Senior Software Engineer, CUTLASS Performance
NVIDIA is hiring a Senior Software Engineer, CUTLASS Performance 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 software engineer role: the job is building AI systems.
- The posting mentions vLLM, PyTorch and JAX 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's high-performance computing platforms are powering the AI revolution across many applications and industries. Within our software stack, CUTLASS stands out as a popular open-source ecosystem dedicated to high-performance linear algebra and Tensor Core primitives. Since 2017, it has provided the community with C++ and Python abstractions to implement custom matrix multiply (GEMM) and related math and deep learning computations on NVIDIA GPUs.
If you are enthusiastic about performance and eager to help bridge the gap between current performance and what’s theoretically possible, apply to join the CUTLASS team today!
What you'll be doing:
Benchmark the performance of state-of-the-art deep learning models’ inference and training passes to identify key GPU kernel and fusion opportunities.
Identify gaps between theoretical and realized performance, and suggest software improvements or model adjustments to resolve them.
Develop tooling to automate the benchmarking, analysis, and performance optimization loop to push the limit of CUTLASS kernel performance within DL networks.
Be the authoritative resource on kernel performance in the team and engage with teams across NVIDIA including GPU architecture, DL frameworks, and QA as the performance representative for the CUTLASS team.
What we need to see:
Masters or PhD degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or related field (or equivalent experience).
3+ years of relevant industry experience.
Strong programming skills in Python and C++.
Experience in software performance analysis and optimization.
Deep understanding of computer architecture and familiarity with GPUs or similar parallel processing architectures.
Ways to stand out from the crowd:
Deep understanding of state-of-the art DL model architectures.
Hands-on experience with performance benchmarking of DL frameworks like PyTorch, JAX, SGLang, vLLM, TRT-LLM, or others.
Experience in developing performance models and performance regression systems.
NVIDIA is widely considered to be one of the technology world’s most desirable employers. We have some of the most forward-thinking and hard working people in the world working for us. If you're creative, autonomous, and love a challenge, consider joining our Deep Learning Library team and help us build the real-time, cost-effective computing platform driving our success in this exciting and quickly growing field.
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 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 Engineer, CUTLASS Performance 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.
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
- $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
- What's a project where you used vLLM hands-on?
- Walk me through how you've used PyTorch in your day-to-day work.
- What are the limits of JAX that you've run into, and how did you work around them?
- 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, PyTorch, and JAX. 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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