Senior Software Engineer, NVIDIA Kubernetes

NVIDIA•Santa Clara, CA

About The Position

As a Senior Software Engineer in NVIDIA’s Management Plane area, you will build and deliver software to create, upgrade, scale, and operate Kubernetes clusters on customer-managed infrastructure supporting demanding AI and high-performance computing workloads. You will set technical direction, lead cross-team development, mentor engineers, and ship high-quality, production-ready software. The role includes developing management-plane capabilities for cluster lifecycle operations, node management, and fleet-wide health and status reporting, from development through production. You will architect Kubernetes controllers, operators, and custom resource definitions in Go; drive automated provisioning across bare-metal, virtualized, and cloud environments; and lead technical builds in coordination with software and hardware partner teams. You will also improve the performance, reliability, and security of distributed systems, own test strategy and pipeline automation, mentor engineers, and maintain clear documentation and runbooks. The expected base salary ranges are $184,000–$287,500 for Level 4 and $224,000–$356,500 for Level 5. The role is also eligible for equity and benefits. NVIDIA describes its benefits as comprehensive; further details are available at www.nvidiabenefits.com. Applications will be accepted at least until November 3, 2026. The posting is for an existing vacancy. NVIDIA uses AI tools in its recruiting processes and is an equal opportunity employer.

Requirements

Bachelor’s or master’s degree in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent experience.
At least 8 years of relevant software engineering experience, including building and operating production distributed systems.
Strong proficiency in a systems language such as Go, C++, Rust, or Java; solid data structures and algorithms fundamentals; and ability to become productive in Go quickly.
Strong understanding of Kubernetes and container orchestration, including the API server, controllers, and reconciliation loops.
Background in distributed systems development, including consistency, availability, and failure handling at scale.
Experience with automation tools such as Ansible and Terraform, and experience establishing and managing CI/CD systems.
Solid Linux fundamentals and understanding of performance, security, and reliability in distributed environments.
Track record of leading technical builds and mentoring other engineers.

Nice To Haves

Broad experience with Go, especially concurrency and testing, and with client-go or controller-runtime.
Significant hands-on production experience operating Kubernetes at scale, including control-plane or etcd scalability and availability.
Experience with Cluster API or infrastructure providers on bare metal, vSphere, OpenStack, or AWS.
Experience using GitLab, Jenkins, or other CI/CD platforms.
Expert knowledge of Linux kernel and system internals, or experience with GPU/DPU-accelerated infrastructure.
Open-source contributions to Kubernetes or related cloud-native projects.

Responsibilities

Develop management-plane capabilities for cluster lifecycle operations, including compose, upgrade, scale, repair, and delete; node management; and fleet-wide health and status reporting.
Architect and implement Kubernetes controllers, operators, and custom resource definitions (CRDs) in Go with reliable, idempotent reconciliation.
Drive automated cluster provisioning across bare-metal, virtualized, and cloud environments using Cluster API-style concepts and infrastructure providers.
Lead technical builds by writing build documentation, running build reviews, and aligning partner teams across the software and hardware stack.
Diagnose and improve the performance, reliability, and security of complex asynchronous distributed systems, including debugging production issues.
Own the unit, integration, and end-to-end test strategy and automate build, test, and release pipelines.
Mentor engineers, improve code reviews, and keep documentation and runbooks clear and current.
Prioritize tasks while maintaining high code quality.