Senior Firmware Engineer
NVIDIA · US, CA, Santa Clara ·
- Seniority
- Senior
- Category
- Embedded
- Experience
- 8+ years
NVIDIA · US, CA, Santa Clara ·
Do you enjoy hacking and tinkering at the lowest levels of software? Are you passionate about extracting maximum efficiency from complex hardware while maintaining complete system stability? If so, we are searching for an outstanding Senior Firmware Engineer to join the NVIDIA System Control Firmware team.
Joining the System Control Firmware team places you at the core of NVIDIA’s Tegra SoC architecture. You will develop, implement, and secure the essential software that regulates everything from boot sequencing to dynamic power, clock, and thermal management for top-tier autonomous vehicles, AI edge devices, next-generation data centers, and advanced robotics. This role lets you influence the industry directly while working with a diverse set of minds in the field.
What you’ll be doing:
Core Firmware Development: Build, implement, and optimize low-level C firmware for the Boot and Power Management Processor (BPMP) across the entire Tegra SoC lifecycle.
Active Program Support: Provide hands-on technical support to active product programs by diagnosing and debugging complex, high-priority issues, collaborating closely with cross-functional teams to drive rapid resolutions.
Project Leadership: We offer opportunities to lead system control firmware from inception through bring-up and productization, owning integration, release readiness, issue resolution, and customer/factory deliverables. Requires strong collaboration across functions, focused delivery, clear communication, managing interactions with partners, swift attention to critical issues, and thorough bug/status tracking through final binary delivery. Also requires technical depth in firmware integration, configuration delivery, branch/release workflows, validation, production binaries, and applying lessons learned to future bring-up, with regular cross-team status reporting on progress, risks, blocking issues, and bugs.
Process Improvement: Lead and promote the ongoing refinement of software engineering processes, development methodologies, and team workflows to improve efficiency, code quality, and release reliability.
Global Collaboration: Work closely with hardware, software, and safety architecture groups across our worldwide engineering locations to coordinate requirements and system-level interfaces.
Debug & Test Automation: Identify complex hardware/software boundary failures by analyzing boot logs and hardware traces. Develop thorough unit/integration tests and conduct error injection on emulation platforms and physical boards.
What we need to see:
Education: BS or MS degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or equivalent experience.
Experience: 8+ years of professional experience in embedded firmware development, low-level C programming, and memory-mapped register access.
Technical Leadership & Influence: Demonstrated ability to lead technical problem-solving efforts in complex projects, with a proven track record of influencing cross-functional teams and driving technical alignment.
Communication Skills: Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex technical ideas clearly across a distributed, multi-site team.
AI Skills: Practical experience or familiarity with contemporary software development involving AI agents or LLM-assisted workflows to improve code generation, testing, or engineering efficiency.
Deep Systems Knowledge: Solid grasp of SoC boot flows, interrupts, linker/build systems, and device tree-based configurations.
Hardware Interface Expertise: Direct experience managing low-level SoC infrastructure like clocks, resets, voltage rails, and power-gating behaviors.
Problem-Solving Skills: Outstanding debugging skills, a self-starter attitude, a high sense of teamwork, and a meticulous approach to avoiding regressions in sensitive system behaviors.
Ways to stand out from the crowd:
Experience or strong professional interest in applying the Rust language for systems programming, safe firmware architectures, or tooling.
Proven background working under ISO 26262 functional safety standards and accomplishing FMEA.
Knowledge of secure boot principles and hardware/software boundary protection.
A passion for collaborating closely with hardware engineers to influence next-generation silicon development across automotive, robotic, and data center platforms.
Offering competitive salaries and a generous benefits package, NVIDIA is known as one of the technology industry’s most desirable employers. We employ some of the most forward-thinking and diligent people globally. Our exclusive engineering teams are growing rapidly because of remarkable growth. If you’re a creative and self-directed engineer with a genuine passion for technology, we want to hear from you!
Widely considered to be one of the technology world’s most desirable employers, NVIDIA offers highly competitive salaries and a comprehensive benefits package. As you plan your future, see what we can offer to you and your family
Your base salary will be determined based on your location, experience, and the pay of employees in similar positions. The base salary range is 184,000 USD - 287,500 USD for Level 4, and 224,000 USD - 356,500 USD for Level 5.You will also be eligible for equity and benefits.
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.