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Principal Systems Software Engineer

University of Illinois
Champaign, IL Full Time
POSTED ON 8/31/2026
AVAILABLE BEFORE 9/30/2026
ABOUT NVIDIA

NVIDIA is a global leader in accelerated computing. It designs graphics processing units (GPUs) and chip units for mobile computing, automotive, gaming, and professional markets.

NVIDIA's invention of the GPU in 1999 sparked the growth of the PC gaming market, redefined modern computer graphics, and revolutionized parallel computing. More recently, GPU deep learning ignited modern AI - the next era of computing - with the GPU acting as the brain of computers, robots, and self-driving cars that can perceive and understand the world.

Please see the Research Park Tenant Directory for more information. NVIDIA - Research Park
About the role

NVIDIA is seeking a Sr. Systems Software Engineer for the Apache Spark Acceleration group. Over the past five years GPU accelerated data processing has moved from proof of concept to production deployments. Many enterprises are now recognizing the needs of accelerated computing to handle their large data processing needs. Multi-node GPU deployments will reduce cloud computing costs and lower latency batch ETL workloads.

At NVIDIA, we have been invested in accelerating Apache Spark, providing an open source plugin for Apache Spark. Apache Spark is the most popular data processing engine in data centers. We strive to accelerate Spark applications on GPUs without any code changes. We are passionate about working on hard problems that have an impact. You will need to have strong programming skills, a deep understanding of software development related to C . You will work with a team that is using open source libraries like RAPIDS to accelerate reading, writing and batch data operations in Spark.
Requirements
  • BS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or closely related field (or equivalent experience)
  • 15 years of work experience in software development
  • Outstanding technical skills in designing and implementing high-quality distributed systems
  • Excellent programming skills in C , Java, and/or Scala
  • Ability to work with teams across organizational boundaries and geographies
  • Familiarity with the open source data platform ecosystem (Apache Spark, Velox, Presto, Apache Arrow, Apache DataFusion, etc.). Meaningful contributions to the OSS community a plus.
  • Highly motivated with strong interpersonal skills
  • Database query optimization is a strong plus
Responsibilities
  • Develop Java, Scala and CUDA/C libraries to accelerate DataFrames and I/O operations on common file formats such as Parquet, ORC and JSON
  • Enable interoperability with table formats such as Apache Iceberg and Delta Lake, and metastores such as Unity Catalog
  • Work with open source communities to enhance libraries like NVIDIA cuDF, CCCL and UCX through technical discussion and code contributions
  • Collaborate with distributed systems teams to craft solutions to distributed processing problems challenges at large scale
  • Provide recommendations and feedback to teams regarding decisions surrounding topics such as infrastructure, continuous integration and testing strategy
  • Build, test and optimize CUDA/C libraries across different platforms

Your base salary will be determined based on your location, experience, and the pay of employees in similar positions. The base salary range is 272,000 USD - 431,250 USD.

You will also be eligible for equity and benefits .

Applications for this job will be accepted at least until July 19, 2026.

Apply here: Principal Systems Software Engineer

Salary : $272,000 - $431,250

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