Intelligent machines powered by Artificial Intelligence computers that can learn, reason and interact with people are no longer science fiction. Today, a self-driving car powered by AI can meander through a country road at night and find its way. An AI-powered robot can learn motor skills through trial and error — this is truly an extraordinary time and the era of AI has begun. Image recognition and speech recognition — GPU Deep Learning has provided the foundation for machines to learn, perceive, reason and solve problems. The GPU started out as the engine for simulating human creativity, conjuring up the amazing virtual worlds of video games and Hollywood films. Now, NVIDIA's GPU runs Deep Learning algorithms, simulating human intelligence, and acts as the brain of computers, robots and self-driving cars that can perceive and understand the world. Just as human imagination and intelligence are linked, computer graphics and AI come together in our architecture. Two modes of the human brain, two modes of the GPU. This may explain why NVIDIA GPUs are used broadly for Deep Learning, and NVIDIA is increasingly known as “the AI computing company.” Make the choice to join us today.

We are now looking for a Senior Software Performance Engineer for Autonomous Vehicles! Our team builds NVIDIA’s end-to-end autonomous driving applications. We are seeking senior software engineers who are passionate about performance with interest in optimizing self-driving solutions that run on NVIDIA’s multi-computer and heterogenous HW architectures.

What you’ll be doing:

• Develop, maintain and optimize latency and throughput of NVIDIA’s L2/L3/L4 autonomous driving solutions.

• Devise acceleration strategies and patterns to improve software architecture and its efficiency on our computers with multiple heterogeneous hardware engines while meeting or exceeding product goals.

• Develop highly efficient product code in C++, making use of algorithmic parallelism offered by GPGPU programming (CUDA)/ARM NEON while following quality and safety standards such as defined by MISRA.

• Collaborate with HW, product, OS, and safety teams to design next-gen products.

What we need to see:

• MS or PhD degree in Computer Science, Computer Architecture, Electrical Engineering or related field (or equivalent experience).

• 10+ years of relevant professional experience working on autonomous vehicles software.

• Excellent C and C++ programming skills.

• Solid understanding of programming and debugging techniques, especially for parallel architectures.

• Good understanding of system software/operating systems and computer architecture.

• Experience with performance analysis, optimizations and benchmarking.

• Outstanding communication and collaboration skills as this role might require significant interfacing with other teams within NVIDIA.

Ways to stand out from the crowd:

• Understanding of embedded architectures and real-time operating systems & scheduling.

• Strong mathematical fundamentals, including linear algebra and numerical methods.

• Experience implementing algorithms in robotics, computer vision, and/or machine learning.

• Software development experience with CUDA/GPGPU or any data parallel architectures.

• Deep learning architecture/performance work on any HW accelerator, especially if on GPUs.

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 January 20, 2026.

This posting is for an existing vacancy.

NVIDIA uses AI tools in its recruiting processes.

NVIDIA is committed to fostering a diverse 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.