ libraries, Python bindings, utilities, and deployment tools; own documentation.
• Collaborate across FPGA, hardware, AI, and systems teams to validate latency and throughput.
• Mentor engineers and provide technical leadership from architecture through release.

Skills

C++

Linux systems development

Concurrency

Performance optimization

Debugging

SDK design

ROS 2

Holoscan

GStreamer

ffmpeg

OpenCV

HW/SW integration

Education

Bachelor's Degree in CS/CE/EE

Tools

GStreamer

ffmpeg

OpenCV

ROS 2

Holoscan

Job description

Job Description Altera is seeking a Senior Software Architect to help build our Physical AI SDK—a developer-facing platform that enables robotics and drones applications to use FPGA acceleration through portable, composable, high-performance APIs.

Job Details

Altera is seeking a Senior Software Architect to help build our Physical AI SDK—a developer-facing platform that enables robotics and drones applications to use FPGA acceleration through portable, composable, high-performance APIs.

You will connect frameworks such as NVIDIA Holoscan, ROS 2, Linux, and ONNX Runtime to Altera FPGA platforms. This hands‑on role combines software architecture, production development, hardware/software integration, and customer‑focused solution delivery.

Responsibilities

• As software architect, define and guide SDK architecture, APIs, hardware abstraction, device discovery, lifecycle management, diagnostics, and plugin interfaces.
• Architect high-performance modules for sensor ingestion, camera and video pipelines, ISP, compression, memory and buffer management, synchronization, networking, localization, and AI pre-processing.
• Work with the engineering to integrate FPGA acceleration into Holoscan and ROS 2 workflows, including minimum or zero-copy data paths, DMA, metadata, timestamping, QoS, and deterministic execution.
• Help develop Linux-based C++ libraries, Python bindings, utilities, deployment tools, and take responsibility of documentation, and reference applications.
• Collaborate with FPGA, hardware, AI, systems, and customer teams to validate latency, throughput, resource utilization, and reliability.
• Mentor engineers and provide technical leadership from architecture through release.

The pay range below is for Bay Area California only. Actual salary may vary based on a number of factors including job location, job-related knowledge, skills, experiences, trainings, etc. We also offer incentive opportunities that reward employees based on individual and company performance.

$231.5K - $341.1K USD

We use artificial intelligence to screen, assess, or select applicants for the position. Applicants must be eligible for any required U.S. export authorizations.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related field, plus 15+ years of relevant experience.
• Strong C++ and Linux systems-development skills, including concurrency, performance optimization, and debugging.
• Experience designing and shipping SDKs, middleware, runtimes, device frameworks, or developer-facing platform software.
• Understanding of heterogeneous data movement across CPU, GPU, FPGA, DMA, shared memory, and high-speed I/O.
• Experience with Holoscan, ROS 2, GStreamer, ffmpeg, OpenCV, or a comparable robotics or real-time framework.
• Experience with hardware-accelerated video, vision, sensor, networking, or signal-processing pipelines.
• Strong communication skills and demonstrated ownership of complex, cross-functional projects.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Altera FPGAs, PCIe, Ethernet, MIPI CSI-2/D-PHY, GMSL, FPGA acceleration, or HLS/RTL integration.
• Experience with robotics end-to-end pipeline.
• Familiarity with zero-copy, RDMA, GPUDirect, high-speed Ethernet, embedded Linux, Yocto, containers, and cross-compilation.
• Experience with camera systems, ISP pipelines, video compression, sensor fusion, SLAM, or robotics perception.
• Experience defining SDK roadmaps, compatibility policies, release criteria, and developer documentation.

Travel Requirements

30%

Job Type

Regular

Shift

Shift 1 (United States of America)

Primary Location

San Jose, California, United States

Posting Statement

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, religious creed, sex, national origin, ancestry, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, military and veteran status, marital status, pregnancy, gender, gender expression, gender identity, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by local law, regulation, or ordinance.