Principal Software Engineer, GPU Firmware and GPU System Software — CSP Engagements

Job Title

Principal Software Engineer, GPU Firmware and GPU System Software — CSP Engagements

Role Summary

The Principal Software Engineer is the technical focal point for GPU firmware and GPU system software within the CSP (hyperscale) engagements team. The role works directly with engineering teams at major cloud providers to ensure firmware can be managed, updated, and operated reliably at fleet scale.

Drive cross-customer visibility on firmware operational patterns, incorporate CSP feedback into NVIDIA's firmware/software roadmap, and ensure customer-side automation and recovery procedures are validated before releases.

Experience Level

Senior / Principal level. The role calls for extensive industry experience (the posting requests 15+ years of relevant experience).

Responsibilities

Accountabilities include technical leadership with CSP engineering teams, release coordination, and driving systemic improvements across customers.

• Lead GPU firmware and system software work streams with CSP engineering teams; explain GPU firmware architecture (VBIOS, InfoROM, microcontroller firmware), update sequencing, recovery procedures, and power management.
• Collect, synthesize, and prioritize CSP feedback on manageability, observability, security, and performance; represent those priorities in NVIDIA's roadmap and delivery plans.
• Design and coordinate large-scale firmware update orchestration: multi-GPU sequencing, rollback strategies, staged rollouts, failure handling, and validation across rack-scale deployments.
• Act as the technical interface between NVIDIA and CSP firmware/software teams to document expected GPU behaviors (error recovery, thermal protection, power state transitions) for customer integration.
• Identify cross-CSP issue patterns (update failures, recovery gaps, configuration problems) and drive documentation, tooling, and test strategy improvements.

Requirements

Core technical skills and practical experience required for successful performance in this role.

Must-have:

• 15+ years of experience in GPU system software, GPU firmware, or accelerator/platform engineering.
• Deep understanding of GPU architecture internals: streaming multiprocessors, GEMM execution, compute kernels, memory hierarchy, and how firmware/driver choices affect compute performance.
• Knowledge of multi-GPU fabric architectures (e.g., NVLink) and firmware coordination across multiple GPUs in rack-scale systems.
• Strong knowledge of GPU firmware architecture: VBIOS, microcontroller firmware, InfoROM and their interaction with the driver stack.
• Proven experience managing firmware update lifecycles at scale: multi-device sequencing, A/B updates, rollback, staged rollout, and emergency recovery.
• Experience with GPU error handling and recovery flows and with health monitoring/telemetry (Xid errors, thermal/power events, ECC counters) and their operational impact.
• Demonstrated ability to work with customer engineering teams and influence product or operational improvements.

Nice-to-have:

• Direct experience with NVIDIA GPU VBIOS, GPU microcontroller firmware, or GPU driver internals.
• Experience managing GPU fleets at 10k+ GPU scale, including rollout automation and health-based remediation.
• Familiarity with GPU error taxonomies (Xid, NVLink counters, ECC) and building operational runbooks.
• Knowledge of GPU security topics (secure boot chain, code signing, attestation, firmware-level isolation) and power management impacts at fleet scale.

Education Requirements

BS or MS in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

About the Company

Company: NVIDIA

Headquarters: Santa Clara, California, USA

NVIDIA is a global leader in accelerated computing, renowned for its innovative solutions in AI and digital twins that transform diverse industries. The company specializes in networking technologies, providing end-to-end InfiniBand and Ethernet solutions for servers and storage that optimize performance and scalability. NVIDIA serves sectors such as high-performance computing, enterprise data centers, and cloud computing, constantly reinventing its products and services to stay ahead in the market.