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Low Level Software Engineer Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

OpenAI

Software Engineer, Platform Systems

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$203K - $241K/yr

... low-level software where system details matter • Understand hardware, operating systems ... engineering • Are excited to work on critical infrastructure that powers frontier AI research ...

Arista Networks

BIOS Software Engineer

Santa Clara, CA · On-site

Arista BIOS software engineers are also responsible for low level software driving the CPU subsystems on all Arista products. You will evaluate new CPUs and work with CPU vendors and BIOS vendors to ...

MaxQ Medical

Mid-Level Software Engineer

Sunnyvale, CA · On-site

They are hiring a Mid-Level Software Engineer to support both application software development and manufacturing testing systems for their ultrasound platform. Responsibilities : • Develop and ...

Parallel Systems

Senior Software Engineer

Los Angeles, CA · On-site

$150K - $212K/yr

Senior Software Engineer Parallel Systems is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to design, build ... Proficiency with Linux environments, low-level system interactions, and memory management. * Strong ...

Parallel Systems

Senior Software Engineer

Los Angeles, CA · On-site

$150K - $212K/yr

Senior Software Engineer Parallel Systems is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to design, build ... Proficiency with Linux environments, low-level system interactions, and memory management. * Strong ...

Archer

Staff Software Engineer, BMS

San Jose, CA

$170K - $215K/yr

Develop and integrate battery controls and complex low-level drivers for battery microcontrollers ... Work with systems engineers to decompose item requirements into high-level and low-level software ...

Skild AI

Camera Systems Software Engineer

San Mateo, CA

$146K - $153K/yr

Position Overview We are seeking an experienced Camera Systems Software Engineer to own camera ... Develop and maintain low-level camera software, including sensor configuration, camera drivers ...

Apple

Software Engineer - Camera

Cupertino, CA

$150K - $277K/yr

In this role, you'll work at the intersection of hardware and software - building the low-level ... We give our engineers meaningful ownership and autonomy, with direct impact on how Apple designs ...

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All JobsLow Level Software Engineer JobsLow Level Software Engineer Jobs in California

Low Level Software Engineer information

See California salary details

$62.7K

$145.6K

$202.8K

How much do low level software engineer jobs pay per year?

As of Jul 14, 2026, the average yearly pay for low level software engineer in California is $145,592.00, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $118,400.00 and $170,700.00 per year, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive as a Low Level Software Engineer, and why are they important?

To thrive as a Low Level Software Engineer, you need strong proficiency in C/C++ programming, computer architecture, and operating system fundamentals, often supported by a degree in computer science or related fields. Experience with debugging tools, embedded systems, version control systems like Git, and knowledge of hardware interfaces are typically required. Attention to detail, analytical thinking, and effective problem-solving are vital soft skills that set top engineers apart. These skills are crucial for developing efficient, reliable, and secure software that interacts closely with hardware and underpins critical system functionality.

What are Low Level Software Engineers?

Low Level Software Engineers are professionals who specialize in programming close to the hardware, often working with firmware, device drivers, operating systems, and embedded systems. They use languages like C, C++, or assembly to interact directly with hardware components, optimizing performance and ensuring efficient resource management. Their work is essential for enabling communication between software applications and physical devices. These engineers are crucial in industries such as automotive, aerospace, consumer electronics, and telecommunications.

What are some common challenges faced by Low Level Software Engineers in their daily work?

Low Level Software Engineers often encounter challenges such as debugging complex hardware-software interactions, optimizing code for performance and memory constraints, and ensuring compatibility across various hardware platforms. They work closely with hardware engineers and embedded systems teams, requiring strong communication and problem-solving skills. Additionally, staying updated on evolving hardware architectures and toolchains is essential for successful development and maintenance of low-level systems.
Software Engineer, Platform Systems

Software Engineer, Platform Systems

OpenAI

San Francisco, CA • On-site

$203K - $241K/yr

Full-time

Posted 21 days ago

Job description

Job Summary:
OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. As a Software Engineer in Platform Systems, you will design and build distributed systems for large-scale AI training, focusing on failure detection, observability, and performance optimization.
Responsibilities:
• Design and build distributed failure detection, tracing, and profiling systems for large-scale AI training jobs
• Develop tooling to identify slow, faulty, or misbehaving nodes and provide actionable visibility into system behavior
• Improve observability, reliability, and performance across OpenAI’s training platform
• Debug and resolve issues in complex, high-throughput distributed systems
• Collaborate with systems, infrastructure, and research teams to evolve platform capabilities
• Extend and adapt failure detection systems or tracing systems to support new training paradigms and workloads
Qualifications:
Required:
• Design and build distributed failure detection, tracing, and profiling systems for large-scale AI training jobs
• Develop tooling to identify slow, faulty, or misbehaving nodes and provide actionable visibility into system behavior
• Improve observability, reliability, and performance across OpenAI’s training platform
• Debug and resolve issues in complex, high-throughput distributed systems
• Collaborate with systems, infrastructure, and research teams to evolve platform capabilities
• Extend and adapt failure detection systems or tracing systems to support new training paradigms and workloads
• Care deeply about performance, stability, and observability in distributed systems
• Enjoy finding and fixing issues in large-scale systems and automating operational workflows
• Have experience writing low-level software where system details matter
• Understand hardware, operating systems, networking, concurrency, and distributed systems
• Have a background in high-performance computing or low-level systems engineering
• Are excited to work on critical infrastructure that powers frontier AI research
Company:
OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company that develops advanced AI models, including ChatGPT. It is a sub-organization of OpenAI Foundation. Founded in 2015, the company is headquartered in San Francisco, USA, with a team of 1001-5000 employees. The company is currently Late Stage.

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