Senior Applied AI Engineer

NVIDIA is hiring a Senior Applied AI Engineer in Santa Clara, United States. It pays $152k-$242k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on NVIDIA.

Level's read on this job

Builds AI ●●●● is how Level rates this AI engineer role: the job is building AI systems.
The posting mentions Python, Git and RAG among its tools and skills.
Level classes it as a senior role.
NVIDIA has 2,700+ other open roles on Level.

AI in this role

Build AI-powered workflows and services to improve engineering productivity, code quality, and debugging.

pythongit

ragai-agentsai-automationai-evaluationapplied-aimachine-learningllmretrieval-augmented-generationagentic-workflows

NVIDIA is looking for a Senior Applied AI Engineer to help build intelligent software systems that improve engineering productivity and software quality at scale. In this role, you will develop AI-powered workflows and services that help teams analyze complex code changes, surface meaningful signals from large engineering datasets, and accelerate debugging and decision-making. You will work at the intersection of software engineering, machine learning, and developer productivity to turn advanced AI capabilities into practical, reliable tools used in real engineering environments.

What you will be doing:

Invent and build AI-powered systems that enhance software quality, engineering efficiency, and developer workflows.
Develop intelligent workflows for analyzing large codebases, code changes, and engineering signals to help teams identify issues earlier and make faster, better decisions.
Build and maintain production services and infrastructure for AI-enabled applications, including orchestration, retrieval, evaluation, and monitoring.
Partner with software engineers and multi-functional teams to understand real workflow problems and translate them into practical AI solutions.
Evaluate emerging models, frameworks, and tooling to improve quality, latency, reliability, and cost across AI systems.
Drive projects from early concept through production deployment, iteration, and continuous improvement.

What we need to see:

5+ years of proven experience or related field.
Hold a B.S. or higher degree (or equivalent experience) in Computer Science/Engineering and related field
Strong software engineering fundamentals with excellent Python skills and experience building production-quality systems.
Hands-on experience building and deploying AI or ML systems, data-intensive backend services, or intelligent automation workflows.
Experience with LLM-based applications, retrieval-augmented generation, agentic workflows, or orchestration frameworks.
Strong familiarity with Git-based development workflows, including working with commits, branches, diffs, and large multi-repository codebases.
Track record of solving complex technical problems and working effectively across teams.

Ways to stand out from the crowd:

Experience building AI systems for developer tools, code intelligence, software quality, testing, or debugging workflows.
Familiarity with model evaluation, prompt and context design, observability, and production monitoring for AI systems.
Experience balancing model quality, latency, cost, and reliability in production environments.
Background working with large-scale software platforms, CI systems, or source-control-based engineering workflows.

We are widely known as one of the technology world’s most desirable employers. Because of this, we have some of the most forward-thinking and hardworking people working for us. We want to hear from you if you're a creative and autonomous engineer with a real passion for technology.

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.

You will also be eligible for equity and benefits.

Applications for this job will be accepted at least until October 12, 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

Senior Applied AI Engineer at NVIDIA rates 85 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.

Classification

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.

Key facts

Senior Applied AI Engineer is an open job at NVIDIA.
Level rates this role AI Level 4 of 4: Builds AI.
The listed salary is $152k-$242k a year.
The role is based in US, CA, Santa Clara.
The job was posted on September 14, 2026.
Seniority: senior.
Applications are handled by NVIDIA. Apply on NVIDIA

Prepare for this job

Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.

Skills and AI tools this role asks for

RAGAI agentsAI AutomationAI EvaluationApplied AIMachine learningLLMRetrieval Augmented Generation

Also common in AI engineer jobs at this level

AWS Generative AI Azure Google Cloud PyTorch Java

Pay

This job starts at: $152k
Typical AI engineer job: $184k

This posting starts 17% below the typical AI engineer job. See AI engineer jobs

Questions you could be asked

How would you design a retrieval step so the model answers from real data instead of guessing?
How do you decide when an AI agent can act on its own versus asking for approval first?
Tell me about a workflow you automated with AI tools, end to end.
How do you decide that one model's output is better than another's for a given task?
Tell me about a project where applied ai was part of your work. What did you do?

Adapt your resume

List these exact terms on your resume: RAG, AI agents, AI Automation, AI Evaluation, and Applied AI. 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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