Senior System Software Engineer - GPU Power Management

NVIDIA; Santa Clara (CA); On-site; USD 224,000 - 357,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Benefits

Job summary

NVIDIA is seeking a Senior System Software Engineer to join the GPU Performance and Power Management Software team in Santa Clara. You will architect and build production software for P-states and DVFS, spanning hardware interfaces, real-time control, and system-level optimization.

Responsibilities include design, validation, silicon bring-up, and production support across a data-center scale, collaborating with hardware, firmware, and platform teams to achieve top-tier performance and energy

Qualifications

• BS or MS degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related field—or equivalent experience.
• At least 12+ years of extensive industry experience crafting system software, embedded firmware, device drivers, or other hardware‑related production software.
• Strong programming skills in C, including developing, debugging, and maintaining complex low‑level software.
• Deep understanding of operating‑system fundamentals, device‑driver architecture, embedded or real‑time software, concurrency, interrupt handling, and hardware programming.
• Experience interpreting hardware specifications and developing software interfaces for registers, telemetry, interrupts, and control mechanisms.
• Strong understanding of computer architecture and hardware‑software interactions.
• Proven ability to independently debug complex problems across multiple software and hardware layers.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with a track record of working effectively across organizational and geographic boundaries.

Responsibilities

• Architect, build, implement, and debug GPU power- and performance-management software, with emphasis on P-state management and DVFS.
• Develop real-time controllers, policies, and mechanisms that dynamically optimize GPU performance, power, thermals, and energy efficiency under demanding data-center workloads.
• Drive features across the full product lifecycle: requirements, architecture, implementation, pre-silicon validation, silicon bring-up, productization, and production support.
• Collaborate with GPU architects and hardware designers to define hardware-software interfaces and influence power-management capabilities of next‑generation processors.
• Analyze complex interactions among workloads, clocks, voltages, power limits, thermals, telemetry, and system‑level policies.
• Lead the investigation and resolution of complex power, performance, stability, and reliability issues spanning firmware, drivers, hardware, and platform software.
• Develop validation strategies and automation for functional correctness, transition latency, performance-per-watt, and robustness across operating conditions.
• Build clear architecture, interface, and compose specifications for new power-management features.
• Partner with geographically distributed architecture, ASIC, firmware, driver, validation, platform, and data‑center systems teams.

Skills

C programming

OS fundamentals

Device drivers

Concurrency

Real-time software

Debugging complex problems

Communication

Education

BS or MS in CS/CE/EE

Job description

NVIDIA is redefining accelerated computing and powering the next era of artificial intelligence. Our data-center platforms bring together GPUs, CPUs, networking, systems, and software to solve some of the world’s most exciting computing problems. We are looking for a Senior System Software Engineer to join NVIDIA’s GPU Performance and Power Management Software team. You will be responsible for architecting production software for performance states (P-states) and Power Management Controllers. Your work will also cover dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS) and power-management control system technologies for next-generation data-center GPUs.

You will work at the intersection of hardware architecture, embedded firmware, device drivers, operating systems, and AI workloads. Your responsibilities will span the entire product lifecycle—from initial architectural design and pre-silicon validation through silicon bring-up, productization, and deployment in extensive data-center infrastructures. This is an outstanding chance to influence how next-generation NVIDIA GPUs provide top-tier performance, energy efficiency, and reliability.

What You’ll Be Doing:

• Architect, build, implement, and debug GPU power- and performance-management software, with particular emphasis on P-state management and DVFS.
• Develop real-time controllers, policies, and mechanisms that dynamically optimize GPU performance, power, thermals, and energy efficiency under demanding data-center workloads.
• Drive features across the full product lifecycle: requirements, architecture, implementation, pre-silicon validation, silicon bring-up, productization, and production support.
• Collaborate with GPU architects and hardware designers to define hardware-software interfaces and influence the power-management capabilities of next‑generation processors.
• Analyze complex interactions among workloads, clocks, voltages, power limits, thermals, telemetry, and system‑level policies.
• Lead the investigation and resolution of complex power, performance, stability, and reliability issues spanning firmware, drivers, hardware, and platform software.
• Develop validation strategies and automation for functional correctness, transition latency, performance-per-watt, and robustness across operating conditions.
• Build clear architecture, interface, and compose specifications for new power-management features.
• Partner with geographically distributed architecture, ASIC, firmware, driver, validation, platform, and data‑center systems teams.

What We Need to See:

• BS or MS degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related field—or equivalent experience.
• At least 12+ years of extensive industry experience crafting system software, embedded firmware, device drivers, or other hardware‑related production software.
• Strong programming skills in C, including experience developing, debugging, and maintaining complex low‑level software.
• Deep understanding of operating‑system fundamentals, device‑driver architecture, embedded or real‑time software, concurrency, interrupt handling, and hardware programming.
• Experience interpreting hardware specifications and developing software interfaces for registers, telemetry, interrupts, and control mechanisms.
• Strong understanding of computer architecture and hardware‑software interactions.
• Proven ability to independently debug complex problems across multiple software and hardware layers.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with a track record of working effectively across organizational and geographic boundaries.

Ways to Stand Out From the Crowd:

• Hands‑on experience with GPU, CPU, accelerator, or SoC power and performance management.
• Background with crafting or implementing P‑state selection, DVFS, clock‑control, voltage‑control, power‑capping, thermal‑management, throttling, or workload‑aware control policies.
• Experience developing real‑time feedback controllers, including reasoning about stability, responsiveness, hysteresis, latency, and noisy telemetry.
• Understanding of electrical and platform considerations such as voltage-frequency relationships, transient power, thermal limits, power delivery, and system‑level power budgets.

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 September 25, 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.