Senior Software Engineer - Autonomous Driving Simulation
NVIDIA is hiring a Senior Software Engineer - Autonomous Driving Simulation in Santa Clara, United States. It pays $152k-$242k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Level.
AI in this role
NVIDIA is seeking a highly motivated Software Engineer to join our Autonomous Vehicle (AV) Simulation team. In this role, you will help build and scale realistic virtual environments that accelerate the training, testing, and validation of NVIDIA’s autonomous driving software stack.
Our mission is to enable large-scale simulation and debugging of AV algorithms across millions of scenarios per day, spanning diverse traffic patterns, road conditions, weather environments, and edge cases. Achieving this requires deep performance optimization and systems-level analysis across the entire software stack — from AV algorithms and AI models to system software, infrastructure, and production-scale simulation workflows.
What you’ll be doing:
Develop scalable simulation platforms and workflows for autonomous driving validation and training.
Work on Real2Sim and Sim2Real domain adaptation technologies to transform real-world driving incidents into diverse simulation scenarios — and bridge the gap between simulated and real-world behavior.
Contribute across a multidisciplinary stack involving: System software and distributed infrastructure, neural graphics & rendering, generative AI & synthetic data generation, computer vision & deep learning, and real-to-synthetic domain adaptation.
Optimize large-scale simulation workflows for performance, scalability, reliability, and production deployment.
Collaborate closely with researchers, infrastructure engineers, and product teams across NVIDIA.
Drive technology transfer into production products and contribute to open-source initiatives where applicable.
What we need to see:
BS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, or a related field (or equivalent experience).
5+ years of relevant autonomous vehicles industry experience.
Strong programming skills in Python, C/C++, PyTorch, and Linux/bash scripting.
Experience with modern software engineering and infrastructure tools such as Docker, Bazel, Jenkins, CI/CD pipelines, and distributed systems tooling.
Strong background in computer vision, deep learning, simulation systems, or related domains.
Excellent analytical and mathematical problem-solving skills.
Ability to independently drive complex projects from concept to production.
Strong communication, collaboration, and teamwork skills.
Experience in machine learning, large-scale systems, analytics, statistics, or applied mathematics.
Ways to stand out from the crowd:
First-author publications at top-tier conferences such as NeurIPS, CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, or ICML.
Experience in autonomous driving, robotics simulation, neural rendering, synthetic data generation, or generative AI.
Proven research or engineering excellence through internships, open-source contributions, code competitions, or impactful production systems.
Experience optimizing high-performance or large-scale distributed workloads.
You will also be eligible for equity and benefits.
Applications for this job will be accepted at least until October 18, 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 - Autonomous Driving Simulation 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. Open the description and count.
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
- $152k
- Typical software engineer job
- $168k
This posting starts 10% below 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.
- 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: Computer vision 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.
Want an expert to read your CV for this job?
Free. Send your CV and the role you want next. We reply by email within 2 to 4 business days.
Get new software engineer jobs (Builds AI ●●●●) by email
One email a week with the new software engineer jobs (Builds AI ●●●●), each rated for how much AI is in the work. No recruiter spam, unsubscribe in one click.
Free. One email a week. Unsubscribe in one click.
Similar roles
Software Engineering roles that build AI, at other companies.
What kind of AI work fits you?
Answer 12 practical questions in about three minutes. Get a simple profile, the work it points to, and live roles to explore next.
Find my next step