Principal Validation Analyst - Autonomous Vehicles

Location: US, CA, Santa Clara

Time Type: Full time

Job Description

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. As an NVIDIAN, you’ll be immersed in a diverse, supportive environment where everyone is inspired to do their best work. Come join the team and see how you can make a lasting impact on the world.

Join NVIDIA's Autonomous Vehicles Verification and Validation (AV V&V) team as a Principal V&V Analytics Engineer! You will provide technical leadership and develop the architecture of our evaluation and validation systems at scale. This system-level ownership role will have you set the technical direction for how NVIDIA validates DRIVE AV software across regions, customers, and vehicle platforms. If you're excited to build the future of safe autonomous driving at an industry level, this is the perfect opportunity for you!

What You'll Be Doing:

• Develop and take full responsibility for the complete system architecture for AV evaluation and validation, proactively driving progress across multiple teams within the BU. This includes data ingestion, metric calculation, behavioral assessment, and reporting for thousands of test miles daily.

• Establish technical standards, build patterns, and guidelines for evaluation frameworks and data pipelines across the V&V organization and the broader Automotive BU. Champion root-cause analysis practices that identify systemic process issues and drive corrective action.

• Lead large, cross-team efforts that span multiple organizations — aligning evaluation infrastructure with requirements from Software Product, Development, Safety, and Testing teams.

• Predict the direction of validation platforms and tooling over multiple years. Advise leadership on technology investments and architectural decisions to keep NVIDIA ahead of the curve.

• Drive adoption of improved workflows and processes at the BU level, providing technical analysis and evidence to justify changes and sharing standard methodologies from adjacent teams.

• Architect scalable cloud and GPU-accelerated compute strategies for large-scale metric evaluation, bringing to bear NVIDIA's outstanding strengths in accelerated and distributed computing.

• Mentor and develop engineers across the V&V team and adjacent organizations, setting a high bar for code quality, system architecture, and validation methodology. Arbitrate cross-team technical decisions and guide resolution of complex architectural trade-offs.

• Serve as a recognized technical authority both inside and outside the company. Publish findings and present at reviews with senior leadership. Represent NVIDIA's validation approach to partners, customers, and industry bodies.

What We Need To See:

• MS or PhD in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent experience.

• 15+ years of professional experience in software engineering, data engineering, or systems architecture, with sustained performance at a senior or staff level.

• Demonstrated ability to own and define system-level architecture for complex software platforms — not just implement features, but compose entire modules or systems that teams build on.

• Deep expertise in Python and C/C++, including crafting production-quality libraries, APIs, and frameworks used by multiple teams.

• Established experience in defining technical direction across organizational boundaries: developing standards, advancing process improvements, and uniting multiple teams toward a shared architecture.

• Hands-on experience building and scaling data pipelines, evaluation infrastructure, or analytics platforms in cloud computing environments.

• Strong leadership and communication skills with the ability to tailor messaging across audiences — from presenting strategic recommendations to senior executives to mentoring new college graduates.

• Ability to produce clear, high-quality documentation: architectural documents, technical guides, and executive-level summaries.

Ways To Stand Out From The Crowd:

• Deep background in autonomous vehicle validation, ADAS evaluation, or safety-critical systems verification at the vehicle or system level. Experience defining validation methodology, safety metrics, or ODD coverage frameworks that have been adopted across an organization or industry body.

• Demonstrated ability in developing and growing GPU-accelerated or distributed computing pipelines for processing and examining large telemetry or driving log datasets.

• Publications, patents, or industry specifications contributions in areas related to AV safety, validation, or large-scale data analysis.

• Experience guiding technology strategy at the BU level or above, including reviewing competitive and cooperative opportunities with partners and vendors.

• Strong background in statistics and quantitative analysis applied to fleet-level global validation data.

If you're driven by questions like "How do we know the architecture will scale?", and "What does the data tell us about safety at a fleet level?", we'd love to hear from you.

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.Applications for this job will be accepted at least until March 16, 2026.

This posting is for an existing vacancy. 

NVIDIA uses AI tools in its recruiting processes.

NVIDIA is committed to fostering a diverse 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.