Senior System Software Engineer, SoC Power and Performance - O-RAN Infrastructure

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

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Benefits package

Job summary

NVIDIA is seeking a highly motivated Senior System Software Engineer to develop and optimize system software for next-generation O-RAN infrastructure. You will work at the intersection of SoC architecture, cellular systems, firmware, operating systems, and radio-access-network workloads, helping deliver industry-leading performance and energy efficiency.

This role focuses on software for 5G and emerging 6G infrastructure, including Radio Units and Distributed Units, with collaboration across

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related field, or equivalent experience.
• 5+ years of relevant experience in system software, embedded software, firmware, computer architecture, cellular infrastructure, or performance engineering.
• Demonstrated experience developing and debugging software for complex SoCs or embedded platforms.
• Strong programming skills in C or C++, with Python or scripting language proficiency.
• Strong understanding of computer architecture and hardware-software interaction, including multicore systems, memory hierarchies, caches, interconnects, interrupts, memory-mapped I/O, and DMA.
• Experience with Linux kernel development, device drivers, concurrency, virtual memory, and real-time/latency-sensitive programming.
• Hands-on expertise in performance measurement, workload characterization, data analysis, bottleneck identification, and system optimization.
• Working knowledge of SoC power-management concepts (DVFS, clock/power gating, thermal management, power budgeting).
• Familiarity with 5G/6G interfaces and protocols (3GPP NR, O-RAN Open Fronthaul, eCPRI).
• Experience evaluating system behavior against timing, synchronization, latency, throughput, and reliability requirements.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, test, and optimize system software and firmware for SoCs used in O-RAN and cellular infrastructure.
• Develop power-management policies and performance optimizations across CPU, GPU, accelerator, memory, interconnect, I/O, and networking subsystems.
• Analyze RU and DU workloads to identify architectural and system-level bottlenecks.
• Develop and tune DVFS, clock/power gating, idle-state management, thermal controls, and power budgeting.
• Create performance and power models, measurement tools, benchmarks, and automated test infrastructure.
• Use simulation, emulation, prototyping, and production silicon to validate architectural decisions and identify issues.
• Evaluate system behavior against O-RAN and cellular-interface requirements (timing, synchronization, latency, throughput, reliability).
• Influence future SoC, platform, and cellular-software architectures based on workload analysis from deployed systems.

Skills

C++

Python

Linux

Performance analysis

Multithreading

O-RAN knowledge

Education

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

DPDK

Open Fronthaul

eCPRI

RDMA

SR-IOV

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 looking for a highly motivated Senior System Software Engineer to develop and improve system software for next-generation O-RAN infrastructure. You will work at the intersection of SoC architecture, cellular systems, firmware, operating systems, and radio-access-network workloads, helping deliver industry-leading performance and energy efficiency. This role focuses on software for 5G and emerging 6G infrastructure, including Radio Units (RUs), Distributed Units (DUs), and the interfaces connecting them. You will collaborate with hardware, architecture, platform, networking, and cellular-software teams throughout pre-silicon development, silicon bring-up, productization, and deployment.

What you'll be doing:

• Design, develop, test, and optimize system software and firmware for SoCs used in O-RAN and cellular infrastructure.
• Develop power-management policies and performance optimizations across CPU, GPU, accelerator, memory, interconnect, I/O, and networking subsystems.
• Analyze representative RU and DU workloads to identify architectural and system-level bottlenecks, including compute, memory bandwidth, latency, synchronization, and data-movement constraints.
• Develop and tune power-management capabilities such as dynamic voltage and frequency scaling, clock and power gating, idle-state management, thermal controls, and system-level power budgeting.
• Create performance and power models, measurement tools, benchmarks, and automated test infrastructure for both pre-silicon and post-silicon environments.
• Use simulation, emulation, prototyping, and production silicon to validate architectural decisions and identify power and performance issues.
• Evaluate system behavior against O-RAN and cellular-interface requirements, including timing, synchronization, latency, throughput, and reliability.
• Influence future SoC, platform, and cellular-software architectures based on workload analysis and measurements from deployed systems.

What we need to see:

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• 5+ years of relevant experience in system software, embedded software, firmware, computer architecture, cellular infrastructure, or performance engineering.
• Demonstrated experience developing and debugging software for complex SoCs or embedded platforms.
• Strong programming skills in C or C++, along with proficiency in Python or a comparable scripting language.
• Strong understanding of computer architecture and hardware-software interaction, including multicore systems, memory hierarchies, caches, interconnects, interrupts, memory-mapped I/O, and DMA.
• Experience with operating-system internals, Linux kernel development, device drivers, concurrency, virtual memory, and real-time or latency-sensitive programming.
• Hands-on expertise in performance measurement, workload characterization, data analysis, bottleneck identification, and system optimization.
• Working knowledge of SoC power-management concepts, including DVFS, clock and power gating, thermal management, and power/performance budgeting.
• A strong grasp of cellular infrastructure and radio-access-network architecture is expected.
• Required knowledge of interface standards relevant to 5G and the evolution toward 6G, such as 3GPP NR interfaces and protocols, O-RAN Open Fronthaul, eCPRI, synchronization and timing technologies, or comparable standards.

Ways to stand out from the crowd:

• Direct experience developing or optimizing software for an O-RAN Radio Unit, Distributed Unit, or both.
• Experience with O-RAN Alliance specifications, including Open Fronthaul control, user, synchronization, and management-plane behavior.
• Familiarity with DPDK, accelerated networking, zero-copy data paths, SR-IOV, RDMA, SmartNICs, DPUs, GPUs, or dedicated baseband accelerators.
• Experience analyzing real-time cellular workloads and optimizing tail latency, jitter, memory bandwidth, cache behavior, and end-to-end performance per watt.
• Experience developing profiling, telemetry, benchmarking, or automated regression tools for power and performance.

Widely considered to be one of the technology world's most desirable employers, NVIDIA offers highly competitive salaries and a comprehensive benefits package. As you plan your future, see what we can offer to you and your family www.nvidiabenefits.com/

• You will also be eligible for equity and benefits.

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.

Applications for this job will be accepted at least until August 8, 2026.

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.