Principal System Software Engineer - AV Platform - CA, Santa Clara, United States
$272,000 - $431,250 USD yearly
Originally posted 27 May 2026 by the employer. Relisted by the employer on 14 August 2026.
About the role
NVIDIA is seeking a Principal System Software Engineer to focus on automotive platform software, system architecture, and performance engineering. In this technical leadership role, you will contribute directly to the foundational software technologies powering NVIDIA automotive compute platforms.
What you'll do
- Drive system software architecture and technical direction for automotive compute platforms. - Lead performance optimization initiatives across CPU, GPU, memory, storage, networking, and platform subsystems. - Design, develop, debug, and optimize low-level system software including kernel, drivers, middleware, runtime frameworks, and platform services. - Drive software bring-up, profiling, debugging, and performance tuning for new automotive platforms. - Analyze system bottlenecks to improve performance, reliability, determinism, and efficiency. - Collaborate with silicon, firmware, AI, and platform architecture teams to deliver end-to-end solutions.
What you'll need
- Bachelor’s, Master’s, or PhD in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related field (or equivalent experience). - 15+ years of hands-on experience in systems software, embedded systems, platform software, kernel development, or performance engineering. - Deep expertise in Linux system internals, kernel architecture, device drivers, and low-level system software development. - Strong programming skills in C/C++ with experience in Python or scripting languages. - Strong background in performance analysis and optimization across CPU, GPU, memory, storage, and interconnect subsystems. - Experience with embedded Linux, RTOS, virtualization technologies, or multi-core system architectures.
Skills: system software, kernel, drivers, Linux, embedded systems, automotive compute platforms, ISO 26262
This role has been open 149 days — well above the 65-day median for Systems Software Engineering roles.
Systems Software Engineering · Systems Software
|
Open roles in category
679
|
Median days open
65 d
|
Median salary
$209k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | NVIDIA | All employers we track in this specialty (679 roles · 71 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 134 | 679 |
| Open roles in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family | 997 | 6277 · 144 employers |
| Median days open | 43 d | 65 d (−22 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $209k |
Skills observed across this category: system software, kernel, drivers, Linux, embedded systems, automotive compute platforms
Who's hiring in this category
- Qualcomm · 176 open roles · median 81 d
- NVIDIA (this employer) · 131 open roles · median 44 d
- AMD · 58 open roles · median 52 d
- Mobileye · 23 open roles · median 87 d
- Arm Holdings · 20 open roles · median 121 d
- Broadcom · 20 open roles · median 65 d
How we counted: 679 open Systems Software Engineering (Systems Software) roles from 71 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 24 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.