Senior Software Engineer, NVIDIA Kubernetes

NVIDIA•Santa Clara, CA

5d•$184,000 - $356,500

About The Position

As a Senior Software Engineer in NVIDIA’s Management Plane area, you will build and deliver software that creates, upgrades, scales, and operates Kubernetes clusters on customer-managed infrastructure supporting AI and high-performance computing workloads. You will set technical direction, lead cross-team development, mentor engineers, and deliver high-quality production software. The role includes developing management-plane capabilities for cluster lifecycle operations, node management, and fleet-wide health and status reporting. You will architect Kubernetes controllers, operators, and custom resource definitions in Go; automate cluster provisioning across bare-metal, virtualized, and cloud environments; and improve the performance, reliability, and security of distributed systems. You will also lead technical builds, own testing and release automation, and maintain clear documentation and runbooks. NVIDIA offers a comprehensive benefits package and equity. Base salary ranges are $184,000–$287,500 for Level 4 and $224,000–$356,500 for Level 5, with the specific salary determined by location, experience, and pay for employees in similar positions. Applications will be accepted at least until November 3, 2026. This 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 building and developing distributed systems, including consistency, availability, and failure handling at scale.
Experience with automation tools such as Ansible and Terraform, and 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, and 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 and build management-plane capabilities for cluster lifecycle operations, including compose, upgrade, scale, repair, and delete; node management; and fleet-wide health and status reporting, from development through production.
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 performance, reliability, and security of complex asynchronous distributed systems, including debugging production issues.
Own 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.