Senior Software Performance Engineer - AV Platform

NVIDIA; Santa Clara (CA); On-site; USD 224,000 - 356,500; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Comprehensive benefits

Job summary

NVIDIA is seeking a Senior Software Performance Engineer for Autonomous Vehicles in Santa Clara, California. This role involves optimizing NVIDIA’s autonomous driving solutions through innovative software development. Candidates should have extensive experience in C++, performance analysis, and collaboration with varied teams.

With a competitive salary ranging between $224,000 and $356,500 for Level 5, and up to $431,250 for Level 6, this position offers opportunities for equity and comprehensive benefits.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of relevant experience in autonomous vehicle software.
• Solid understanding of parallel architectures and system software.
• Experience with performance optimizations and benchmarking.

Responsibilities

• Develop and optimize performance for NVIDIA’s autonomous driving solutions.
• Collaborate with various teams to design next-gen products.
• Write efficient product code using C++.

Skills

C++ programming

Performance analysis

System software understanding

Collaboration skills

Debugging techniques

Education

MS or PhD in Computer Science, Computer Architecture, Electrical Engineering

Tools

CUDA

GPGPU

Job description

NVIDIA has been transforming computer graphics, PC gaming, and accelerated computing for more than 25 years. It’s 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, 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. Come join the team and see how you can make a lasting impact on the world.

We are now looking for a Senior Software Performance Engineer for Autonomous Vehicles! Our team builds NVIDIA’s end-to-end autonomous driving applications. We are seeking senior software engineers who are passionate about performance with an interest in optimizing self-driving solutions that run on NVIDIA’s multi-computer and heterogeneous HW architectures.

What you’ll be doing:

• Develop, maintain and optimize latency and throughput of NVIDIA’s L2/L3/L4 autonomous driving solutions.
• Devise acceleration strategies and patterns to improve software architecture and its efficiency on our computers with multiple heterogeneous hardware engines while meeting or exceeding product goals.
• Develop highly efficient product code in C++, making use of algorithmic parallelism offered by GPGPU programming (CUDA)/ARM NEON while following quality and safety standards such as defined by MISRA.
• Collaborate with HW, product, OS, and safety teams to design next‑gen products.

What we need to see:

• MS or PhD degree in Computer Science, Computer Architecture, Electrical Engineering or related field (or equivalent experience).
• 12+ years of relevant professional experience working on autonomous vehicles software.
• Excellent C and C++ programming skills.
• Solid understanding of programming and debugging techniques, especially for parallel architectures.
• Good understanding of system software/operating systems and computer architecture.
• Experience with performance analysis, optimizations and benchmarking.
• Outstanding communication and collaboration skills as this role might require significant interfacing with other teams within NVIDIA.

Ways to stand out from the crowd:

• Understanding of embedded architectures and real‑time operating systems & scheduling.
• Strong mathematical fundamentals, including linear algebra and numerical methods.
• Experience implementing algorithms in robotics, computer vision, and/or machine learning.
• Software development experience with CUDA/GPGPU or any data parallel architectures.
• Deep learning architecture/performance work on any HW accelerator, especially if on GPUs.

Your base salary will be determined based on your location, experience, and the pay of employees in similar positions. The base salary range is 224,000 USD – 356,500 USD for Level 5, and 272,000 USD – 431,250 USD for Level 6.

You will also be eligible for equity and benefits.

Applications for this job will be accepted at least until May 1, 2026.

This posting is for an existing vacancy.

NVIDIA uses AI tools in its recruiting processes.

NVIDIA is committed to fostering a diverse 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.