Senior System Software Engineer - GPU SW - CA, Santa Clara, United States
$184,000 - $287,500 USD yearly
Originally posted 22 September 2026 by the employer.
We are looking for a Senior System Software Engineer with expertise in GPU kernel drivers.
About the role
What you'll do
- Drive secure-design practices across code, development processes, and product architecture.
- Conduct software and hardware security reviews, identify vulnerabilities and architectural risks, and guide mitigation strategies.
- Debug and resolve complex issues across drivers, operating-system kernels, embedded environments, hardware interfaces, and virtualization layers.
- Balance security, reliability, and performance requirements for datacenter-scale and performance-sensitive inference & training workloads.
- Define and execute long-term security roadmaps in collaboration with global software, hardware, and product teams.
What you'll need
- BS/MS in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field—or equivalent experience.
- 8+ years in systems software, embedded development, or security engineering.
- Experience securing low-level software, including operating-system kernels, device drivers, embedded systems, or platform software.
- Strong C programming, low-level driver development, and system-level debugging skills.
- Experience with Linux, Windows, Android, ChromeOS, or comparable operating-system kernels.
- Solid understanding of computer architecture, including processors, caches, buses, memory controllers, DMA, interrupts, and memory protection.
- Demonstrated technical leadership, ownership, and ability to drive complex cross-functional projects.
Skills: GPU kernel drivers, embedded software, security, operating-system kernels, device drivers, low-level software
This role has been open 0 days — well below the 57-day median for Systems Software Engineering roles.
Systems Software Engineering · Systems Software
|
Open roles in category
679
|
Median days open
57 d
|
Median salary
$205k
|
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 · 72 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 140 | 679 |
| Open roles in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family | 1001 | 5948 · 143 employers |
| Median days open | 47 d | 57 d (−10 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $205k |
Skills observed across this category: GPU kernel drivers, embedded software, security, operating-system kernels, device drivers, low-level software
Who's hiring in this category
- Qualcomm · 162 open roles · median 64 d
- NVIDIA (this employer) · 132 open roles · median 47 d
- AMD · 58 open roles · median 51 d
- Broadcom · 26 open roles · median 51 d
- Mobileye · 24 open roles · median 63 d
- Arm Holdings · 20 open roles · median 90 d
How we counted: 679 open Systems Software Engineering (Systems Software) roles from 72 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 23 Sept 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.