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Senior Performance Engineer Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

Amazon

Sr Performance Validation Engineer

Sunnyvale, CA · On-site

As the Senior Pre-Silicon Performance Validation Engineer, you will be responsible for validating and verifying the performance of complex silicon designs during the pre-silicon phase, ensuring that ...

Qualcomm

#Windows Performance Engineer, Senior

San Diego, CA · On-site

$148K/yr

As a Windows Performance Developer, you'll be owning and driving analysis of complex system level ... senior technical members from broad set of teams across Qualcomm and external partners. Should be ...

Gotion, Inc.

Pack Performance Engineer

Irvine, CA · Hybrid

Senior / Staff Engineer Location: United States (site aligned to Gotion's North America engineering footprint) Role Summary The Pack Performance Engineer owns the technical bridge between cell, BMS ...

Gotion, Inc.

Pack Performance Engineer

Irvine, CA · On-site

Senior / Staff Engineer Location: United States (site aligned to Gotion's North America engineering footprint) Role Summary The Pack Performance Engineer owns the technical bridge between cell, BMS ...

Amazon

Sr Performance Validation Engineer

Sunnyvale, CA · On-site

As the Senior Pre-Silicon Performance Validation Engineer, you will be responsible for validating and verifying the performance of complex silicon designs during the pre-silicon phase, ensuring that ...

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Senior Performance Engineer information

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$124.9K

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How much do senior performance engineer jobs pay per year?

As of Sep 14, 2026, the average yearly pay for senior performance engineer in California is $124,900.00, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $103,100.00 and $141,600.00 per year, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What is a senior performance engineer?

A Senior Performance Engineer is responsible for optimizing the performance, scalability, and reliability of software applications and systems. They analyze performance metrics, conduct load and stress testing, identify bottlenecks, and work with development teams to implement improvements. This role requires expertise in profiling tools, performance tuning, and system architecture to ensure optimal user experience. Additionally, they may establish best practices for performance testing and contribute to overall system design decisions.

What does a senior performance engineer do?

A Senior Performance Engineer typically oversees performance testing cycles, analyzes system metrics, and collaborates with development and operations teams to diagnose and resolve performance issues. Daily tasks often include designing and executing test plans, monitoring application behavior under load, and recommending improvements for scalability and efficiency. They also participate in code reviews and architectural discussions to identify potential bottlenecks early in the development cycle. Consistent communication with both technical and non-technical stakeholders is key, ensuring that performance goals align with business objectives.

What skills and qualifications are needed to thrive as a senior performance engineer?

To thrive as a Senior Performance Engineer, expertise in performance analysis, capacity planning, and system optimization—often backed by a degree in computer science or a related field—is crucial. Familiarity with tools such as LoadRunner, JMeter, APM solutions, profiling tools, and relevant certifications like CPPE or PMP are highly beneficial. Strong problem-solving, collaboration, and clear communication skills are vital for identifying bottlenecks and working closely with cross-functional teams. These combine to ensure robust system performance, user satisfaction, and reliable application scalability in demanding technical environments.

What are the most commonly searched types of Performance Engineer jobs in California?

The most popular types of Performance Engineer jobs in California are:

What are popular job titles related to Senior Performance Engineer jobs in California?

For Senior Performance Engineer jobs in California, the most frequently searched job titles are:

What job categories do people searching Senior Performance Engineer jobs in California look for?

The top searched job categories for Senior Performance Engineer jobs in California are:

What cities in California are hiring for Senior Performance Engineer jobs?

Cities in California with the most Senior Performance Engineer job openings:

Senior Performance Engineer jobs near you
Infographic showing various Senior Performance Engineer job openings in California as of September 2026, with employment types broken down into 1% Internship, 1% As Needed, 82% Full Time, 13% Part Time, 1% Temporary, and 2% Contract. Highlights an 79% Physical, 2% Hybrid, and 19% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $124,900 per year, or $60 per hour.

Senior Performance Engineer - Deep Learning

Santa Clara, CA • On-site

Nvidia
Computer and Electronic Product Manufacturing • 10K+ employees
Learn more about Nvidiaexternal

$122K - $168K/yr

Full-time

Re-posted 13 days ago

Nvidia rating

9.6

Company rating: 9.6 out of 10

Based on 18 frontline employees who took The Breakroom Quiz

Job description

Our Deep Learning models performance engineering team at NVIDIA is hiring software engineers at all experience levels to build and optimize the libraries and tools that enable Deep Learning Researchers and Engineers to design, develop, and deploy efficient AI applications. We are an ambitious and diverse team that builds optimizations directly into mainstream open source Deep Learning frameworks - PyTorch and JAX, which boost the performance at all levels of NVIDIA's AI stack. Our team has a wide collaborative footprint, working not only with multiple teams across NVIDIA but also with the broader open-source community to deliver SOTA Deep Learning performance on the best AI platform in the world!

What you will be doing:

  • Build and support Transformer Engine, the open-source library for accelerating the training of Large Language Models.

  • Collaborate on systems research that improves Deep Learning model performance, such as training using extremely low precision, parallelism methods, etc.

  • Implement, benchmark, and optimize new Deep Learning models such as LLMs straight out of groundbreaking research to scale efficiently on NVIDIA GPUs and systems.

  • Build and contribute to NVIDIA submissions on community benchmarks such as MLPerf.

  • Engage with the open-source community as well as support enterprise customers and partners by delivering the benefits of NVIDIA's latest hardware and software innovations.

  • Influence the design of new hardware generations and core platform software components for NVIDIA hardware and systems.

What we need to see:

  • BS or equivalent experience in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.

  • 3+ years of experience in C++ and Python programming.

  • Strong background, experience, or coursework in parallel systems programming, preferably on GPUs.

  • Knowledge of Computer Architecture, Code Optimization, and/or Operating Systems.

  • Proven experience in developing large software projects.

  • Excellent verbal and written communication skills.

Ways to stand out from the crowd:

  • Experience in PyTorch, JAX, or any other DL framework.

  • Experience with performance analysis, profiling, and code optimization techniques, especially with multi-GPU or multi-node systems.

  • Knowledge of modern LLM architectures, attention mechanisms, and/or low-level DL libraries such as cuBLAS, cuDNN, and cuSOLVER.

  • Experience in writing GPU kernels using any of - CUDA, OpenAI Triton, CuTeDSL, Pallas, or other similar libraries.

  • Any past contributions to the open source community and/or experience working with multidisciplinary teams also showcase readiness for the team's responsibilities.

Your base salary will be determined based on your location, experience, and the pay of employees in similar positions. The base salary range is 152,000 USD - 241,500 USD for Level 3, and 184,000 USD - 287,500 USD for Level 4.

You will also be eligible for equity and benefits.

Applications for this job will be accepted at least until August 18, 2026.

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.

What Nvidia employees say

Pay

Benefits

Hours and flexibility

Workplace

Get the full story on Breakroom

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About Nvidia

Sourced by ZipRecruiter

NVIDIA has been transforming computer graphics, PC gaming, and accelerated computing for more than 25 years. It's a unique legacy of innovation that's fueled by great technology--and amazing people. Today, we're tapping into the unlimited potential of AI to define the next era of computing. An era in which our GPU acts as the brains of computers, robots, and self-driving cars that can understand the world. Doing what's never been done before takes vision, innovation, and the world's best talent.

Industry

Computer and electronic product manufacturing

Company size

10,000+ Employees

Headquarters location

Santa Clara, CA, US

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