Performance Engineer - CA, Santa Clara, United States
$136,000 - $270,250 USD yearly
Originally posted 16 September 2026 by the employer.
About the role
This role involves assisting with Game Ready Technology production and characterization within the NVIDIA Developer and Performance Technology group.
What you'll do
- Characterize the performance and interoperability of the latest gaming technologies against production and future hardware.
- Collaborate with internal driver, SDK, developer technology, and partner studio teams to ensure compatibility, stability, and performance.
- Monitor and provide feedback on test suites, benchmarks, and automated validation tools to assess performance, image quality, and stability.
- Analyze performance regressions, graphical anomalies, or gameplay stability issues, and drive resolution with engineering teams.
- Continuously improve test processes, tools, and methodologies to support faster, more reliable driver validation cycles.
- Provide active and high-profile transparency into status, dependencies, and targets of each new technology across various teams within the GeForce business unit.
What you'll need
- A degree from a university in a field relevant to computer science (or equivalent experience).
- 5+ years of experience in production or project/program management of performance-critical productivity, creative or gaming software.
- Experience with benchmark methodology and reviewing PC hardware/games.
- Experience in balancing multiple projects with geographically distributed teams.
- Solid understanding of Agile principles and methods.
- Experience with executive reporting and effective internal communication.
- Background with handling technical customer relationships and effective customer communication.
Skills: performance characterization, gaming technologies, driver, SDK, test suites, performance regressions
This role has been open 26 days — well below the 48-day median for Software Engineering Semiconductor roles.
Software Engineering Semiconductor · Systems Software
|
Open roles in category
364
|
Median days open
48 d
|
Median salary
$148k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | NVIDIA | All employers we track in this specialty (364 roles · 57 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 28 | 364 |
| Open roles in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family | 1002 | 6116 · 146 employers |
| Median days open | 41 d | 48 d (−7 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $148k |
Skills observed across this category: performance characterization, gaming technologies, driver, SDK, test suites, performance regressions
Who's hiring in this category
- Keysight Technologies · 38 open roles · median 26 d
- KLA Corporation · 31 open roles · median 161 d
- Cadence Design Systems · 29 open roles · median 202 d
- NVIDIA (this employer) · 28 open roles · median 44 d
- Micron Technology · 27 open roles · median 39 d
- Applied Materials · 26 open roles · median 48 d
How we counted: 364 open Software Engineering Semiconductor (Systems Software) roles from 57 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 13 Oct 2026. Specialty figures count only roles carrying this exact specialty label, so an employer's related work in neighbouring specialties is not included there — it is counted in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family row. Figures refresh nightly.