Principal Software Engineer, Mapping - Autonomous Vehicles
NVIDIA is hiring a Principal Software Engineer, Mapping - Autonomous Vehicles in Santa Clara, United States. It pays $272k-$431k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on NVIDIA.
Level's read on this job
- On Level's scale, this software engineer role is Builds AI ●●●●: the job is building AI systems.
- The listed pay starts 62% above the typical software engineer posting on Level.
- Tools and skills the posting cites include computer vision.
- Level classifies it as a lead role.
- Level lists 2,700+ other open roles at NVIDIA.
AI in this role
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.
We seek a passionate team member to build planet-scale maps supporting self-driving technology using crowdsourced data from millions of cars around the world. The role involves computer vision, geometry, pose estimation, sensor fusion, and large-scale systems. You will transform sparse perception signals and dense video clips into accurate and fresh maps. Our work helps autonomous vehicles understand the road with high-quality map priors. These maps improve driving performance, safety, and coverage. You will work with a diverse team of engineers in mapping, perception, reconstruction, localization, and autonomous driving. Together, we will deliver impact to customers worldwide.
What you will be doing:
- Build scalable mapping systems using crowdsourced perception data and multi-camera video collected from a vast number of vehicles.
- Develop 3D reconstruction, structure-from-motion, pose estimation, and multi-view geometry algorithms for large-scale road scene understanding.
- Build map fusion and change-detection methods that can handle noisy observations, dynamic scenes, imperfect localization, and global consistency constraints.
- Build C++ production systems and offline pipelines that transform fleet data into reliable map products used in self-driving and driver support technologies.
- Invent evaluation methods to measure map accuracy, freshness, coverage, consistency, and downstream autonomy impact.
- Develop visualization, debugging, and triage tools to understand reconstruction quality, map issues, localization errors, and fleet data gaps.
- Work closely with perception, localization, simulation, planning, and infrastructure teams to integrate crowdsourced maps into autonomous driving systems.
- Relentlessly improve the scale, fidelity, freshness, and reliability of maps built from real-world fleet data.
What we need to see:
- Strong programming skills in C++ and experience building production-quality software systems.
- Solid foundation in 3D computer vision, 3D geometry, multi-view geometry, structure from motion, SLAM, pose estimation, or related areas.
- Experience working with large-scale sensor data, including camera video, perception outputs, vehicle poses, GPS/IMU signals, lidar, radar, or map data.
- Ability to reason about coordinate frames, calibration, uncertainty, optimization, geometric consistency, and error propagation.
- Experience crafting algorithms that are robust to noisy real-world data, dynamic objects, occlusions, incomplete coverage, and long-tail failures.
- Strong debugging and analytical skills, including the ability to inspect data visually, build metrics, and connect system-level failures to algorithmic root causes.
- 15+ years of experience
- BS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science, Robotics, Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, or a related technical field (or equivalent experience).
Ways to stand out from the crowd:
- Experience building maps, localization systems, 3D reconstruction systems, perception systems, or sensor-fusion pipelines for autonomous driving or advanced driver assistance systems.
- Background in large-scale mapping, crowdsourced map construction, map fusion, change detection, map freshness, road topology, lane geometry, or semantic map generation.
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/
#AutonomousVehicles
Your base salary will be determined based on your location, experience, and other objective job-related factors. The expected base salary range for this position is 272,000 USD – 431,250 USD.You will also be eligible for equity and benefits.
Applications for this job will be accepted at least until November 3, 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.How we rate this
Principal Software Engineer, Mapping - Autonomous Vehicles at NVIDIA rates 89 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Builds AI (AI Level 4 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.
Builds AI. The job is building AI systems.
- ●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
- ●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
- ●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
- ●○○○ Little AI0 to 39
Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.
Prepare for this job
Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.
Skills and AI tools this role asks for
Also common in software engineer jobs at this level
Pay
- This job starts at
- $272k
- Typical software engineer job
- $168k
This posting starts 62% above the typical software engineer job. See software engineer jobs
Questions you could be asked
- Walk me through a computer vision problem you solved, from raw data to a deployed model.
- How would you decide a model or AI system is ready to ship?
- Tell me about a time a model underperformed in production. How did you find out, and what did you change?
Adapt your resume
- List these exact terms on your resume: Computer vision. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
- Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them. A tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.
- Lead with what you built, trained or shipped. This role is judged on the AI system itself, not the tools around it.
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