Principal Software Engineer, Rack-Scale System Software — CSP Engagements
NVIDIA· Engineer, Sys SW
Santa Clara, CA, Austin, TX, Hybrid (Remote (US))$272k - $431.3kFull-timePosted 3mo ago
About the role
Technical focal point for rack-scale system software/firmware in CSP engagements, collaborating with CSP engineering teams to deploy, monitor, and operate rack-scale systems reliably at fleet scale. Focuses on system-level software managing fabric, GPU/NVSwitch error handling, telemetry APIs, firmware orchestration, and serviceability.
Responsibilities
- Drive rack-scale SW/FW architecture alignment across CSP engagements — including fabric management software, link health monitoring, GPU/NVSwitch error handling, SW/FW serviceability features (e.g., hot-plug support, component isolation, firmware-driven recovery), and multi-component firmware orchestration
- Drive technical work streams with CSP engineering teams on rack-scale system software — ensuring they deeply understand fabric management, NVSwitch behavior, error handling and recovery policies, health telemetry APIs, and SW/FW-controlled recovery operation
- Capture and synthesize CSP engineering feedback on rack-scale system software — health monitoring APIs, SW-driven serviceability workflows, firmware update orchestration, and error recovery behavior — champion that feedback into NVIDIA's architecture decisions
- Collaborate with multi-functional teams to ensure customer operational requirements are reflected in system software and firmware development
- Identify cross-CSP patterns in rack-scale SW/FW issues, error handling behavior, and system configuration practices — drive documentation, tooling, and test strategy improvements as a result
- Collaborate with execution teams on left-shift strategy — ensuring customer-side SW/FW integration work is identified early and completed ahead of hardware availability
- Make critical technical decisions on rack-scale system SW/FW tradeoffs and mitigate execution risks through early engagement with CSP engineering teams
Qualifications
- 15+ years of experience in system software, platform firmware, or large-scale distributed systems engineering
- BS or MS in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or related field (or equivalent experience)
- Deep understanding of rack-scale system software challenges: multi-component coordination, error propagation, health monitoring, and serviceability / reliability
- Experience with fabric management software, cluster management, or system-level orchestration frameworks
- Familiarity with firmware architectures and update lifecycle management (multi-component update sequencing, rollback, recovery)
- Understanding of error handling and recovery design patterns in distributed systems — fault isolation, retry policies, graceful degradation
- Experience with health monitoring and telemetry systems: health scoring, event correlation, API design for fleet-level observability
- Understanding of GPU or accelerator system software (drivers, device management, power management) is a strong plus
- Customer obsession — genuine passion for understanding how CSPs operate sophisticated systems at fleet scale and simplifying their experience
- Proven success providing technical leadership across organizational boundaries and influencing system software design without direct authority. Strong communication — ability to translate complex system software architecture into actionable mentorship for customer engineering teams
Skills
Required:System software architectureFabric managementFirmware update lifecycleError handling and recovery designHealth telemetry and observabilityLeadership and collaboration
Nice to have:GPU/accelerator system software familiarity
Benefits
- Equity
- Benefits (see company benefits page)
Last updated Oct 16, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.
About NVIDIA
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