Jobs Companies NVIDIA System Software Engineer, Distributed Systems

About this System Software Engineer, Distributed Systems role at NVIDIA

NVIDIA · Onsite · US, CA, Santa Clara

NVIDIA has been transforming computer graphics, PC gaming, and accelerated computing for more than 25 years. It’s a unique legacy of innovation that’s fueled by great technology—and amazing people. Today, we’re tapping into the unlimited potential of AI to define the next era of computing. An era in which our GPU acts as the brains of 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 be immersed in a diverse, supportive environment where everyone is inspired to do their best work. Come join the team and see how you can make a lasting impact on the world.

The VLSI Productivity and Infrastructure team supports 1000+ chip design engineers by building tools and platforms that supercharge their everyday work. Our mission: make chip designers faster. We build and operate long shelf-life systems spanning build automation, observability, analytics, automated error detection/remediation, and codebase modernization—with a strong commitment to stability. Our core workflow infrastructure runs as userspace software on bare-metal Linux hosts (no sudo, no containers). We coordinate shared state and artifacts via NFS, launch long-running, compute-heavy workflows on IBM LSF, and provide adjacent services for APIs and observability. This is a high-ownership environment where you'll often be the expert on what you build. We are looking for a pragmatic and versatile systems engineer who enjoys working near the metal and building tools that empower other engineers. This is a generalist role with an emphasis on distributed systems and operational excellence in a “below containers” world: coordination, reliability, performance, and safe evolution of legacy systems (including incremental modernization of large codebases into Go). This isn't a CI/CD pipeline configuration role; you will be writing the userspace software that manages state, concurrency, and reliability at scale.

What you will be doing:

  • Design, build, and deliver core components of our next-generation productivity platforms

  • Develop reliable userspace infrastructure for long-running engineering workflows at scale on bare-metal Linux hosts

  • Build state coordination over NFS (atomicity, idempotency/dedup, partial-write recovery, without privileged ops)

  • Build and improve orchestration around IBM LSF (submission/tracking, retries/cancel, log capture, fairness/backpressure)

  • Convert legacy codebases into modern powerhouses using incremental migration techniques (e.g., Perl to Go), with stage gates, parity strategies, and strong observability

  • Debug and improve performance and reliability across Linux and Kubernetes, including operational tooling

  • Collaborate with engineering users to turn ambiguous workflows into durable production systems

What we need to see:

  • B.S. CS/EE (or equivalent experience)

  • 5+ years developing and operating production software in Go and/or Python, ideally in large codebases

  • Strong Linux fundamentals: processes, filesystems, permissions, synchronization/locks, concurrency, and debugging

  • Solid distributed-systems thinking: failures, retries/timeouts, backoff, idempotency, and operational rigor

  • Experience building long-runtime automation or services on shared compute clusters (batch schedulers, build systems)

  • Ability to translate ambitious, high-level goals into a safe delivery plan (instrumentation, staged rollout, measurable outcomes)

Ways to stand out from the crowd:

  • Hands-on experience with shared filesystems at scale (NFS), or coordination patterns on eventually-consistent storage

  • Experience with batch job scheduling, shared compute fleets, or build systems

  • Track record of incremental modernization (tests, shadow runs, canaries, rollback plans)

  • Experience partitioning/optimizing metadata-heavy systems and reducing I/O or R/W hot spots

  • Strong incident/debug tactics: clear root-cause analysis, remediation, and guardrails as well as rapid comprehension and ownership of unfamiliar codebases in any language (including LLM-generated code) to implement high-leverage changes

With competitive salaries and a generous benefits package, we are widely considered to be one of the technology world’s most desirable employers. We have some of the most forward-thinking and hardworking people in the world working for us and, due to unprecedented growth, our exclusive engineering teams are rapidly growing. If you're a creative and autonomous engineer with a real passion for technology, we want to hear from you.

Your base salary will be determined based on your location, experience, and the pay of employees in similar positions. The base salary range is 152,000 USD - 241,500 USD for Level 3, and 184,000 USD - 287,500 USD for Level 4.

You will also be eligible for equity and benefits.

Applications for this job will be accepted at least until August 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.

Ready to apply to NVIDIA?
Apply to NVIDIA

About NVIDIA

NVIDIA pioneered accelerated computing. Today, our AI infrastructure powers global intelligence, transforming every industry. Learn more about NVIDIA .

See all jobs at NVIDIA →

Similar jobs

NVIDIA
Senior System Software Engineer, Software Defined Networking
NVIDIA
⚡ Apply early US, CA, Santa Clara Onsite
● New 👁 Seen ✓ Applied 19h ago
NVIDIA
System Software Engineer, Engineering Workflow Platform
NVIDIA
⚡ Apply early US, CA, Santa Clara Onsite
● New 👁 Seen ✓ Applied 2d ago
NVIDIA
Frontend Web Software Engineer, NGC
NVIDIA
⚡ Apply early US, CA, Santa Clara Onsite
● New 👁 Seen ✓ Applied 2d ago
Picarro, Inc
Senior Mobile Software Engineer
Picarro, Inc
⚡ Apply early Santa Clara, CA Onsite $150,000–$170,000
● New 👁 Seen ✓ Applied 3d ago
Picarro, Inc
Systems Software Engineer
Picarro, Inc
⚡ Apply early Santa Clara, CA Onsite $120,000–$130,000
● New 👁 Seen ✓ Applied 3d ago
Picarro, Inc
Senior Staff Software Engineer
Picarro, Inc
⚡ Apply early Santa Clara, CA Onsite $200,000–$220,000
● New 👁 Seen ✓ Applied 3d ago
Redwood Materials
Embedded Software Engineer – Power Electronics, Energy Storage
Redwood Materials
⚡ Apply early San Francisco, California, Uni... Onsite $180,000–$237,500
● New 👁 Seen ✓ Applied 1h ago
Anduril Industries
Senior Software Developer in Test, Air Defense
Anduril Industries
⚡ Apply early Irvine, California, United Sta... Onsite $129,000–$171,000
● New 👁 Seen ✓ Applied 1h ago
Anduril Industries
Senior Robotics Software Engineer, Behaviors
Anduril Industries
⚡ Apply early Costa Mesa, California, United... Onsite $220,000–$292,000
● New 👁 Seen ✓ Applied 1h ago

Sign up for suggestions tailored to the jobs you open and the searches you save.

More jobs at NVIDIA

See all jobs at NVIDIA →

Apply now
🤖

Whoa — hold up

JobsRadar was built for real people having a rough time in their job search — not for automated requests. You're clicking way too fast and you're now temporarily blocked.

Come back later. If you're genuinely job hunting, we've got your back — just act like a human.

Catch your next role the second it’s posted.

Create a free account and we’ll watch the boards for you — the instant a job matches your search, it lands in your inbox or Telegram. No digging, no refreshing.

Create free account

Free forever · takes 30 seconds · already have one?

Get an edge on your job hunt.

Join our Telegram channel for the stuff that helps you land the role — salary benchmarks, the weekly market pulse, and new-feature drops. No spam, just signal.

Join the channel — it's free