Senior System Software Engineer - GPU Power and Performance Management

Posted Yesterday
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Santa Clara, CA, USA
In-Office
184K-357K Annually
Senior level
Artificial Intelligence • Computer Vision • Hardware • Robotics • Metaverse
The Role
Design, develop, and debug GPU power and performance management software, including P-state management, DVFS, and power-management controllers. Build real-time control policies, collaborate on hardware-software interfaces, validate pre-silicon and production systems, support silicon bring-up, and resolve complex cross-layer issues involving firmware, drivers, hardware, thermals, telemetry, and workloads.
Summary Generated by Built In

NVIDIA is redefining accelerated computing and powering the next era of artificial intelligence. Our data-center platforms bring together GPUs, CPUs, networking, systems, and software to solve some of the world’s most exciting computing problems. We are looking for a System Software Engineer to join NVIDIA’s GPU Performance and Power Management Software team. You will help design, develop, and debug production software for performance states (P-states) and Power Management Controllers. Your work will also support dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS) and power-management technologies for next-generation data-center GPUs.


You will work at the intersection of hardware architecture, embedded firmware, device drivers, operating systems, and AI workloads. In this role, you will contribute across the product lifecycle, including design, pre-silicon development, validation, silicon bring-up, and production support. This is a great opportunity to build expertise in GPU power and performance software while contributing to products that deliver leading performance, energy efficiency, and reliability.


What You Will Be Doing:

  • Architect, build, implement, and debug GPU power and performance management software, with emphasis on P-state management and DVFS.
  • Develop control policies, mechanisms, and real-time software that optimize GPU performance, power, thermals, and energy efficiency KPIs under demanding data-center workloads.
  • Own focus area and drive features across the full product lifecycle, including requirements, architecture, implementation, pre-silicon validation, silicon bring-up, productization, and production support.
  • Collaborate with GPU architects and hardware designers to define hardware-software interfaces and shape the power-management capabilities of next-generation processors.
  • Analyze complex interactions among workloads, clocks, voltages, power limits, thermals, telemetry, and system-level policies.
  • Lead investigation and resolution for complex power, performance, stability, and reliability issues spanning firmware, drivers, hardware, and platform software.
  • Develop validation strategies and automation for functional correctness, transition latency, performance-per-watt, and robustness across operating conditions.
  • Build clear architecture, interface, and feature specifications for new power and performance management capabilities.
  • Partner effectively with distributed teams across architecture, ASIC, firmware, drivers, validation, platform, and data-center systems.
  • Influence next generation system software by building internal scalable architecture frameworks.

What We Need to See:

  • BS or MS degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related field—or equivalent experience.
  • 8+ years of extensive industry experience crafting system software, embedded firmware, device drivers, or other hardware-related production software.
  • Strong programming skills in C, including experience developing, debugging, and maintaining complex low-level software.
  • Deep understanding of operating-system fundamentals, device-driver architecture, embedded or real-time software, concurrency, interrupt handling, and hardware programming.
  • Experience interpreting hardware specifications and developing software interfaces for registers, telemetry, interrupts, and control mechanisms.
  • Strong understanding of computer architecture and hardware-software interactions.
  • Proven ability to independently debug complex, cross-layer problems across software and hardware.
  • Demonstrated ability to own technically challenging features or subsystems and drive them to production in collaboration with cross-functional teams.
  • Excellent written and verbal communication and presentation skills.

Ways to Stand Out from the Crowd:

  • Hands-on experience with GPU, CPU, accelerator, or SoC power and performance management.
  • Experience crafting or implementing P-state selection, DVFS, clock-control, voltage-control, power-capping, thermal-management, throttling, or workload-aware control policies.
  • Experience developing real-time feedback controllers, including reasoning about stability, responsiveness, hysteresis, latency, and noise telemetry.
  • Experience building validation, observability, and automation infrastructure for low-level software features.
  • Understanding of electrical and platform considerations such as voltage-frequency relationships, transient power, thermal limits, power delivery, and system-level power budgets.

Widely considered to be one of the technology world’s most desirable employers, NVIDIA offers highly competitive salaries and a comprehensive benefits package. As you plan your future, see what we can offer to you and your family www.nvidiabenefits.com

Your base salary will be determined based on your location, experience, and the pay of employees in similar positions. The base salary range is 184,000 USD - 287,500 USD for Level 4, and 224,000 USD - 356,500 USD for Level 5.

You will also be eligible for equity and benefits.

Applications for this job will be accepted at least until September 26, 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.

Skills Required

  • BS or MS degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, a related field, or equivalent experience
  • 8+ years of industry experience developing system software, embedded firmware, device drivers, or hardware-related production software
  • Strong C programming skills, including developing, debugging, and maintaining complex low-level software
  • Understanding of operating-system fundamentals, device-driver architecture, embedded or real-time software, concurrency, interrupt handling, and hardware programming
  • Experience interpreting hardware specifications and developing interfaces for registers, telemetry, interrupts, and control mechanisms
  • Strong understanding of computer architecture and hardware-software interactions
  • Ability to independently debug complex cross-layer software and hardware problems
  • Ability to own technically challenging features or subsystems and drive them to production with cross-functional teams
  • Excellent written, verbal communication, and presentation skills
  • Experience with GPU, CPU, accelerator, or SoC power and performance management
  • Experience with P-state selection, DVFS, clock control, voltage control, power capping, thermal management, throttling, or workload-aware control policies
  • Experience developing real-time feedback controllers and reasoning about stability, responsiveness, hysteresis, latency, and telemetry noise
  • Experience building validation, observability, and automation infrastructure for low-level software features
  • Understanding of voltage-frequency relationships, transient power, thermal limits, power delivery, and system-level power budgets

NVIDIA Compensation & Benefits Highlights

The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about NVIDIA and has not been reviewed or approved by NVIDIA.

  • Equity Value & Accessibility Equity awards and a discounted ESPP are highlighted as core parts of total compensation, enabling employees to share in the company’s success. Stock-based compensation and the two-year lookback ESPP are consistently described as especially valuable.
  • Healthcare Strength Health coverage is portrayed as robust, with comprehensive medical, dental, and vision options alongside mental health support and on-site care resources. Employer HSA contributions and wellness perks reinforce the depth of the offering.
  • Retirement Support Retirement programs are depicted as strong, featuring a meaningful 401(k) match with Roth options and support for Mega Backdoor Roth contributions. These elements position long-term savings as a notable advantage of the total rewards package.

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The Company
HQ: Santa Clara, CA
21,960 Employees
Year Founded: 1993

What We Do

NVIDIA’s invention of the GPU in 1999 sparked the growth of the PC gaming market, redefined modern computer graphics, and revolutionized parallel computing. More recently, GPU deep learning ignited modern AI — the next era of computing — with the GPU acting as the brain of computers, robots, and self-driving cars that can perceive and understand the world. Today, NVIDIA is increasingly known as “the AI computing company.”

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