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NVIDIA

Senior Software Engineer, AI Data

NVIDIA is hiring a Senior Software Engineer, AI Data 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

  • Level rates this software engineer role Builds AI ●●●●: the job is building AI systems.
  • The posting mentions AI research among its tools and skills.
  • Level classes it as a senior role.
  • NVIDIA has 2,800+ other open roles on Level.
  • Posted in the last few days.

AI in this role

ai-research

NVIDIA is a pioneer in accelerated computing, known for inventing the GPU and driving breakthroughs in gaming, computer graphics, high-performance computing, and artificial intelligence. Our technology powers everything from generative AI to autonomous systems, and we continue to shape the future of computing through innovation and collaboration. Within this mission, our team, Managed AI Research Superclusters (MARS), builds and scales the infrastructure, platforms, and tools that enable researchers and engineers to develop the next generation of AI/ML systems. By joining us, you'll help build solutions that power some of the planet's most advanced computing workloads.


The MARS AI Data team owns how NVIDIA's AI research uses data: many petabytes of training data, checkpoints and datasets across multiple clouds and partners. We build the layer between storage and the workload. That covers data placement across file systems, object storage, and local NVMe. It also includes streaming loaders and caches that supply tens of thousands of GPU cores. Efficient checkpoint management. Quotas remain fair throughout numerous research groups. This is a builder's role on a team that is redefining what it does. You will help design MARS' data platform on Kubernetes from the ground up, working directly with the researchers training NVIDIA's own models. The work shows up as faster training steps, shorter restarts and fewer runs lost to complete storage volumes.

What you'll be doing

  • Design and build the AI data layer for a multi-cloud GPU fleet: how datasets, checkpoints and scratch data are placed, cached, tiered and moved between different storage backends.
  • Build high-throughput data paths for training and RL. That means streaming loaders from object storage, distributed caches, and checkpoint save and restore at thousands of GPUs, including peer-to-peer and local-first restore.
  • Make data a first-class part of the compute platform. Build Kubernetes-native APIs, operators and storage integrations so a job declares the data it needs, and the platform mounts, caches and accounts for it, on Slurm and on Kubernetes.
  • Own quotas, capacity and data lifecycle across hundreds of research teams: usage attribution, quota enforcement, retention, clean-up of stale data, and forecasting capacity before it runs out.
  • Measure how workloads use data. Build I/O telemetry and access analytics that show hot and cold data, metadata pressure and I/O stalls, and use them to drive placement and fixes.
  • Own reliability for what you build: on-call, incident analysis, and changes that stop whole classes of data incidents, such as full file systems, runaway metadata load and lost checkpoints.

What we need to see

  • BS or MS in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering or a related field, or equivalent experience.
  • 5+ years building production systems or data-infrastructure software.
  • Deep experience with at least one of the following: parallel or distributed file systems (Lustre, WEKA, VAST, GPFS, Ceph or similar), object storage at scale (S3 or compatible), or large-scale data pipelines and data lakes.
  • A clear grasp of I/O performance: throughput, latency, metadata cost, caching and how access patterns interact with each.
  • Strong programming in Go, Rust, C or C++, plus Python for tooling and analysis.
  • A track record of owning a service in production and making it measurably better.
  • Clear written and spoken communication with engineers and researchers.

Ways to stand out from the crowd

  • Experience feeding large-scale AI training: data loaders, streaming datasets, and storage behavior at thousands of GPUs.
  • Experience with checkpointing at scale: asynchronous or distributed checkpoints, tiered checkpoint storage, fast restart after failure.
  • Built or ran a distributed cache or AI-oriented storage system, or used node-local NVMe as a managed tier.
  • Built a quota, accounting or capacity system that many teams depended on.
  • Knowledge of RL and agentic workloads and what they need from storage: many small reads, environment snapshots, sandbox images and fast fan-out.

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:
152,000 USD – 241,500 USD for Level 3; and 184,000 USD – 287,500 USD for Level 4.

You will also be eligible for equity and benefits.

Applications for this job will be accepted at least until November 13, 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 Engineer, AI Data 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.

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

AI Research

Also common in software engineer jobs at this level

Pay

This job starts at
$152k
Typical software engineer job
$167k

This posting starts 9% below the typical software engineer job. See software engineer jobs

Questions you could be asked

  1. Tell me about a research question you investigated. What did you find?
  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: AI Research. 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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