Senior Systems Software Engineer, Accelerated Kubernetes Performance and Scale – DGX Cloud

NVIDIA; Seattle (WA); Hybrid; USD 184,000 - 357,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Health benefits

Flexible work arrangement

Hybrid/Remote options

Job summary

NVIDIA DGX Cloud team seeks a Senior Systems Software Engineer with deep expertise in distributed systems, Kubernetes, containers, and performance at scale. You’ll own hard technical problems across GPU operators, inference serving, and cloud platforms, shaping AI infrastructure in production.

In this role you’ll optimize startup and latency, contribute to upstream Kubernetes and CNCF efforts, and model AI factory deployments with large-scale simulations.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Engineering or equivalent experience.
• 8+ years in computer architecture, networking, storage, and accelerators.
• Expertise in Kubernetes and CNCF ecosystem.
• Deep experience with large-scale distributed accelerator systems and AI workloads.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end performance and scalability analyses in Kubernetes-based runtime stacks.
• Design upstream architectural changes for hyperscale clusters.
• Improve container startup and latency for GPU-based inference.
• Contribute to open-source projects for AI workloads and orchestration.

Skills

Kubernetes expertise

Golang

Python

Distributed systems

Performance optimization

Education

Bachelor's degree in Engineering or related

Master's degree preferred

Tools

NVIDIA GPU Operator

Docker

Gateway API (inference extension)

Job description

NVIDIA has been transforming computer graphics, PC gaming, and accelerated computing for more than 25 years, driven by great technology and amazing people. We’re now tapping into the unlimited potential of AI to define the next era of computing, where our GPUs power 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 work in a diverse, supportive environment where people are encouraged to do their best work and grow their careers. We offer a preference for hybrid work while remaining open to remote arrangements, giving you flexibility in how you do your best work.

Come join the team and see how you can make a lasting impact on the world. The DGX Cloud organization at NVIDIA brings together cutting‑edge hardware and software innovation to deliver industry‑leading accelerated computing for the world’s most ambitious AI workloads. We are a group of forward‑thinking engineers tackling some of the globe’s toughest challenges, pushing progress, and positively affecting millions of lives. We’re searching for a Senior Systems Software Engineer with deep expertise in distributed systems, Kubernetes, containers, and systems performance and scalability. The ideal candidate brings broad, hands‑on experience across the stack, including GPU operators, device plugins, distributed inference serving, and major cloud platforms. You’ll own hard technical problems at large scale and help shape how AI infrastructure runs in production. In this key role, you will focus on scaling AI infrastructure while minimizing total cost of ownership, reducing cost per token and enabling future AI innovation and AI factories. Are you ready to be impactful?

What You’ll Be Doing

• Lead end‑to‑end performance and scalability analysis across the Kubernetes‑based accelerated runtime stack (control and data planes), including NVIDIA components such as GPU Operator, Network Operator, node-feature-discovery, topograph, dra-driver-nvidia-gpu, and nvsentinel, tracking issues from orchestration down to the metal.
• Design and contribute upstream architectural changes to the Kubernetes control plane and related projects to enable reliable operation at hyperscale cluster sizes, doing in the open what today’s hyperscalers typically do privately.
• Improve container startup and cold‑start latency to enable smooth, low‑latency inference scaling on Kubernetes across thousands of GPU nodes, ensuring the AI runtime stack scales without creating API server pressure or operational fragility.
• Assess, improve, and contribute to open‑source projects that make Kubernetes an outstanding platform for AI workloads (for example, Grove and gateway‑api‑inference‑extension), composing their architectures with scalability, resilience, and multi‑node training/inference in mind.
• Advance scalability and performance of confidential containers (CoCo) on Kubernetes so encrypted inference workloads meet stringent efficiency and latency requirements in production.
• Use DSX and related large‑scale simulation infrastructure to model full AI‑factory deployments and validate scalability across thousands of simulated GPUs, catching failures that emerge only at scale before hardware arrives.
• Collaborate with AI researchers, developers, customers, and upstream communities to design automated, at‑scale workload tests (including replay of production agent traces), build monitoring/analysis tooling, and integrate continuous performance and scale testing into modern CI/CD workflows.
• Document methods and results clearly and present findings internally and at industry events (for example, KubeCon, GTC), while actively engaging with upstream groups (Kubernetes SIG Scalability, CNCF, and NVIDIA OSS communities) to influence and validate AI workload performance and scalability directions.

What We Need To See

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Engineering or equivalent experience, ideally in Electrical, Computer Engineering, or Computer Science
• 8+ years of experience in computer architecture, networking, storage systems, and accelerator‑based platforms
• Expertise in Kubernetes and familiarity with the broader CNCF ecosystem
• Deep experience with large‑scale, parallel, distributed accelerator systems and performance optimization of AI workloads
• Experience with performance modeling and benchmarking for large‑scale systems
• Proficiency in Golang and/or Python
• Strong familiarity with the NVIDIA software stack across training and inference
• Expertise with at least one major public cloud provider (for example, AWS, Azure, GCP, or OCI)

Ways To Stand Out From The Crowd

• Strong operational experience with any one of the Kubernetes distributions
• Prior experience scaling Kubernetes clusters to ultra-large node and object counts
• Demonstrated history of working in the open-source community
• Excellent communication and interpersonal abilities
• PhD or equivalent experience in relevant areas

Your base salary will be determined based on your location, experience, and the pay of employees in similar positions. The base salary range is 184,000 USD – 287,500 USD for Level 4, and 224,000 USD – 356,500 USD for Level 5.

You will also be eligible for equity and benefits.

Applications for this job will be accepted at least until June 29, 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.