System Software Engineer — Node & Cluster Management
MatX · Mountain View, CA
$250,000–$475,000from the description
Jul 14, 2026
Mountain View, CA
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A systems software engineering role focused on building and owning the management plane for custom AI accelerator hardware — spanning Linux kernel drivers, userspace daemons, HTTP/REST and CLI management tooling, and BMC/OpenBMC firmware integration. The work covers both single-node health and telemetry exposure and cluster-level fleet management, requiring deep low-level systems experience alongside the ability to design clean software contracts across hardware, firmware, and management layers.
Senior level · 8+ years · San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA · Full-time
“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 130 people in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (software developers). range 50–170
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.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
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 (7)
The compensation table lists three tiers (Early, Mid, Senior Career); the Senior Career band ($250,000–$475,000) is used here as the offered range since the role's 8+ years requirement and scope align to that tier, but candidates at lower experience levels may fall into the lower bands.
The role title is plain 'System Software Engineer' with no level modifier, so advertised seniority is Unspecified; the 8+ years requirement and end-to-end ownership scope support a Senior classification.
The SOC classification is Medium confidence: the role writes systems software (drivers, daemons, management APIs) which points to Software Developers (15-1252), but it also has a strong infrastructure/operations management flavor (node/cluster management, BMC, telemetry) that could suggest 15-1244. The primary deliverable is code the team ships, so 15-1252 is the better fit.
The posting requires a BS or higher in CS/EE 'or equivalent practical experience,' so no formal degree is hard-gated.
Redfish, OpenBMC, gNMI, IPMI, cluster/fleet management, hardware bring-up, lab automation, and firmware update orchestration are all listed under 'Bonus Points If You Have' and are treated as preferred.
The role is hybrid (Tuesdays–Thursdays on-site in Mountain View, CA; remote Monday & Friday), not fully remote.
The posting notes U.S. export control compliance is required but does not gate on a formal security clearance.
Read the full posting
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