Senior Deep Learning Software Engineer, Inference
NVIDIA is hiring a Senior Deep Learning Software Engineer, Inference in Santa Clara, United States. It pays $184k-$288k 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.
- Pay on this posting starts 10% higher than the typical software engineer posting on Level.
- The posting mentions vLLM and PyTorch 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
NVIDIA seeks a Senior Software Engineer specializing in Deep Learning Inference for our growing team. As a key contributor, you will help design, build, and optimize the GPU-accelerated software that powers today’s most sophisticated AI applications. Our team is responsible for developing and maintaining high-performance deep learning frameworks, including SGLang and vLLM, which are at the forefront of efficient large-scale model serving and inference. You will play a central role in improving these platforms, facilitating smooth deployment and serving of groundbreaking language models.
You’ll work closely with the deep learning community to implement the latest algorithms for public release in frameworks like SGLang and vLLM, as well as other DL frameworks. Your work will focus on identifying and driving performance improvements for state-of-the-art LLM and Generative AI models across NVIDIA accelerators, from datacenter GPUs to edge SoCs. You'll bring to bear open-source tools and plugins—including CUTLASS, OAI Triton, NCCL, and CUDA kernels—to implement and optimize model serving pipelines.
What you'll be doing:
Performance optimization, analysis, and tuning of DL models in various domains like LLM, Multimodal and Generative AI.
Scale performance of DL models across different architectures and types of NVIDIA accelerators.
Contribute features and code to NVIDIA’s inference libraries, vLLM and SGLang, FlashInfer and LLM software solutions.
Work with cross-collaborative teams across frameworks, NVIDIA libraries and inference optimization innovative solutions.
What we need to see:
Masters or PhD or equivalent experience in relevant field (Computer Engineering, Computer Science, EECS, AI).
6+ years of relevant software development experience.
Excellent C/C++ programming and software design skills. SW Agile skills are helpful and Python experience is a plus.
Prior experience with training, deploying or optimizing the inference of DL models in production is a plus.
Prior background with performance modeling, profiling, debug, and code optimization or architectural knowledge of CPU and GPU is a plus.
Ways to stand out from the crowd:
Contribute to Deep Learning Software projects, such as PyTorch, vLLM, and SGLang to drive advancements in the field.
Experience with Multi-GPU Communications (NCCL, NVSHMEM)
Experience building and shipping products to enterprise customers.
GPU programming experience (CUDA, OAI TRITON or CUTLASS).
NVIDIA is at the forefront of breakthroughs in Artificial Intelligence, High-Performance Computing, and Visualization. Our teams are composed of driven, innovative professionals dedicated to pushing the boundaries of technology.
Your base salary will be determined based on your location, experience, and other objective job-related factors. The expected base salary ranges for this position are: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 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
Senior Deep Learning Software Engineer, Inference at NVIDIA rates 98 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
- $184k
- Typical software engineer job
- $167k
This posting starts 10% above the typical software engineer job. See software engineer jobs
Questions you could be asked
- What's a project where you used vLLM hands-on?
- Walk me through how you've used PyTorch in your day-to-day work.
- 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: vLLM and PyTorch. 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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