Principal Systems Software Engineer
NVIDIA Corporation · Santa Clara, CA
$272,000–$431,250from the description
Jul 14, 2026
Santa Clara, CA
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior individual-contributor engineering role focused on GPU-accelerated data processing within the Apache Spark ecosystem. Day-to-day work involves building and optimizing Java, Scala, and CUDA/C++ libraries for DataFrame and I/O operations on file formats like Parquet and ORC, enabling compatibility with table formats such as Iceberg and Delta Lake, and contributing to open-source projects including cuDF. Suits a deeply experienced distributed-systems engineer with a strong open-source background.
Senior level · 15+ years · Santa Clara, CA · Full-time
Advertised as Principal, but the requirements read as Senior.
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Roughly 65 people in the Santa Clara, CA area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (software developers). range 40–100
Applicant volume Moderate — A normal amount of company. The rare requirements below are what will separate a shortlisted application from the rest.
Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.
What the occupation pays Median $217,796 (middle half $177,469–$231,052). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (8)
The title 'Sr. Principal Systems Software Engineer' is advertised at the Principal level, but the actual scope and requirements — even at 15+ years — describe a deep individual contributor role on a specific product team (RAPIDS Spark acceleration), not org-wide technical authority. Seniority is assessed as Senior.
C++, Java, and Scala are listed together in the requirements section with 'and/or', meaning the JD gates on strong skills in at least one; all three are captured as required with the others as alternatives for the primary C++ entry, and separately as required skills given their distinct use in the role (Java/Scala for Spark, C++/CUDA for GPU libraries).
File formats (Parquet, ORC, JSON) and table formats (Apache Iceberg, Delta Lake) appear in the 'What you'll be doing' responsibilities section, not the requirements block — marked as preferred.
The open source data platform ecosystem (Apache Spark, Velox, Presto, Apache Arrow, Apache DataFusion) is listed under requirements but framed as 'familiarity with' — a softer gate. Apache Spark is marked required given the role's core focus; the others are marked preferred.
OSS community contributions and database query optimization are explicitly called out as a 'plus' — marked as preferred.
Degree requirement accepts equivalent experience ('or equivalent experience') — no minimum degree is hard-required.
Location is not explicitly stated in the posting; NVIDIA's headquarters in Santa Clara, CA is used as the default CBSA. The role may be eligible for other NVIDIA US office locations given the location-based salary language.
Ignored 1 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): database query optimization.
Read the full posting
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