Senior Systems Software Engineer, Data Center Platform Enablement - CA, Santa Clara, United States
$184,000 - $356,500 USD yearly
Originally posted 16 October 2026 by the employer.
About the role
This role focuses on bring up, integration, validation, and troubleshooting for compute tray platforms of GPU Racks to ensure enterprise servers are fully functional prior to mass deployment in data centers. You will collaborate with hardware and architecture teams across platforms integrating NVIDIA GPUs, NVLink, Networking, and Data Center CPUs.
What you'll do
- Collaborate with architects and developers on AI server system designs encompassing CPU, GPU, Memory, NIC, PCIe, NVMe SSD, and cooling subsystems. - Work closely with hardware teams to influence system design and review schematics and board design. - Utilize simulation and emulation tools to left-shift design work and validate early system software and firmware. - Perform hands-on bring-up, debugging, and power on test procedures for early server prototypes in datacenter system labs. - Support manufacturing flows, firmware updates, diagnostic procedures, and BOM change signoffs with ODMs and partners. - Develop diagnostic test tools and automation with design architects to qualify early system software and firmware stacks.
What you'll need
- Bachelor’s Degree or higher in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent experience, with 8+ years of experience as an individual contributor. - Experience with computer system and firmware architecture and design for server products, including CPLD or FPGA design and RTL. - Experience delivering enterprise server products from definition to customer deployment. - Understanding of low-level interfaces between SBIOS, BMC, and OS (I2C, SPI, PCIe, JTAG), including system boot, initialization, PCIe enumeration, and platform-level high-speed I/O. - Proficiency in C/C++ development, bash or Python scripting, and hands-on debugging in embedded Linux operating environments. - Experience using simulation (such as QEMU) and emulation tools for validation of early designs.
Skills: server products, system design, board design, early server prototypes, power on test
This role has been open 129 days — well above the 55-day median for Hardware Systems Engineering roles.
Hardware Systems Engineering · SOC Architecture
|
Open roles in category
106
|
Median days open
55 d
|
Median salary
$206k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | NVIDIA | All employers we track in this specialty (106 roles · 28 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 13 | 106 |
| Open roles in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family | 995 | 6298 · 144 employers |
| Median days open | 77 d | 55 d (+22 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $206k |
Skills observed across this category: server products, system design, board design, early server prototypes, power on test
Who's hiring in this category
- AMD · 29 open roles · median 63 d
- Qualcomm · 22 open roles · median 51 d
- NVIDIA (this employer) · 14 open roles · median 84 d
- Intel Corporation · 6 open roles · median 50 d
- Mobileye · 5 open roles · median 30 d
- Renesas Electronics · 4 open roles · median 2 d
How we counted: 106 open Hardware Systems Engineering (SOC Architecture) roles from 28 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 23 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.