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NVIDIA

Senior Software Architect, AI Systems and Networking

NVIDIA is hiring a Senior Software Architect, AI Systems and Networking in Santa Clara, United States. It pays $224k-$357k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on NVIDIA.

Level's read on this job

  • Builds AI ●●●● is how Level rates this role: the job is building AI systems.
  • Tools and skills the posting cites include vLLM.
  • Level classifies it as a senior role.
  • Level lists 2,700+ other open roles at NVIDIA.
  • The role was posted in the last few days.

AI in this role

vllm

An applied research team within NVIDIA’s Networking Systems & Software Architecture group is solving some of AI’s hardest infrastructure problems. The team builds systems-level software that moves data between GPUs, nodes, and storage at the speed modern AI demands—spanning low-level transport optimization, hardware-software co-design, and communication frameworks that plug directly into production AI stacks. The team's charter expands into emerging domains including quantum computing interconnects.

The Senior Architect role is to own modules and projects end-to-end—from scoping research questions to shipping production code. It calls for a recognized expert who drives technical decisions, pulls in ideas from research and industry, and regularly prototypes new approaches to prove a point. The work lives at the boundary of applied research and production engineering!

What you will be doing:

  • Architecting and implementing high-performance communication and memory management libraries for distributed AI

  • Driving hardware-software co-optimization with GPU, DPU, NIC, and switch teams through GPUDirect RDMA, NVLink, and next-generation interconnects

  • Profiling and optimizing data movement across GPU memory, system DRAM, NVMe, and network fabrics

  • Integrating networking capabilities into AI serving stacks such as vLLM, SGLang, and TensorRT-LLM

  • Contributing to and maintaining open-source projects, mentoring engineers, conducting design reviews, and prototyping experimental technologies to evaluate their viability

What we need to see:

  • 12+ years in systems software and/or networking with demonstrated ownership of complex projects.

  • MS, PhD or equivalent experience in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.

  • Solid understanding of high-performance networking: InfiniBand, RoCE, RDMA, NVLink, GPUDirect.

  • Strong C/C++/Rust systems programming with comfort in performance profiling and low-level debugging.

  • Understanding of ML systems concepts—transformer architectures, KV cache mechanics, model parallelism, or distributed training and inference patterns.

Ways to stand out from the crowd:

  • Knowledge of ML inference frameworks (vLLM, SGLang, TensorRT-LLM) and their communication requirements.

  • Knowledge of storage networking (NVMe-oF, GPUDirect Storage, S3).

  • Background of Reinforcement Learning systems.

With competitive salaries and a comprehensive benefits package, NVIDIA is widely regarded as one of the most desirable technology employers in the world. Our teams are composed of some of the most forward‑thinking and driven engineers in the industry, and we continue to grow rapidly. If you are a senior data engineer passionate about building large‑scale, high‑impact data platforms, we’d love to hear from you.

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:
224,000 USD – 356,500 USD for Level 5; and 272,000 USD – 431,250 USD for Level 6.

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 Software Architect, AI Systems and Networking at NVIDIA rates 94 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.

  1. ●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
  2. ●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
  3. ●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
  4. ●○○○ 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

vLLM

Questions you could be asked

  1. What's a project where you used vLLM hands-on?
  2. How would you decide a model or AI system is ready to ship?
  3. 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. 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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